Dr. Peter H. Diamandis
Chairman and Co-founder, X Prize Foundation;
CEO and Founder, Zero-G Corporation
Peter Diamandis is CEO of Zero-Gravity Corporation, which runs regular "weightless" flights for the public, corporate team-building and for NASA astronaut training/research. In one of those return-to-your-roots transactions, the company has been acquired by Space Adventures, which provided some of its early funding.
Diamandis, who was on the board of Space Adventures, will continue as CEO of Zero G, and will also serve as Managing Director of Space Adventures. Zero G has two FAA-certified Boeing 727-200s (soon to be three) that it uses for operations based in Las Vegas and the Kennedy Space Center. Since starting commercial operations in 2004, Zero G has flown more than 5000 passengers on more than 175 missions. It recently won a major contract from NASA worth approximately $25 million.
The company doesn't disclose revenues, but says it doubled its flights between 2006 and 2007, and hopes to double again in 2008. Flights are available to the public out of Las Vegas and Kennedy Space Center for $3,950 per seat. Private charters (for up to 35 individuals) cost $135,000 plus ferry fee and can be conducted from any major airport. After 14 years (most of them spent negotiating with the FAA), it expects to be cash-flow positive this year.
Diamandis is also chairman and co-founder of the Rocket Racing League, which will use craft with engines from another previous Flight School company, XCOR, in a NASCAR-like sporting activity.
Diamandis is also chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation, which awarded the $10 million Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight to Burt Rutan and his SpaceShipOne in 2004. He is currently excited about the Lunar X Prize, funded to the tune of $30 million by Google. The X Prize Foundation's mission is to foster radical breakthroughs not just in space flight but also in fields such as genomics, automotive, education, medicine and energy.
He is the winner of the 2006 (inaugural) Heinlein Award, the 2006 Lindbergh Award, the 2006 Wired RAVE Award, the Konstantine Tsiolkovsky Award, the Aviation & Space Technology Laurel (twice), and the 2003 World Technology Award for Space. But most significantly, while living in New York and attending the eighth grade, he won first place in the Estes rocket-design contest.
