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Spaceman set to lose $10m race
Deborah Haile21/ 5/2004
ROCKETMAN Steve Bennett looks set to lose his race to win the $10m X-Prize.
For the last seven years, the Hyde scientist has been a front-runner in the international contest to launch the first privately-funded manned mission into space.
But a rival American enthusiast is poised to streak past his Starchaser project and snatch away the prize with a mission planned for next month.
Millionaire Burt Rutan has already sent his SpaceShipOne craft to a height of 64km and he plans to reach for the 100km target within weeks.
Mr Bennett today conceded that his Starchaser team is now likely to be beaten to the $10m prize, saying he was simply unable to compete with his better-funded rival.
He said: "Obviously, this is disappointing because everyone at Starchaser has been working hard on this for seven years. Burt Rutan is ahead of the competition, but we are waiting to see just how far ahead he is. I think we are running in second place. We are 60 per cent there he is 90 per cent."Everyone here is quite frustrated because we are moving ahead quite slowly. But if we had the money we could go out and we could win this."
Mr Bennett said it was his American rival's access to better funding, rather than better expertise, that had made the difference. He believes Rutan has actually spent more than the $10m prize to get into first place.
"Rutan was a millionaire to start with. If we had the funding we could rapidly overtake him. We need to raise $2mand that would be enough to get us from where we are to leading the X-Prize field."
The Ansari X-Prize was launched in 1996 offering $10m to the first privately-financed team to build and launch a spaceship able to carry three people to a height of 100 km (62.5 miles) and return them safely to earth.
To claim the prize, set up by a US foundation to push forward research into space tourism, the winning team has to perform the task twice within a fortnight.
There are currently 26 teams across the globe racing to win the prize.
Most recent 2 of 8 user comments
Though the spaceshipone may be indirectly better funded than most in the x-prise contest. It still does not change the fact that they have no plans to make this a money making venture for tourist flights.
Harold LaValley, USA
22/05/2004 at 03:56
22/05/2004 at 03:56
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Not that any of this invalidates this X-prize entry. The rules of the X-prize only require a separate company to be at the centre of the operation. This company is allowed to contract out all aspects of the work. Mr Rutan could have had Boeing build the whole thing if he had wanted to; not that he would need to of course considering that Mr Rutan's company Scaled Composites is often lauded as being the worlds most productive aerospace prototype development company with both private and government clients.
Indeed, Mr Rutan is the first to state that this vehicle is built on his experience in developing earlier aircraft. What then if those earlier aircraft include the NASA X-38 crew return vehicle? We might reasonably ask should this in itself be considered a little too close to NASA, and thus government, funding. Or would it be unfair to deny Mr Rutan participation in the X-prize competition because of his company's association with NASA?
The question as to whether the endeavours of Mr Rutan et al are in the spirit of the X-prize is rather eclipsed by his production of a vehicle which epitomises the concept of a cheap to operate, and wholly re-useable space craft so fully.
Mr Bennett's efforts should be applauded for his methods even if his results in the final reckoning have fallen a little short in the battle with such gifted competition.
23/06/2004 at 13:21
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