Rockets of the Future Take Center Stage

[Mark Reiff <markreiff@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

FYI,

"Rockets of the Future Take Center Stage
- Space jockeys show their stuff; NASA announces two new contests"
MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9643167

: Thousands of spectators swarmed around Las Cruces' airport on
: Sunday to watch today's private-sector rockets show their fiery
: stuff, while both private and public space leaders charted a course
: for tomorrow's million-dollar ventures.

: The rocket show was the climax to the Countdown to the X Prize Cup
: exposition, presented here by the X Prize Foundation. The event
: follows up on last year's big finish to a $10 million competition
: for suborbital spaceflight.

: On Sunday, one rocket soared — not just once, but twice. Another
: blew up. Yet another spaceship lifted off, hovered for a few
: seconds, then fell over when it landed. Several companies showed
: off mockups of several future spaceships, and NASA took advantage
: of the occasion to announce yet more contests for private-
: enterprise rocketeers.

: Even as the gates were opened for Sunday's festival, NASA announced
: it was partnering with the X Prize Foundation on contests that
: could result in multimillion-dollar payoffs. "We're ready to
: undertake two new prize competitions in the arena of suborbital
: rocket flights," said Brant Sponberg, program manager for NASA's
: Centennial Challenges effort.

: One contest would encourage the development of a reusable
: suborbital rocket that could carry payloads to altitudes high
: enough to yield significant advances in space research. The other
: would be aimed at vertical-launch suborbital rockets that could be
: adapted for future lunar landers.

: "If you can take off and land vertically, and if you reach a
: certain velocity during flight, you are demonstrating the basic
: capabilities and rocket energies necessary to land and launch from
: the moon," Sponberg explained.

: He said the rules for the contests — including the required
: altitudes, payloads and maximum speeds — still have to be worked
: out over the next couple of months. However, he told MSNBC.com that
: the altitude for the research-rocket challenge would likely be in
: the range of 300 to 1,000 kilometers (188 to 625 miles), with
: payloads of "tens to hundreds of kilograms."

: The lunar-lander challenge vehicles, meanwhile, would likely have
: to reach speeds of Mach 6 to Mach 8, he said.

: John Carmack, who makes his money as a video-game developer and
: spends some of it as the leader of Texas-based Armadillo Aerospace,
: said the lunar-lander challenge "certainly sounds like something up
: our alley." Armadillo is developing a vertical-takeoff-and-landing
: rocket capable of bringing passengers to the edge of outer space.

: California-based Masten Space Systems is also working on a vertical-
: launch craft, and Michael Mealling, vice president of business
: development, said Masten was interested in both challenges. "It
: just so happens that the flight plan [for the competitions] matches
: our development cycle exactly," he told MSNBC.com.

: One big unknown relates to the size of the purses offered. Sponberg
: said he hoped the prizes could be set at $1 million or more, but
: that would depend on congressional approval. He noted that the
: legislation governing NASA's funding for the coming year was still
: being considered.

: Peter Diamandis, founder and chairman of the X Prize Foundation,
: said he also was hoping for prizes in the $1 million range, and
: hoped that competitors would go after the prizes during flights
: featured at the annual X Prize Cup competition in New Mexico. He
: told reporters that such collaboration between NASA and the
: emerging field of space entrepreneurs was "so important to the
: future of space exploration and space travel."

: As is usually the case with the Centennial Challenges, NASA would
: put up the prize money, but the X Prize Foundation would be
: responsible for funding the contest operation.

: Diamandis told MSNBC.com that NASA has given the X Prize Foundation
: a contract to study the possibilities for far more ambitious
: prizes, including private-sector orbital flight.

: Attendance was estimated in the range of 7,500 to 10,000 by late
: afternoon — a turnout that pleased the event's organizers.

: California-based XCOR Aerospace demonstrated its rocket-powered
: EZ-Rocket plane, which is to serve as the prototype for the nascent
: Rocket Racing League's first generation of racers.

: Former NASA astronaut Rick Searfoss piloted the EZ-Rocket perfectly
: through an ear-splitting launch, several turns and a gliding
: landing.

: Three hours after the first flight, Searfoss took to the air again
: for a crowd-pleasing encore.

: Between the E-Z Rocket's two outings, Armadillo Aerospace conducted
: a brief but hardly boring launch of a vertical-launch test rocket.
: : The cone-shaped vehicle blasted off with orange flame, then went
: to a height of about 15 or 20 feet, as planned. But when the craft
: eased back down for a landing, it tipped off its landing legs, and
: the rocket tumbled on its side in the dirt.

: Armadillo's Carmack said that the craft went off balance because
: three of its four legs sank into the mud surrounding the intended
: landing pad. The tumble damaged a pressurized hose on the test
: vehicle, killing chances for another try on Sunday.

: The exposition's last event was a test firing of Starchaser
: Industries' Churchill rocket engine. At the end of the countdown,
: orange flames blasted horizontally out of the engine — and then,
: with a muffled boom, the engine itself blew up, setting the
: surrounding grass on fire.

: Wind gusts grounded some of the day's other scheduled activities,
: including launches planned by the Tripoli Rocketry Association. But
: spectators lined up to see a fairground's worth of exhibits
: — including a NASA presentation on its moon-and-Mars vision, a
: mockup of the X Prize-winning SpaceShipOne rocket plane, and
: replicas of future spaceships being developed by Rocketplane, the
: Da Vinci Project, Canadian Arrow, Transformational Space and
: Starchaser.

--
Mark Reiff <markreiff@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

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