X Prize Gives Space Tourism a Solid Boost

By Chris McManes

It’s never hard to find people to join a victory parade and share in another’s glory. It's much more difficult, however, to find people to believe in you when all you have is a dream and an undying determination to succeed.

When Ansari X Prize Foundation President Dr. Peter Diamandis proposed his idea of staging a private space-flight competition in 1996, IEEE Life Fellow Thomas Rogers was the first to open his checkbook and demonstrate his support.

So Rogers was thrilled when Diamandis’ foundation recently awarded $10 million to Burt Rutan and the crew of SpaceShipOne for reaching the cusp of space twice in October 2004.

“I couldn’t be more pleased because three things were accomplished,” said Rogers, a physicist, who as deputy director of Defense Research and Engineering in the mid-1960s worked with former President Lyndon Johnson. “First, whatever else the United States of America does in space, we should see space opened to the general public, and that’s beginning to happen.

“Second, the market [for space travel] is so big, potentially, that serving it will help to reduce the cost of surface-space transportation. And cost is one of the greatest inhibitors to doing things in space today. The third thing we’re seeing is that for the first time, space transportation and the carrying of people back and forth to space is being conducted by our private sector. Its ground rules and perceptions are quite different from those of the government, and we need both. Now we have it.”

Diamandis was invited to discuss the X Prize on Capitol Hill in November before Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.), and congressional staffers. The space entrepreneur also encouraged lawmakers to pass legislation promoting private space flight. Rogers, a member of IEEE-USA’s Committee on Transportation and Aerospace Technology Policy, arranged Diamandis’ appearance and attended the briefing.

The X Prize presentation was one of 10 briefings sponsored in 2004 by the Congressional Research & Development (R&D) Caucus (www.researchcaucus.org), of which IEEE-USA is an advisory committee member. The House caucus was formed in 2004 to, among other things, highlight the many economic, societal and security benefits our nation derives from R&D investment. Holt and Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Ill.) co-chair the 42-member caucus.

X Prize Contenders

Twenty-six privately financed teams from seven countries sought to claim the X Prize. To win, a team had to propel a manned vehicle 62 miles (100 km) above the earth’s surface — the internationally recognized frontier of space — twice within two weeks, return safely, and do so before 1 January 2005. Each flight had to carry a pilot and the equivalent weight and volume of two passengers. The competition was named after the Ansari family of Dallas, who provided millions for the $10 million insurance policy used to pay the winner.

Scaled Composites, Inc., of Mojave, California, an aerospace and specialty composites development company that Rutan founded in 1982, won the X Prize by scaling an altitude of 328,000 feet for the second time on 4 October 2004. SpaceShipOne became the first private, manned spacecraft to reach space. Pilot Brian Binnie also set the world altitude record by rocketing to 367,442 feet or 69.6 miles above earth. Mike Melvill rolled 29 times during ascent in SpaceShipOne’s first flight five days earlier. Each successful journey took about 90 minutes.

Diamandis, who holds degrees in aerospace engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, said he was confident all along that someone would win the $10 million prize.

“I was obviously thrilled that it was done with such skill and ease, and winning the competition in front of the world was beautiful,” he said. “I think the impact of it was really the next day when I felt a real sense of relief that we were able to fulfill the promise we had made to all the people who backed us.”

The X Prize is evolving into the X Prize Cup, which will showcase Reusable Launch Vehicles in competitive races with cash prizes. The 10-day event will be held annually in Las Cruces, N.M., beginning in the summer of 2006.

Rogers provided Diamandis seed money for the X Prize through his Sophran Foundation so that Diamandis could seek additional financial support. The Sophran Foundation was founded in 1972 to support useful endeavors in space, including space tourism.

“I was kidding Peter recently about the two things I did to help him get started with the X Prize,” Rogers said. “Peter said, ‘Two things?’ I said, ‘Yes, after I gave you the money, I promised to stay out of your way.’”

Three Levels of Human Space Flight

The three levels of human space flight are parabolic, suborbital and orbital. Parabolic flights allow passengers to experience weightlessness and are offered commercially by Diamandis’ company, Zero Gravity Corp. Suborbital flights take you to space, and orbital excursions allows you to circle the earth above the planet’s atmosphere. SpaceShipOne is a suborbital vehicle; the Space Shuttle is orbital.

Space Adventures, Ltd. is the only private company offering orbital flights. Dennis Tito was the first space tourist when he traveled to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2001.

