19TH TEAM JOINS X-PRIZE COMPETITION
WASHINGTON (States News Service) --- The
competition for the X PRIZE just got stiffer.A 19th
team joined the race Wednesday, hoping that its design for a reusable three-person spacecraft will be the one that wins the $10 million grand prize. 
Named for a character in Robert A. Heinlein's short story Our Fair City, the team's craft is dubbed "The Good Ship Kitten" and is designed to be much smaller and lighter than the other 18 entries for the X PRIZE.
The team building the Kitten is based at the Cerulean Freight Forwarding Company of Oroville, Washington located just south of the Canadian border. Designed to take off and land from a traditional runway, the Kitten in some respects has more in common with a commercial jet than a typical
rocket.Jim Hill, who is leading Cerulean's 17-person team of engineers and pilots, said that the initial inspiration for the Kitten's design came from kit aircraft that
users can assemble on their own. In fact, he said, the Cerulean team hopes to sell the Kitten as a kit spacecraft. Hill said that the kits will
sell for about $500,000 when they come to market.Standing just 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) tall and 19.7 feet (6 meters) long, the Kitten uses a skin made of foam and aluminum that is then coated in ceramic. Hill said that using that material allows the craft to use less
fuel to reach its maximum altitude of 145 miles (235 kilometers)."We can make it light and still make it strong," he said.
Powered by either methane or propane, blended with liquid oxygen, the 7,055-pound (3,200-kilogram) Kitten will take off on a runway and fly like an airplane to a height of 7.5 miles (12 kilometers). From there, it will then soar like a rocket to its maximum altitude.
Once the ship returns to Earth, Hill said that it can be turned around for another flight within 90 minutes.
"The whole idea is to make it quick and convenient," he said.
The Kitten will cost Cerulean roughly $1.5 million to develop, Hill said, with most of the
funding coming from individuals. The team is able to keep the cost of the craft down because the engineers and designers working on the project are not drawing salaries from the company."We're putting sweat into this instead of labor," he said.
Modeled after the Orteig Prize, which sparked the interest in transatlantic flight that culminated in Charles Lindbergh's 1927 nonstop solo flight from New York to Paris. Like the
X PRIZE, the Orteig Prize was sponsored by a group of St. Louis businessmen.The X PRIZE Foundation, the group that is offering the prize, hopes to spark interest in commercial space travel with the award.
The $10 million X-PRIZE will go to the first team that flies a reusable rocket twice within two weeks to 62 miles (100 kilometers) or higher. The craft must also be privately financed and able to carry three passengers.
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