Serious X-Prize contenders

Ok, so the following seem to be teams moving towards usable
hardware and a launch:

* Armadillo
* Scaled Composites
* Canadian Arrow
* Starchaser
* ARCA
* HARC

The argentinan project also seems to be moving towards working
hardware with launches of subscale rockets in spring and construction
of teh real thing starting in June, but I have only one babelfished
page to go by, as they have forgotten to have a web page. IL aerospace
while still around seems to have recently completely changed their
mind about how they are going to launch.

Others seem to be completely DOA.

--
Sander

+++ Out of cheese error +++

Ok, so the following seem to be teams moving towards usable
hardware and a launch:

* Armadillo
* Scaled Composites BRBR

Only these two, and maybe XCOR, appear to have the money to make it to flight.


Matt Bille
)
OPINIONS IN ALL POSTS ARE SOLELY THOSE OF THE AUTHOR

On 21 Jan 2004 04:38:53 GMT, in a place far, far away,
(MattWriter) made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:

Ok, so the following seem to be teams moving towards usable
hardware and a launch:

* Armadillo
* Scaled Composites BRBR

Only these two, and maybe XCOR, appear to have the money to make it to flight.

Appearance may be deceptive. Then again, they may not.

In either case, XCOR may have funding, but they're not X-Prize
contenders.

In article ,
h (Rand Simberg) wrote:

On 21 Jan 2004 04:38:53 GMT, in a place far, far away,
(MattWriter) made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:

Ok, so the following seem to be teams moving towards usable
hardware and a launch:

* Armadillo
* Scaled Composites BRBR

Only these two, and maybe XCOR, appear to have the money to make it to
flight.

Appearance may be deceptive. Then again, they may not.

In either case, XCOR may have funding, but they're not X-Prize
contenders.

Not ANNOUNCED X-Prize contenders, you mean. They're (very) unlikely to
be ready in time, but their next vehicle would easily meet the X-Prize
conditions, if it was still unclaimed when they fly.

The same goes for Pioneer.

-- Bruce

On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 19:29:20 +1300, in a place far, far away, Bruce
Hoult made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a
way as to indicate that:

In either case, XCOR may have funding, but they're not X-Prize
contenders.

Not ANNOUNCED X-Prize contenders, you mean.

It's not possible to win the X-Prize without announcing it.

In article ,
h (Rand Simberg) wrote:

On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 19:29:20 +1300, in a place far, far away, Bruce
Hoult made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a
way as to indicate that:

In either case, XCOR may have funding, but they're not X-Prize
contenders.

Not ANNOUNCED X-Prize contenders, you mean.

It's not possible to win the X-Prize without announcing it.

But it's possible to announce just prior to winning it.

,------------------------------------------------------------------.
| Joseph J. Strout Check out the Mac Web Directory: |
| http://www.macwebdir.com |
`------------------------------------------------------------------'

In article ,
Bruce Hoult wrote:
In either case, XCOR may have funding, but they're not X-Prize
contenders.

Not ANNOUNCED X-Prize contenders, you mean.

As of the last Space Access, they said quite explicitly: "we aren't in
that business". They'd like to see the X-Prize succeed but are not in
competition for it themselves, partly because they are more interested in
sustained revenue streams than in one-shot prizes.
--
MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer
since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. |

Bruce Hoult wrote in message ...
In article ,
h (Rand Simberg) wrote:

In either case, XCOR may have funding, but they're not X-Prize
contenders.

Not ANNOUNCED X-Prize contenders, you mean. They're (very) unlikely to
be ready in time, but their next vehicle would easily meet the X-Prize
conditions, if it was still unclaimed when they fly.

Rand is correct. We're not X-Prize contenders, announced or
otherwise. Going after the X-Prize has never fit into our business
model. Xerus will not meet the X-Prize requirement for passenger
capacity, since it will only carry one passenger. Finally, the
X-Prize will expire on 1 Jan 2005, and we won't have Xerus flying by
then.

If we're not doing the X-Prize, what are we doing? Incremental
development. Whoever wins the X-Prize, we believe we'll be well
placed to serve the space tourism market in the post-X-Prize era.

-R

MattWriter wrote:
Ok, so the following seem to be teams moving towards usable
hardware and a launch:

* Armadillo
* Scaled Composites BRBR

Only these two, and maybe XCOR, appear to have the money to make it to flight.


Just curious - any pointers to moneylessness going to inhibiting potential
launch of others?


Matt Bille
)
OPINIONS IN ALL POSTS ARE SOLELY THOSE OF THE AUTHOR

--
Sander

+++ Out of cheese error +++

"Sander Vesik" wrote in message
...
Ok, so the following seem to be teams moving towards usable
hardware and a launch:

* Armadillo
* Scaled Composites
* Canadian Arrow
* Starchaser
* ARCA
* HARC
You left out Da Vinci, Advent Launch Services, IOS, Space Transport and
American Astronautics.
Get the 2003 team summary document from the X-Prize web page.

-kert