America's Space Prize

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America's Space Prize is a US$50 million orbital spaceflight competition established and funded by hotel entrepreneur Robert Bigelow. The prize will be awarded to the first US-based privately-funded team to design and build a reusable manned capsule capable of flying 5 astronauts to a Bigelow Aerospace inflatable space module. The prize expires January 10, 2010. There must be two flights within 60 days. The teams must be based in the United States of America.

1 Prize rules
2 Contestants
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Prize rules

The spacecraft must reach a minimum altitude of 400 kilometers (approximately 250 miles);
The spacecraft must reach a minimum velocity sufficient to complete two (2) full orbits at altitude before returning to Earth;
The spacecraft must carry no less than a crew of five (5) people;
The spacecraft must dock or demonstrate its ability to dock with a Bigelow Aerospace inflatable space habitat, and be capable of remaining on station at least six (6) months;
The spacecraft must perform two (2) consecutive, safe and successful orbital missions within a period of sixty (60) calendar days, subject to Government regulations;
No more than twenty percent (20 percent) of the spacecraft may be composed of expendable hardware;
The contestant must be domiciled in the United States of America.
The contestant must have its principal place of business in the United States of America;
The Competitor must not accept or utilize government development funding related to this contest of any kind, nor shall there be any government ownership of the competitor. Use in government test facilities shall be permitted; and
The spacecraft must complete its two (2) missions safely and successfully, with all five (5) crew members aboard for the second qualifying flight, before the competition’s deadline of Jan. 10, 2010^[1]

[edit] Contestants

As of 2006, some 40 companies had expressed interest in the prize, but either didn't have the money which would apparently be needed, or, in the case of SpaceX, were ineligible due to having accepted government funding.^[2]

A few contestants have been:

Interorbital Systems ^[3]
JP Aerospace ^[4]
SpaceDev ^[5]
SpaceX^[6]
Scaled Composites (speculated^{[attribution needed]} - Tier Two)

[edit] See also

v • d • e Space tourism
Major private companies	Bigelow Aerospace · Blue Origin · EADS Astrium · Rocketplane · Space Adventures · Scaled Composites · The Spaceship Company · Virgin Galactic
Organizations	ARCASPACE · LiftPort Group · Personal Spaceflight Federation · Space Tourism Society · Association of Autonomous Astronauts
Successful spacecraft	SpaceShipOne · Genesis I · Genesis II
Living in space	Space station · Space habitat · Space colonization · Commercialization of space · Suborbital spaceplane
Historical events	First tourists · Ansari X Prize