WHEN Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne makes the first attempt to win the X prize next week, the astronaut at its helm will be following in a long tradition of daredevil test pilots. But unlike previous competitions to push the boundaries of human flight, the X prize brings with it an extra pressure: a deadline. If the $10 million prize has not been won by midnight on 31 December, it will be withdrawn.
The question is whether this pressure is leading competitors to take risks that endanger people's lives unnecessarily. Some danger is unavoidable at the cutting edge of space flight. The first Apollo crew died without even leaving the ground; two cosmonauts died during re-entry in the 1960s; Apollo 13 was saved from disaster by incredible luck; and then there were the Columbia and Challenger disasters.
The X prize sponsors hope things will be different this time. The prize will go ...
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