Diamandis

Looking to the past, Diamandis saw that cash prizes often spurred those breakthroughs. For example, in 1927, the American aviator Charles Lindbergh made the world's first non-stop solo flight from New York to Paris, motivated at least in part by the $25,000 prize offered by Raymond Orteig, a wealthy French American hotelier.

Inspired by such examples, Diamandis raised $10 million in prize money for the first person to develop and pilot a private manned spacecraft into sub-orbit.