Generation Orbit Launch Services has won first place and $100,000 in the 2013 NewSpace Business Plan Competition, presented yesterday by competition Project Manager, Tom Olson at Stanford University.

Eligos, Inc earned second place in the competition, along with a $25,000 prize. 3rd place, and a $10,000 award were given to Raptor Space Services. Prospect Dynamics won the $5,000 Market Sector prize in the field of on-orbit servicing.

The Space Frontier Foundation and judges congratulate the winners and thank all the finalists for their participation. The awards were presented on October 24th at the Stanford Space Entrepreneurship Conference, the hosts of this years competition.

"This event provided an excellent opportunity for us all to learn more about the economic dynamics of the American emerging space ecosystem," said

Alex MacDonald, Program Executive for NASA's Emerging Space Office, "and this event also hopefully helped to nucleate a few more great American space companies."

The judges were very impressed with the caliber of this year's entrants, and remarked on the fact that each successive competition the Foundation hosts attracts more worthy competitors.

The judges encouraged all the finalists to continue to seek funding, as all of them presented viable business cases. The eight finalists presented their business plans pitches to an audience of over 200 investors, entrepreneurs and students during the Stanford Space Entrepreneurship Conference, after honing their presentations during the previous two-day business plan boot camp, presented by industry professionals and investment experts.

"I'm excited to see the steadily increasing level of professionalism and innovative ideas of this year's contestants, and look forward to following their success," said Eva-Jane Lark, a competition judge and vice-president of the BMO Nesbitt Burns investment firm in Canada.

"It's great to see more investors attending and becoming aware of the NewSpace Business Plan Competition and this emerging NewSpace industry."

The Space Frontier Foundation and judges would like to extend their heartiest thanks to NASA's Emerging Space Office for its generosity in providing funding for this grand prize. By supporting this competition, NASA and the Emerging Space Office enable commercial space companies to meet the needs of not only NASA, but the needs of the space industry as a whole, and we hope to see further support from NASA for this type of activity in the future.

Additional funding provided by ATK and the Heinlein Prize Trust helps the competition continue to grow and attract innovative competitors, and we thank them for their support. Special thanks go out to the Space Angels Network as well, who created a specialized fund this year to invest in a BPC team of their choice.

Additionally, the Space Finance Group has generously offered free coaching services to the winners, in an effort to help catalyze their success.

The Space Frontier Foundation also sincerely thanks the judges, boot camp coaches, sponsors and all who worked on the 2013 NewSpace Business Plan Competition. Their contributions were truly invaluable.