Hotel Owner Ups the Ante for Next Space Prize

MOJAVE, Calif. — Now that Burt Rutan and Paul Allen have pocketed the $10 million Ansari X Prize for their SpaceShipOne’s space flights, there’s a bigger prize to shoot for.

A hotel-chain owner is offering $50 million for the first American-built spacecraft to go into space for two orbits and then do it again with five passengers within 60 days.

"We expect a wide spectrum of participants, from the Lockheeds to Burt Rutan to anyone else," said Mike Gold, corporate counsel for Robert Bigelow, owner of the Budget Suites of America hotel chain.

The idea of hotel owners offering aviation prizes isn’t a new one: The $25,000 prize that drew Charles Lindbergh to fly across the Atlantic in 1927 was offered by French-born New York City hotel owner Raymond Orteig, who offered the money to the first solo pilot to fly nonstop between New York and Paris.

While the $10 million Ansari X Prize was created out of a personal desire by founder Peter Diamandis to fly into space, Bigelow’s interest in offering the new reward — called America’s Space Prize — is said to be rooted in business.

Bigelow has a company in Las Vegas that is working on developing inflatable habitats for future space travelers.

"We have every confidence we’ll be able to create an inflatable space habitat," Gold said.

The winning spacecraft must be able to dock with Bigelow’s space habitat and be capable of remaining at the habitat for at least six months.

As with the Ansari X Prize, the spacecraft that wins Bigelow’s prize must be privately developed. Unlike the X Prize, the developer also must be a citizen of the United States.

The X Prize was won last month by the SpaceShipOne rocket plane that was built by Mojave aircraft designer Rutan and financed by billionaire Microsoft co-founder Allen. Rutan and Allen were in St. Louis on Saturday to pick up the check.

To capture Bigelow’s prize money, an American-built spacecraft capable of carrying five passengers must make two orbits of Earth at an altitude of 400 kilometers and then repeat the feat within 60 days.

There is no requirement to carry passengers on the first flight, but there must be five passengers on the second flight.

To encourage low cost and reusability, no more than 20 percent of the spacecraft’s hardware can be expendable.

The flights must occur before Jan. 10, 2010.

Rutan has an agreement with British airline mogul Richard Branson to develop a five-person spacecraft for carrying passengers on space tours starting in three years. Branson has said more than 7,000 people have shown interest, although the ticket price would be about $200,000.

Such a spacecraft, however, would not qualify for Bigelow’s prize, because as described by Rutan and Branson it would not go into orbit.

As Bigelow works on his prize contest, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is working on its own set of contests dubbed the Centennial Challenges.

NASA is expected to unveil details on the contests next Monday, but in general officials say the agency is looking to spur development of a variety of technologies, including space-related ones, with prize money.

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