The XPrize “Losers”: Where are they now?

Starchaser: still far from reaching the stars

In October 2004, Scaled Compsites‘ private vehicle, SpaceshipOne, won the XPrize by making two successful piloted sub-orbital flights into space.

There were 26 competitors for the prize, and only one winner. What happened to the others?

Only a few left

In September 2005, The Space Review ran an article on what happened to the unsucessful competitors. At that time, X Prize chairman Peter Diamandis noted that only 8 to 10 companies were still doing anything.

Rocketplane produces publicity

Rocketplane—which was hoping to do its first test flight in 2006—is still around. They didn’t make that date and, in fact, announced the design of their sub-orbital vehicle in October 2007. Who knows if they’ll ever fly in space? Still, they’ve been making noise by offering “space weddings” and a free ride in space to a winner of a contest by Nestles—who won using an entry form that came with her Kit-Kat bar.

XCOR approaches space…but won’t reach it

ARCA: an improbable Romanian spacecraft

XCOR is continuing development of their vehicle, Lynx. And, recently they complete a successful test..of the engine for their proposed vehicle. Plans for the Lynx call for it to carry passengers to an altitude of 38 miles—a little more than halfway to space. Still, the ride will cost a (comparatively) cheap $95,000. And passengers will see a black sky and the curvature of the earth. If the Lynx ever flies.

daVinci less than a genius

The daVinci Project might still exist, although the latest entry on the “what’s new” page of their website is dated 2006. They display lovely images of their hypothetical spacecraft.

The website of a Canadian competitor, Canadian Arrow, now takes you to PlanetSpace—which I presume is a successor to the earlier company. The company says its partners include Boeing and Lockheed-Martin. Together, they lost the ISS resupply contract to SpaceX. SpaceX, which appears to be on a roll, did not compete for the XPrize.

Other less-plausible space tourism companies continue to try. This includes Starchaser (from the UK) and a Romanian group called ARCA.

Call me dubious.