Space is expensive. NASA's budget for 2008 is north of $17 billion! Development and operational costs when the usual cast of private contractors are at work are (may I say it?) astronomical. It's possible there's a better way. What if we turned space development into a contest? It's been done before with aviation.

New York Times May 30, 1919: "Raymond Orteig, proprietor of the Hotels Lafayette and Brevoort, has offered a prize of $25,000 for a non-stop flight from New York to Paris or Paris to New York by any aviator of allied nationality. His offer was made to the Aero Club of America, which has under consideration the conditions to govern such a flight."

Actually, it's been done before for space too. Man's first privately financed spaceflight won the Ansari X-Prize.

"To win the prize, famed aerospace designer Burt Rutan and financier Paul Allen led the first private team to build and launch a spacecraft capable of carrying three people to 100 kilometers above the earth's surface, twice within two weeks.

Spaceflight was no longer the exclusive realm of government. With that single flight, and the winning of the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE, a new industry was born. "

Now NASA is entering the contest game with the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. The competition gets underway in earnest this week.

"Nine teams with rocket-powered vehicles will compete for $2 million in NASA prize money during the 2008 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, Oct. 24-25, at Las Cruces International Airport in New Mexico.

Teams must fly their vehicle, simulating a takeoff and landing on the moon, and repeat the task in a limited period of time. The competition provides a demanding test of navigation and control for the vehicles, as well as a demonstration of reusable rocket engine technology.

NASA provides the prize money for the competition as part of the Centennial Challenges Program. The X PRIZE Foundation manages the competition at no cost to NASA, receiving financial support from sponsors such as the Northrop Grumman Corp. and the state of New Mexico.

Unlike Lindbergh who had to wait for Jimmy Stewart to recreate his non-stop cross Atlantic flight, you will be able to watch this competition. What goes on in Las Cruces will be webcast live to the world. In the end this might be one giant leap for space budgets.