Wild Weed Preacher

America's Space Prize $50 million

America's Space Prize Robert Bigelow of Las Vegas, Nevada has offered the next prize, $50 million to be awarded to the first U.S. based team to privately finance, build, and fly a reusable orbital spaceship. The deadline for this America’s Space Prize is January 10, 2010.
The official rules are listed here:
1. The spaceship must reach a minimum altitude of 250 miles.
2. The spaceship must reach a minimum velocity sufficient to complete two full orbits at altitude before returning to Earth.
3. The spaceship must carry at least five people.
4. The spaceship 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 months.
5. The spaceship must perform two consecutive, safe and successful orbital missions within a period of 60 calendar days, subject to government regulations.
6. No more than 20 percent of the spaceship may be composed of expendable hardware.
7. The contestant must live in the United States of America.
8. The contestant must have his principal place of business in the United States of America.
9. The contestant 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. The use of government test facilities shall be permitted.
10.The spaceship must complete its two missions safely and successfully, with all five crew members aboard for the second qualifying flight, before the competition’s deadline of January 10, 2010.

posted by Rev. James E. Smith @ 2:20 AM