X-Prize Overview: To The Edge Of Space, Cheap

_randy_64 writes "The X-Prize competition has gotten a lot of coverage on Slashdot - either because it's cool and geeky or because John Carmack is involved. The Baltimore Sun has a decent background/overview article on the contest in Sunday's edition."

Comments

Re:Death of the X-Prize

[snake_dad]

Seriously, though, once one group has succeeded, what is the immediate benefit to other groups who may succeed afterwards? No $$ usually leads to seriously reduced efforts.

The X Prize Foundation has thought of that. The are working to set up a "racing" event for passenger-carrying spaceships, with contenders trying to win categories like fastest turnaround time, highest altitude, and numbers of passengers. They are hoping to get big sponsors that are now active in Formula 1, Indycars, and such.

Curious about X-Prize Finances

[augustz]

I'm curious about the X-Prize Foundations finances.

They filed their last Form 990 for 2001 late, and their 2002 990 hasn't shown up yet so I'm assuming they requested an extention for the last year as well. As a confidence builder the fact that they can't close their books by March or so for the previous year is not super postiive.

In 1998 we had this quote:
"The X PRIZE Foundation already has raised more than half of the $10 million purse and anticipates having the remaining funds within a year."

According to their 2001 990 at the end of the year they had $3,000 in cash and $1,000,000 in liabilities.

If someone has already looked into the situation (ie, status of insurance, supporting organization holding funds etc) do let me know, otherwise I'll work to pull together some relevant information.

As I get it I'll stick relevant info up at http://augustz.com/xprize. [Nothing up at the moment and maybe nothing will ever show up... :)]

The innovation around these projects is so cool however. Looking forward to the results!

Re:Curious about X-Prize Finances

[Anonymous Coward]

Their web site says they have a $10million insurance policy with a company that does those sports contests [kick field goal win $1million] to pay the winner.

Re:Curious about X-Prize Finances

[augustz]

Yes, I have reviewed their website. Strange they would take out $10 million in insurance after raising $5 million for the purse with the expectation that the next $5 million would be in by 1999. Perhaps they took it out for the remainder.

You would also expect that the expense of such an insurance policy would appear on their financials. They have a $120,000 annual expense for "Risk Insurance" which might be high enough to cover this, though I'm surpised a company would issue it that inexpensively. They may also have partners involved, there are a lot of different ways these things can be structured. However, the more complicated it is the more important the transparency bit is.

This "Risk Insurance" might also be D&O type stuff in case they got sued if something goes wrong with competition (ie, someone rushes to relaunch and cuts corners on safety).

I'll put in a request to them during the workweek for some clarification, it may be as easy as a FAQ update.

Re:Death of the X-Prize

[Pompatus]

Seriously, though, once one group has succeeded, what is the immediate benefit to other groups who may succeed afterwards?

I think the benefits to any group capable of fulfilling the x-prize requirements (carry three people 62.5 miles up into space) would be enormous. The X-Prize Foundation states that "For more than 30 years, the general public has waited for an opportunity to enjoy the space frontier on a first-hand basis. The X PRIZE Foundation is working to make space travel possible for all." People realize that ALOT of money could be made sending tourists to space. From the article, 15,000 people a year would pay $100,000 for a 15-minute suborbital trip by 2021. That doesn't sound bad at all for a small euntrepreneur. Granted, it's not exactly an IMMEDIATE benefit, but I think it might be worth it in the long run