Managerial Decision Making

On October 4, 2004, at nearly 400,000 feet (70 miles)above the Mojave Desert, history and $10 milliondollars were made. SpaceShipOne had completed itsthird required flight to claim the $10 million X Prize.The Ansari X Prize was created to jump start interest incommercial space travel and was similar to the hundredsof aviation-incentive prizes created in the early 20thcentury to help develop today’s $300 billion commercialaviation industry. The X prize achieved its goal with 26teams from seven countries spending over $100 millionto make commercial space travel a future reality. Onceinconceivable for non-governmental agencies, there arenow several for-profit companies looking to enter thespace-travel market. Sir Richard Branson created a newcompany, Virgin Galactic, and has ordered fivespaceships from the creators of SpaceShipOne.Branson’s ships will be larger, holding five passengersand one pilot. Virgin Galactic has already had 5,000people make serious inquiries about tickets, which are currently running at $190,000 apiece. Anothercompany, Space Adventures, is selling space-traveltickets for less than $100,000 and has advanced depositsof $10,000 from 100 customers. Not only didSpaceShipOne make history in being the first non-governmental group to launch people into space, but itmay also have made history by launching a newindustry. Only time will tell!