X Prize Cup Ready For October Liftoff

[Mark Reiff <markreiff@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

FYI,

"X Prize Cup Ready For October Liftoff"
Space.com
http://space.com/news/050413_xprize_cup.html

: New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is to declare today that
: October 4-9 will be declared as X Prize Cup Week.

: Those are the dates for festivities to be held in Southern New
: Mexico – a follow-on event to last year’s back-to-back suborbital
: runs of SpaceShipOne from the Mojave, California spaceport and
: securing the $10 million Ansari X Prize purse.

: At the October X Prize Cup events there will be demonstration
: flights from at least eight of X Prize Cup team competitors. Also
: to be previewed will be the Tier-1 X Prize Rocket Racer, according
: to X Prize Cup spokeswoman, Diane Murphy. In addition, in
: association with this year’s activities, there will be the staging
: of the largest-ever student space event in the days following the
: Balloon Fiesta in the Northern New Mexico/Albuquerque area.

: Next year, the X Prize Cup will establish regular races, resulting
: in the presenting of the X Prize Cup for Rocket Racing.

: Other events announced for the “Countdown to the X Prize Cup”
: include:

: - Static hardware displays of the X Prize team vehicles, flight
: simulations and opportunities to visit with astronauts, spacecraft
: designers, and X Prize team leaders and pilots

: - Demonstration flights of reusable space vehicles by future
: X Prize Cup contenders at the Las Cruces International Airport

: - Education Day at the Alamogordo Space History Museum for New
: Mexico's next generation of engineers, pilots, astronauts, and
: space entrepreneurs with more than 2,000 students participating

: - During the event, Zero Gravity Corporation's G-Force One will
: conduct weightless flights

: Last year, the state allocated $9 million to develop the
: infrastructure, launch and landing facilities necessary to host and
: market the competition and related events throughout the state, and
: to prepare the Southwest Regional Spaceport in Upham, near Las
: Cruces, to become the country’s first licensed inland spaceport.

: This year, the legislature created the New Mexico Spaceport
: Authority to build and operate the Southwest Regional Spaceport.
: Governor Richardson has committed $1 million dollars in capital
: outlay funds to support this growth in spaceport infrastructure.

: White Sands Missile Range will be the interim spaceport until the
: Southwest Regional Spaceport is opened in 2007 or 2008. They plan
: on hosting the 2006 Inaugural X Prize Cup pending proper licensing
: of the competition vehicles.

: Governor Richardson noted that this year’s Countdown to X Prize Cup
: is a key step in creating an event that opens the space frontier to
: all private citizens. It also will bring new companies, provide new
: jobs, increase tourism statewide, and help brand New Mexico as the
: place to be to experience the future, he added.

--
Mark Reiff <markreiff@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

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