For the last 40 years, innovation in spaceflight had been stalled…

The X PRIZE Foundation sought to bring about a radical breakthrough in the advancement of human spaceflight, the aim being to open up the space frontier. Our long-term goal was to make space travel safe, affordable and accessible to everyone through the creation of a personal spaceflight industry.

The Ansari family shared our vision and agreed to join the revolution by becoming the title sponsors of the first X PRIZE, jumpstarting 26 teams from 7 different nations to pursue their passions by competing for the prize.

The Ansari X PRIZE was modeled after the Orteig Prize, won by Charles Lindbergh in 1927 for being the first to fly non-stop from New York to Paris, and mirrors the hundreds of aviation incentive prizes offered early in the 20th Century that helped create today's $300 billion commercial aviation industry.

On October 4, 2004, the X PRIZE Foundation captured the world's attention when we awarded the largest prize in history, the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE, to Mojave Aerospace Ventures for the flight of SpaceShipOne.

To win the prize, famed aerospace designer Burt Rutan and financier Paul Allen led 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.

Ten times the amount of the prize purse was spent by the competitors trying to win the prize. The Ansari X PRIZE changed the way the public perceives spaceflight. The revolutionary surpassed our highest expectations, creating significant developments in the personal spaceflight industry even before the Ansari X PRIZE was awarded.