Sir Richard Branson, chair of Virgin Atlantic Airways, announced in late September 2004 the creation of Virgin Galactic, a space venture that will offer people seats aboard suborbital spacecraft. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who financed Scaled Composite’s X Prize-winning effort, owns the technology through his company, Mojave Aerospace Ventures.

Branson envisions Virgin Galactic flying some 3,000 passengers within five years at a cost of about $200,000 per person. Tito, a former NASA engineer, paid a reported $20 million for his eight-day orbital adventure.

The Future of Space Tourism

Space tourism has the potential to become a huge business and key U.S. economic driver. A 2002 study of more than 450 wealthy Americans found that space travel could generate more than $1 billion a year by 2021. Suborbital tourism, according to the study (www.futron.com/spacetourism/default.htm) by the Futron Corporation is expected to produce the largest demand — potentially 15,000 passengers and yearly revenues of $700 million by 2021.

Rogers recalled an early 1990s public talk he delivered on civilians traveling to space, at which he found his wife crying afterwards. When he asked her why she was crying, he said she replied, “‘Because I can’t stand so many people laughing at you.’ That just shows you how much things have changed. Now such talk is hot as a pistol.”

Diamandis compared private, manned space travel to how Alaska was first viewed after the United States purchased it from Russia for $7.2 million — about two cents an acre — in 1868. We said it was a waste of money,” Diamandis said. “We valued it by how many seal pelts we could [get]. Then we discovered things like oil and gold and timber and fishing, and we built the roads to get there by air and sea and land, and it became a trillion dollar economy. Now we take our honeymoons there."

Diamandis continued: “The same things will happen to space. You can imagine describing Alaska as desolate, far away, deadly if you don’t have the right protection, the same way we describe space. … We need that first [space] marketplace, and that’s space tourism. It was a laughable topic a few years ago. It’s now a very serious industry. Congress, NASA and the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) should be doing everything possible to support it. It’s what’s going to help us open up the space frontier and get out of this funk we’ve been in, this stop-and-start economy of space, which has been devastating.”

H.R. 5382 Goes to President Bush

Dr. Martin Sokoloski, a 2004 IEEE-USA Congressional Fellow who worked in Rep. Holt’s office, said Diamandis’ 16 November 2004 presentation was key to House passage of the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004 (H.R. 5382). Introduced by Rep. Rohrabacher, former chair of the House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee, and largely based on a previous bill (H.R. 3752), the House Science Committee legislation was in serious trouble of not passing. Four days after Diamandis spoke, the bill, needing a two-thirds majority, passed by 19 votes and was sent to the Senate.

“Peter Diamandis made a most convincing and passionate presentation for an unbridled private-sector role in space and space tourism,” Sokoloski said. “I believe the congressional staffers who attended the briefing were influenced positively about the need to commercialize space, and urged their members of Congress to vote for passage of H.R. 5382. If 19 members had voted ‘nay,’ the bill wouldn't have passed. I’ve got a feeling that this caucus briefing was an unforeseen major influence in that regard.”

Just before adjourning on 8 December 2004, the Senate passed H.R. 5382 and sent it to President Bush. The law is designed to boost the fledgling commercial human space flight industry by putting it on a more solid regulatory footing. It will facilitate the launch of new types of reusable suborbital rockets by allowing the FAA to issue experimental permits quicker and with fewer requirements than licenses.

“This is a great victory for the future of America’s space efforts,” Rohrabacher said, “The people who will invest the type of big dollars necessary to make this a major new step in mankind’s ascent into space have been waiting for the government to lay down the regulatory regime and set the rules of the game, and this is the first major step towards doing that.”

H.R. 5382 also increases the FAA’s authority to regulate launches to ensure passenger and crew safety. Although space transportation companies will be required to warn participants of the inherent risks of space travel, they will not face crippling lawsuits. Diamandis made an impassioned plea at the congressional X Prize briefing for the government to allow space travel, despite the risks.

“We’re going to lose our lives exploring space and that’s OK, as long as we don’t hurt the uninvolved public,” he said. “If it’s our desire as explorers to go explore the stars and risk our lives, why should [you] stop us? It’s the greatest frontier that humanity’s ever had. We should take the greatest risks that we [can]. Everything we hold of value on this planet — metal, minerals, real estate, energy — the greatest discoveries we will ever have are out there to be had.

“Why should we stop ourselves now? For God’s sake, allow the risk to be taken; it’s a worthwhile risk. Don’t stop now, please.”

Chris McManes is IEEE-USA’s senior public relations coordinator. He can be reached at c.mcmanes@ieee.org.