Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne is the sole DIY rocket to put a human into space.
But Burt Rutan, 61, has only ever read one sci-fi book: Carl Sagan's Contact.
Burt Rutan, the brains behind SpaceShipOne, and Paul Allen, its moneybags, are not alone.
Analysts are looking to the US and Canada for a winner - with Burt Rutan clearly in the lead.
BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Space future: Race for the X-Prize
The aerospace giants felt it was impossible, but Burt Rutan flew into space.
Moreover, the business plan that he and his partner Burt Rutan are working on sounds perfectly, er, down to earth.
Legendary aeronautical and spacecraft designer Burt Rutan has a somewhat optimistic view.
SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan, who is beginning work on Virgin's space fleet, has promised to ride along with Branson on the first flight.
Virgin Chief Executive Richard Branson is using his fame, and money, to build a space tourism business using spacecraft to be built by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites.
If there is a boom coming, the fuse was lit by the 2004 flight of SpaceShipOne, a reusable space vehicle built by aircraft designer Burt Rutan and funded by Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) co-founder Paul Allen .
Scaled Composites, founded by renowned aircraft designer Burt Rutan, historically has kept the timing of important test flights under wraps partly to prevent crowds from gathering at the Mojave airport, and partly to avoid putting undue pressure on project managers to launch or take off.
Two years later a craft by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen and aerospace designer Burt Rutan made two trips into space in 14 days and captured the prize. (Anousheh Ansari later got her wish, a flight to the International Space Station, in 2006.) Diamandis was finally launched.
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