X Prize Has New Competitors

An anonymous reader writes "According to space.com, there are four new competitors in the X Prize competition. For those of you living under a rock, the X Prize competition is where people are competing for a 10 million dollar paycheck for creating a reusable spacecraft and using it twice within two weeks. X Prize officials are saying they expect to award the prize money within a year or two."

Comments

Re:Do they have the 10 mil?

[WolfWithoutAClause]

Yes, the funding is now secure. They'd raised part of the money, but couldn't raise enough to cover the whole prize.

Instead the organisers cut a deal, essentially insuring with the money they had already, against somebody winning before 2005. If the prize isn't won then the insurers pocket the money they already have and walk. Otherwise the insurers have to pay out the full 10 mil.

Re:Do they have the 10 mil?

[jeboyer]

To further increase the signal-to-noise, here's a couple of links (look at Oct. 17 & 18 entries) with a little more detail on the funding deal...