The X Prize was publicly funded big whoop.
I’m all for subsequent efforts using no public resources aside a regulatory agency curbing the excesses of privatized space efforts.
This was not, to my understanding, connected to the X Prize. Also they didn't win the X Prize according this article [0].
[0] > A team led by Burt Rutan would [claim the X Prize eight years later](https://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2004/06/3908-2/), barely within the deadline. Rutan’s team built SpaceShipOne, a small rocket-powered vehicle dropped from an aircraft.
There will always be naysayers, detractors, and people who will always question the value of exporation and human inventiveness.
Like in business, if it was obvious, it would have long been done. Yes, it does tak ea bit of brashness and self serving to do new things. and their practically is seldomly obvious at the beginning.
But this is EXACTLY how humanity moves forward!!! The crazy ones, the selfish ones. The ones that sometimes do it for the glory, or just because its' hard.
It's very easy to critique, but in the words or someone else... "what have you done that is so great?"
" In 2004, it signed a deal with Virgin Galactic to develop the Virgin SpaceShip, a suborbital spacecraft, for space tourism. Virgin Group and Scaled Composites have subsequently formed a joint venture, The Spaceship Company, to manufacture the spacecraft."[0]
I’ll use it against cynicism in the future!