At Space Access ‘09 Armadillo Aerospace’s John Carmack noted that his company’s deal with Rocket Racing for suborbital vehicle development “did not come to fruition”. MSNBC’s Alan Boyle confirms that from the Rocket Racing side: president and CEO Granger Whitelaw said the suborbital vehicle development is “on hold” while the company focuses on its [...]
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At the 2008 Lunar Lander Challenge last October, Rocket Racing and Armadillo Aerospace announced a joint venture to develop vertical takeoff, vertical landing vehicles for suborbital space tourism. However, Armadillo Aerospace founder John Carmark revealed at Space Access ‘09 this morning that this deal—at least, as announced in October—has fallen through. Carmack said [...] The city of Las Cruces and the Rocket Racing League have salvaged a lease agreement for property the league is developing at the New Mexico city’s airport. The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that the city council approved an alternative lease agreement Monday that requires the RRL to prepay its leases in the next 45 days [...] As Armadillo was trying to win Level 1 of the LLC, this press release about a joint venture between Armadillo Aerospace, Rocket Racing Inc., and the state of New Mexico to develop VTVL space tourism vehicles hit the wires: ROCKET RACING INC., ARMADILLO AEROSPACE AND NEW MEXICO CREATE JOINT VENTURE TO LAUNCH PRIVATE SUBORBITAL SPACE TRANSPORTATION [...] In an article in this week’s issue of The Space Review, I look at the status of the Rocket Racing League (RRL), which was formally introduced to the public three years ago this month. The RRL took a big step forward about two and a half months ago, with its first public flights of [...] While in Oshkosh last weekend I experimented with some video of the Rocket Racer flights and other activities. Below is one short sample: the XCOR-powered Rocket Racer taking off on Saturday, August 2: Rocket Racer takeoff at Oshkosh from Jeff Foust on Vimeo. I’ll add some more video as time (and video quality) permits. I was at the EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin on Friday and saw the Rocket Racing League’s first vehicle fly during an afternoon performance. I have a collection of images from the day, including both the flight and some items at their exhibit, including the second racer (which, RRL officials said, will begin [...] On Friday morning the Rocket Racing League held a press conference by telecon to discuss the company and their plans to exhibit and fly at EAA AirVenture this week in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. RRL president and CEO Granger Whitelaw provided a basic overview about the company and its plans going forward. While exhibition flights [...] When Rocket Racing League’s Granger Whitelaw announced last Friday that their prototype X-Racer had performed three test flights the day before in Mojave, he declined to show any photos or video of the flights, and provided few technical details about the tests. There’s still no information about the tests on the RRL’s web site, [...] I’m in the media building at Holloman AFB, having gotten out of a press conference a little while ago about the X Prize Cup and related announcements. A few highlights: Rocketplane Global, as expected, unveiled its new design for the XP suborbital spaceplane. The company is no longer using Learjet hardware for the vehicle, [...] |
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