Press Release
Coastal Technologies sponsors the X
Prize ® and the X Prize Cup ™ through the New Spirit
of St. Louis Organization
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In 1925, a group of
St. Louis visionary individuals joined with Charles Lindbergh
to fund Lindbergh's design and development of an aircraft
to compete for the Orteig Prize. Two years later, Charles
Lindbergh won the $25,000 Orteig prize in the "Spirit
of St. Louis" aircraft. Few people know that this airplane
was actually named after the group of visionaries who had
called themselves the Spirit of St. Louis Organization. |
The X PRIZE Foundation's leadership comes from a
new group of 100 visionary business leaders that have dubbed themselves
the "New Spirit of St. Louis organization." Noted St.
Louis members include Andy Taylor, CEO of Enterprise Rent-A-Car;
John McDonnell, Chairman of McDonnell Douglas Foundation; and
William Danforth, Chancellor of Washington University. Other contributors
from outside the St. Louis area include authors Tom Clancy and
Arthur C. Clarke; Adeo Ressi, Founding Partner of Sophos Partners;
Richard Garriott, Founder of Origin Systems; Anousheh and Hamid
Ansari, Founders of Telecom Technologies, Inc.; J. Barry Thompson,
Director of North American Architecture for UBS Warburg; and Elon
Musk, Chairman and co-founder of PayPal.
Today, the X PRIZE Foundation has created the NEW
SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS ORGANIZATION to help make history once again.
This group is limited to a total of 100 people (There are now
more than 75 members and counting.).
About the XPRIZE
Foundation
The X PRIZE® Foundation is a $10 million prize to jump-start
the space tourism industry through competition among the most
talented entrepreneurs and rocket experts in the world. Following
in the footsteps of over 100 aviation prizes offered between 1905
and 1935 that created today’s multibillion dollar air transport
industry, the ANSARI X PRIZE will be awarded to the team that
designs the first private spaceship that successfully launches
three humans to a sub-orbital altitude of 100 km on two consecutive
flights within two weeks. All teams must be privately financed.
