SpaceShipOne Took The X Prize Five Years Ago This Week

On October 4, 2009, the X PRIZE Foundation celebrated the fifth anniversary of the largest prize in history, the $10 Million Ansari X PRIZE - won by the Mojave Aerospace Ventures team for the historic flights of SpaceShipOne. Led by famed aerospace designer Burt Rutan and backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, Mojave Aerospace Ventures was the first private team to build and launch a spacecraft capable of carrying three people to 100 kilometers above the earth's surface twice within two weeks.

The team made world history when it achieved this feat on the anniversary of the historic launch of Sputnik in 1957 - the first manmade object that entered earth's orbit and opened the space age. When SpaceShipOne touched down on October 4, 2004 and won the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE, a new billion dollar industry was born and Spaceflight was no longer viewed as the exclusive realm of governments.

To commemorate this historic event, the X PRIZE Foundation returns to St. Louis, the city at the inspiration of the competition and where the Ansari X PRIZE was first announced, to host a reception for the initial supporters and visionaries who made the X PRIZE a reality.

The reception will be held Sunday, October 11, from 3:00 pm - 7:00 pm, at the St. Louis Science Center - Mission Control Room.

Special guests include Dr. Peter Diamandis, CEO and Chairman, X PRIZE Foundation; Ahousheh Ansari, title sponsor of the Ansari X PRIZE; Brian Binnie, the astronaut piloting SpaceShipOne's winning flight and X PRIZE Board Member, Erik Lindbergh, grandson of Charles Lindbergh.

FMI: www.xprize.org