Final X Prize Cup preparations

I’m heading over to the airport shortly for the X Prize Cup, which begins at the the crack of dawn (almost literally: the event starts at 7 am MDT and sunrise is about 15 minutes later.) In addition to my visit to the fairgrounds to watch the Space Elevator Games qualifying, I also spent some […]

Don’t forget the Space Elevator Games

Besides the Lunar Lander Challenge, another major aspect of the Wirefly x Prize Cup is the Space Elevator Games, in particular the Climber Competition. I got a look at some of the efforts by teams to qualify for the competition Thursday at the county fairgrounds, a few miles west of the airport. (I had initially […]

Armadillo all set?

MSNBC reports that the FAA will make a decision by tomorrow morning on whether Armadillo Aerospace will be allowed to participate in the Lunar Lander Challenge after reviewing data from a test flight Thursday at the airport. The test flight (which, unfortunately, I missed seeing in person) went well, although Armadillo’s Quad vehicle tipped over […]

Simonyi announcement next week

The press release isn’t on the Space Adventures web site, but the company sent out a notice Thursday that the company will be holding a press conference in Seattle next Thursday, the 26th, to formally announce that Charles Simonyi, the former Microsoft executive, will be the next orbital space tourist. According the the release, the […]

Viva Las Cruces

I’m sitting in my hotel room in Las Cruces right now, getting ready for the day’s events. Officially there’s not much on the schedule: there is an “Executive Summit” today in Las Cruces, but the organizers have put a “No Media Allowed” sign on the clubhouse door. (Which is a shame, since the summit agenda […]

Rocket Racing League takes root in Las Cruces

The Rocket Racing League (RRL) won’t have anything flying at the X Prize Cup, but they are getting grounded in a good way in Las Cruces. The company reported that the Las Cruces City Council unanimously approved the sale of 69.34 hectares (171.35 acres) of land near the airport for the company’s headquarters and industrial […]

Ansari in Russia

While Anousheh Ansari is scheduled to be in Las Cruces for the Wirefly X Prize Cup, she first paid a visit to Russia, attending a ceremony in Russia to commemorate her recent flight to the ISS. She said that Russia now held a special place in her heart, alongside Iran and the United States. She […]

Some good news for the Lunar Lander Challenge

It was looking a little bleak there for a while about whether anyone would be able to compete for the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge: Flight International posted a story with the discouraging title “FAA could call halt to NASA lunar lander challenge”, and, more ominously, Leonard David reported that Armadillo Aerospace “ran into snags” […]

Simonyi to fly in April 2007?

According to a Russian news agency former Microsoft executive Charles Simonyi will fly to the ISS next spring. RIA Novosti reports that the next Soyuz mission to the ISS has been delayed from March to April 2007 so that the landing avoids the spring floods on the steppes of Kazakhstan. That mission will include Simonyi, […]

More ISPS coverage

MSNBC’s Alan Boyle checks on the potential profitability of space tourism in his wrapup of the first day of the International Symposium for Personal Spaceflight in Las Cruces, NM. Peter Diamandis says that he doesn’t expect “real profits” for such companies until about 2012, four years after he expects commercial flights to begin. “You didn’t […]