Ansari X Prize

The Ansari X Prize was a space competition which the X Prize Foundation offered $10 million prize for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within 2 weeks. This was aimed to urge development of low-cost spaceflight and was modeled after early 20th century aviation prizes. The prize was won by the Tier One project designed by Burt Rutan and financed by a co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen. They used the experimental spaceplane SpaceShipOne. Although $10 million was won, $100 million was invested in new technologies in pursuit of the prize. The prize was initially made in May 1996 as the just the "X Prize" and was renamed the "Ansari X Prize" on May 6, 2004 following a multi-million dollar donation from Anousheh Ansari and her brother-in-law, Amir Ansari. There were other contestants- 26 teams to be exact- from around the world that participated, from volunteer hobbyists to large corporate-backed organizations. Here is a list of them: