Space competition
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A space competition is an offer of a prize to be given to the first competitor who demonstrates a space vehicle which meets a set of pre-established criteria.
In 2004, the Tier 1 (also known as SpaceShipOne) vehicle developed by Scaled Composites staged two consecutive suborbital spaceflights to win the Ansari X Prize competition, demonstrating the effectiveness of a cash prize in stimulating private space vehicle development. Seeking to continue this incentive-based approach, in 2006 the X Prize Foundation organized the Wirefly X Prize Cup at Las Cruces International Airport in New Mexico. Cash awards were offered in three areas as part of the NASA Centennial Challenges Program: the Beam Power Challenge, the Tether Challenge, and the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.
Although no contestants fulfilled the criteria necessary to win any of the three challenges, the competition elicited promising technology developments and demonstrated their potential to the general public. Subsequent annual X Prize Cups are planned to encourage further innovation in the personal spaceflight industry, and are expected to feature cash prizes for vehicle developers who achieve milestones such as fastest launch turnaround time, maximum altitude, and fastest speed record.[1]
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