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# $10M space race launches in SM
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/10m-space-race-launches-in-sm/
- Published: 2004-07-28T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:46:18.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Community, Santa Monica Airport, #archive-import

*Local resident was first space tourist in 2001*

SM AIRPORT — Eight years after announcing a $10 million competition for private space flight, Peter Diamandis of Santa Monica finally got a nod from industry pioneers on Tuesday.

Billionaire Paul Allen’s “SpaceShipOne,” the front-runner, is primed for a Sept. 29 flight from Mojave, Calif., officials announced during a morning press conference at Santa Monica Airport.

Toronto-based “Wild Fire” — built with the help of 6,000 volunteers dedicating some 150,000 hours — will compete against “SpaceShipOne.” It will be unveiled in early August, setting it up for a flight later this fall, team leaders said. Both ships are launched from unmanned helium balloons at about 80,000 feet.

“It’s really the U.S. versus Canada,” said Diamandis, 45, who lives in the Ocean Park neighborhood. “It’s the race to space.”

The winner must fly more than 62 miles off the face of the earth twice in a two week-period. The pilot must be accompanied by two passengers, or their equivalent in weight. “SpaceShipOne” made history by breaking into orbit last month, but it wasn’t carrying passengers. It is also the first team to announce that its crew is ready to be launched.

Diamandis, an entrepreneur with a background in medicine and engineering, hopes the competition eventually will make space flight available to more people outside of the government. He points to Charles Lindbergh’s famous 1927 flight from New York to Paris in “The Spirit of St. Louis,” saying air traffic increased 30-fold in the three years afterward.

Lindbergh won the $25,000 “Orteig Prize,” which was named after a hotel magnate. In doing so, he beat out eight competing teams that had spent in excess of $400,000 attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Like with the current $10 million competition, the Orteig prize had been available for eight years.

Diamandis said space flights initially will cost members of the public about $100,000, but rates will fall sharply.

“Someday you’ll drive out to Santa Monica Airport and you’ll hop into a vehicle that will take you out into space,” Diamandis added.

Already one local millionaire has paid to become the first space tourist. Three years ago, investor Dennis Tito, whose offices are on Santa Monica Boulevard, paid a reported $20 million to travel with Russian astronauts to the International Space Station. Tito, who lives in Pacific Palisades, is a close friend of Diamandis and sits on the board of directors for the X Prize Foundation, the St. Louis-based company offering the prize.

Sponsors for the prize range from a racing company to a wealthy Dallas family to private benefactors, Diamandis said. A total of 26 teams are competing from around the globe.

The Tuesday press conference was timed to meet a requirement that teams announce their flights 60 days ahead of time. “SpaceShipOne” will have two weeks after its Sept. 29 flight to conduct its second flight, though it doesn’t plan to use the full amount of time. Members of the public can buy tickets to both launches from the Mojave Airport Civilian Aerospace Test Center for $35.

Also on Tuesday, Col. Rick Searfoss, pilot and commander of three Space Shuttle missions, was selected to judge the X Flight competition.

“As an experienced astronaut, I can tell you that I’m personally excited to see the beginning of a new generation of space flight,” said Searfoss, who has spent 939 hours in space.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/072804-01_01-7.jpg)

(Above) A rendering of ‘SpaceShipOne,’ which will launch into space in September. (Photo: Photo courtesy)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 28, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/072804.pdf?ref=smdp.com)