The X Prize was inspired by the Orteig Prize—the 1919 prize worth 25,000 dollars offered by New York hotel owner Raymond Orteig that … See more

The Tier One project made two successful competitive flights: X1 on September 29, 2004, piloted by Mike Melvill to 102.9 km; and X2 on October 4, 2004, piloted by Brian Binnie See more

• Anousheh Ansari and Amir Ansari, the official sponsors of the competition.
• First USA (J.P. Morgan Chase), US$1,000,000
• New Spirit of St. Louis Organization
• Danforth Foundation, US$500,000 See more

The funding for the US $10,000,000 prize was unconventional. It came from a "hole-in-one insurance policy". It was "fully funded through January 1, 2005, through private donations … See more

Twenty-six teams from around the world participated, ranging from volunteer hobbyists to large corporate-backed operations:
• Acceleration … See more

Although only the Tier One team actually launched a spacecraft on a sub-orbital spaceflight, several other teams have conducted low … See more

With the Ansari X Prize, the X Prize Foundation (based in Santa Monica, CA) established a philanthropic model in which offering a prize for … See more