From X-Prize To X-Cup

Now that SpaceShipOne has won the $10 million X-Prize, the competition will evolve into a regular competition called the X-Prize Cup. The Associated Press reports that it is hoped that the X-Prize Cup competition will keep the more than two-dozen teams competing for the X- prize to keep working.

The first X-Prize Cup will be held in 2005-06 at New Mexico's White Sands Missile Range:

Teams will compete in five different categories to win the overall cup: Fastest turn around time between the first launch and second landing, maximum number of passengers per launch, total number of passengers during the competition, maximum altitude and fastest flight time.

The space age has truly arrived.