> There is still a ways to go.
And the prize expires at the end of this year (2004).
Even if Scaled wins it, it probably won't be a profit-making accomplishment. I suspect the backer (Allen) has invested more than the prize already.
Then the question becomes: ok, now what?
Paying passengers would be a next step, maybe not the very next step. Rutan would also be designing a ship to go even higher and faster. Orbit is a long ways off.
Rutan designs kit planes, so perhaps a kit would be coming soon. Wouldn't that be something, to build an EZ-Spaceship.