You mean like this?

America's Space Prize

It's for a 5-7 person orbital vehicle, to be flown by the end of the decade. The prize is $50 million dollars + guaranteed contracts for flights to Bigelow stations. It hasn't been officially announced yet, but I expect that it will be within a few weeks.

You're might think that $50 million isn't enough to motivate the development of such a vehicle, but this is what people said about $10 million for the X-Prize. I remember around the time that the X-Prize was announced, one Boeing executive scornfully saying that it would be "easy to do, for one or two hundred million dollars". Of course, Paul Allen *has* spent more than $20 million pursuing the prize, but several other credible contenders have designs which could be fielded for well under $10 million.

In any case, even if the winner of America's Space Prize has to spend considerably more than than the prize is worth, I think that they'll be quite likely to do this. Keep in mind that while people have criticized Paul Allen for doing the same, he has just signed a contract worth $25 million with Virgin Galactic, and so is now running in the black even before winning the prize purse. (Elsewhere, SpaceDev's stock has nearly quadroupled since their involvement with the SS1 project was disclosed). I think that history will look favorably on these investments, and investors in the America's Space Prize contestants will be willing to spend what it takes to make sure their ventures succeed.

Cheers,

Nathan.