Re: Orbital X-Prize?

From: washer of kegs (kegwashers_at_t-online.de)
Date: 10/05/04 

Date: Tue, 05 Oct 2004 22:26:22 +0200

Jochem Huhmann wrote:

>
> To be honest, for a next X-Prize I would propose an Atlantic-Price. Have
> a reusable craft go from the continental US to Europe (and/or reverse in
> one week) via a ballistic flight. This is (much) more demanding than the
> X-Price, but still quite less than orbit. It could mean competition
> between european and US companies. And it could even be somewhat useful,
> since a joyride by going up and down is one thing, but to be able to fly
> from New York to London in 1 hour is appealing to the very rich maybe
> enough to spent lots of money on it, even after the first two flights
> have been accomplished. Don't forget to give them astronaut's wings.
> This could scale up a bit more than going up and down.
>

That would be a pretty hard challenge. Going west would be more difficult,
rotation is working against you whether you achieve orbit or not. Maybe a
prize to fly sub-orbital half way around and land and then in less than a
week launch and return to the original site would be a better challenge.