I never would have thought my life would have even a remote connection to the famous "X PRIZE", but yesterday, those connection wires were put in place. Let me back up and explain. . .

The X PRIZE was a $10 million dollar prize to be awarded to the first non-government organization to launch a reusable, manned spacecraft into outer space twice within two weeks. The prize and it's space challenge were set up in 1996, and over several years I saw more than one TV show about what a revolutionary idea it was to have such a prize, and what an unattainable feat it was (at that time) to complete the challenge that would win the prize. The prize went unclaimed for 8 years, until October of 2004!

What I did not know until yesterday, was the the X PRIZE had been officially renamed in May of 2004 to the "Ansari X PRIZE", in honor of entrepreneurs Anousheh Ansari and Amir Ansari, who made a multi-million dollar donation to the prize.

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