My passion for space began at the age of ten in my fourth grade science class. I was a shy kid with a knack for science and math. One day, my friend Kenny was giving a report on the planets. At the same time, high above our heads, the drama of Apollo 13 was unfolding. In that moment, I felt like there was nothing more important in the world than exploring space. I littered every school book I owned with doodles of rockets and far-away planets. Personal spaceflight became my
mission. I had the desire and intention to become a NASA astronaut, but I found out how difficult that is, and how few people actually get the chance. It bothered me that space travel was limited to so few.I read The Spirit of St. Louis, by Charles Lindbergh, about his historic flight from New York to Paris that won the $25,000 Orteig prize and helped jump-start the aviation industry in the U.S. It hit me that the right prize could drive the creation of a new generation of private spaceships.
So, in 1996, I started the X PRIZE Foundation and the Ansari X PRIZE, a $10 million reward for a privately funded team to build and launch a spacecraft capable of carrying three people 100 kilometers (62.1 miles) above the earth’s surface twice within two weeks. The Prize, awarded in 2004, was designed to spawn, stimulate and support the commercial public spaceflight industry and create an emerging market and a competitive price for the consumer.
All of this means that the rest of us will get to go to space at an affordable price. We lit the fuse. It is within all of our grasps.
Peter Diamandis is the founder of the X PRIZE Foundation and the Ansari X PRIZE. www.xprize.org
