At 7:52 a.m. May 20, 1927, Charles Lindbergh gunned the engine of the "Spirit of St. Louis" and took off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, on a 3,610 mile journey to Paris and into history, in the process changing both aviation and the world forever. And at 6 a.m. Wednesday, an equally daring feat will be attempted with potentially similar results. This time, though, the object is not to be the first to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, but to be the first private citizen to go a mere 62 miles -- straight up. \nIn late 1926, Lindbergh developed an interest in pursuing the Ortieg Prize, a $25,000 award offered to the first person to cross the Atlantic in a heavier than air aircraft. He accomplished this almost solely on his own, working in his garage in his spare time and against competitors with far more resources. Yet, as a result of Lindbergh's technical savvy and innovative piloting, he achieved the impossible.\nInspired by this story, Peter H. Diamandis, the president of International Space University in Strasbourg, France, decided in 1996 to offer a similar prize to spur innovation and finally open up the final frontier of space travel to the average citizen. From this, the Ansari X-Prize competition was born, and like its predecessor, it has already made aviation history with 24 corporations currently vying for the coveted prize. \n"The goal of the X-Prize is to open up space more economically than government has been able to do," said Diamandis.\nTo win, a team must be the first to launch a safe, reusable space vehicle able to carry one pilot and the weight equivalent of two passengers 62 miles into sub-orbital space twice within a two-week period. The award is a $10 million cash prize.\nFrom a strictly economic viewpoint, X-Prize has already been a resounding success in comparison to the approximately $25 million it has taken to develop a viable commercial space vehicle with the billions that it has taken NASA to achieve a similar feat. If ultimately successful, it would "prove without question that manned space flight does not require mammoth government expenditures," said research aircraft developer Burt Rutan, the leader of the American Mojave Research team, which launches Wednesday. "It can be done by a small company operating with limited resources and a few dozen dedicated employees."
Midwest team plans launch soon\nMicky Badgero, president of Acceleration Engineering and a graduate student at the University of Michigan, is a late entrant in the competition. The enthusiasm that the X-Prize competition has brought out in him is representative of a whole generation of aspiring private astronauts.\n"I have been interested in space exploration since I saw men walk on the moon," said Badgero. "I have designed and flown several small- to medium-sized hobby rockets and also designed many larger rockets on paper. The X-Prize gave me a reason to really go for it."\nLike Lindbergh over 75 years ago, Badgero is also doing the incredible: building an actual certified spaceship in his garage.\n"I expected it to be difficult from the start since it was a project on a scale that pushed the limits of my resources of both time and money," said Badgero. "Basically, though, my design is on the order of a larger homebuilt airplane as far as complexity and cost."\nBadgero is an enthusiastic supporter of the goals of the X-Prize Competition and an advocate for necessary developments in space law to accommodate a greater private sector interest in space tourism and economic development.\n"It will take at least until 2010 for the legal system to catch up with the technology for private space launches. Space launches are still dangerous and expensive," said Badgero. "If risks cannot legally be taken, the technology will not mature to the point where it is safe and affordable."\nAffordability is the key to the entire competition, Badgero argues. \n"The primary reasons that it has taken so long for orbiting space hotels and moon getaways to become realities are not technical but involve the 'weight factor.' Today it costs approximately as much as it did during the Apollo program of the 1960s to lift one pound into orbit: $10,000. That amount must be lowered 10-fold to $1,000 for space tourism to become routine," said Badgero.\nHis ultimate goal? "To live in space."\nBadgero is currently working on revised designs for an orbital rocket with no launch date yet set.
SpaceShipOne blasts off Wednesday\nThe Scaled Composites team, led by Burt Rutan, is ready to fly and will attempt to win the X-Prize by completing two successful flights Wednesday and Oct. 4 (a tentative date) at the Mojave Airport Civilian Aerospace Test Center in Mojave, Calif. With one successful flight already to its credit in which test pilot Mike Melvill became the first civilian to fly a spaceship out of the atmosphere and earn astronaut wings on June 21, SpaceShipOne is poised to "redefine space travel as we know it," Rutan said.\nThe first phase of the flight itself will consist of SpaceShipOne and the White Knight, a carrier plane, reaching 47,000 feet. That is the altitude where the White Knight releases SpaceShipOne, which then will glide for a few seconds as the pilot ignites the primary rocket. The final portion of the flight will last about 25 minutes. SpaceShipOne will soar into space, spend roughly three minutes weightless and then re-enter the Earth's atmosphere in a high-drag configuration. It will glide back toward Mojave, circle overhead and land directly in front of the viewing area on the same runway from which it took off.\nIf both missions are successful and Rutan's team wins the X-Prize, then each year teams will be invited from around the world to New Mexico to race and set new records.\nFlight dates and times are from about 7 to 10 a.m. Wednesday and the same Oct. 4.\nGates for attendance and parking for this event will open at 3 a.m. Wednesday in Mojave, and thousands of people, including many students, are expected to attend. Parking passes are $35 per car and accommodate up to eight people, and tickets can be purchased online at www.xprize.org or by calling (800) 367-5833. \nHowever, if a drive across the country is out of the question, the launch of the White Knight and SpaceShipOne via live Web cast at www.xprize.org/webcast begins at 7 a.m. Wednesday.\n-- Contact staff writer Scott Shackelford at sjshacke@indiana.edu.
