COMMERCIAL SPACE TRAVEL'S X FACTOR.

Byline: JIM SKEEN Staff Writer

LOS ANGELES -- As Virgin Galactic and Mojave's Burt Rutan work on developing a passenger-carrying sub-orbital spacecraft, the man behind the $10 million Ansari X Prize insists there are other contenders out there shooting to put the general public into space.

Peter Diamandis, co-founder of the X Prize Foundation, said that although the $10 million prize for the first commercial spaceflight was handed out in 2004, there are still a number of teams from that competition working on manned spacecraft.

The private spaceflight contest drew 26 teams, but only the winner, Rutan's SpaceShipOne, ever flew into space.

``About a third of the teams never progressed past having a fancy diagram,'' Diamandis said. ``A third had capable people, but were unsuccessful in raising capital. A third of our teams are very real, very viable and still moving forward.''

Since winning the Ansari X Prize, Rutan has partnered with Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Airlines, to build a fleet of sub-orbital spaceliners that Branson's latest venture, Virgin Galactic, plans to use to fly tourists into space.

On Thursday, at a space conference in Los Angeles, Rutan questioned whether any of the other X Prize teams were still working on affordable space travel.

Diamandis said teams still trying to develop spacecraft include Pioneer Rocketplane, based in Oklahoma; Starchaser Industries of the United Kingdom; Toronto-based Canadian Arrow; and Texas-based Armadillo Aerospace.

The Ansari family, which provided the financial backing to make the X Prize a reality, has also jumped into the spacecraft development game. The Ansaris, who made money in telecommunications, are working with Space Adventures, the company that helped millionaire Dennis Tito, to develop a spacecraft based on a Russian design.

Even if those teams fail to produce a spaceship, they are developing technologies, such as propulsion systems, that could be used in other spacecraft, Diamandis said.

``Burt's view of the world is focused on Mojave and that's fine, but he's not the only player,'' Diamandis said. ``There are seven or eight viable contenders out there.''

During his keynote speech before the International Space Development Conference, Rutan also made a dig at Diamandis' latest venture, the Rocket Racing League. Plans for the league call for racers to use a variation of the Rutan-designed Long EZ, which have been built by airplane enthusiasts since the 1970s.

Rutan referred to the league as racing ``antique homebuilts.''

``I think Burt's comments were tongue-in-cheek and ignored it,'' Diamandis said.

Diamandis said the racing league, expected to begin meets next year with semifinals at the annual Reno Air Races and the finals at Diamandis' X Prize Cup space expo in New Mexico, will spur innovation that will aid personal spaceflight.

``One of the biggest problems for spaceflight is low-cost, robust propulsion systems,'' Diamandis said. ``That's one of the things the rocket racing league will be developing.''

The league will also help inspire kids to pursue careers in rocketry and spaceflight, Diamandis said.

The company that is building the racers, Mojave's XCOR, has ambitions of its own to put people into space.

Until the company has the financial wherewithal to build its own spacecraft, the company is focused on working on components for others' spacecraft and treating its contracts to build such components as research and development funding for its space project, said company president Jeff Greason.

``You need engines, tanks and valves. We look for pieces we can develop and then find a customer who needs that part,'' Greason said. ``I want to make this work so I can go (into space). The only way to make it work is to make it pay.''

In another effort to spur the development of space technology, the X Prize Foundation is partnering with NASA to offer a $2.5 million prize contest to develop lunar landing systems.

In the Lunar Lander Analog Challenge, competing teams will demonstrate their vehicle's ability to launch vertically, hover in midair, land on a target more than 100 yards away and then repeat the feat.

The contest is part of NASA's Centennial Challenges, a prize program modeled in part after the Ansari X Prize.

``NASA's Centennial Challenge program is using the tool of prize competitions, so successfully demonstrated by the X Prize, to plant the seeds for future space commercial activities,'' said NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale. ``We're confident the Lunar Lander Analog Competition will stimulate the development of the kinds of rockets and landing systems that NASA needs to return to the moon, while also accelerating the development of the private sub-orbital space flight industry.''

The challenge will take place at the X Prize Cup Expo in Las Cruces, New Mexico, from Oct. 20 to 22.

NASA is putting up $2 million of the prize money. Diamandis said another source that he cannot disclose is providing the rest of the prize money.

The X Prize Foundation will run the competition.

james.skeen(at)dailynews

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