Rocket Racing League Intros First Team

Just got out of a press conference in New York where Peter Diamandis and Granger Whitelaw introduced the first team of their Rocket Racing League (RRL), Leading Edge Rocket Racing. Robert "Bobaloo" Rickard and Don "Dagger" Grantham, both F-16 fighter pilots as well as entrepreneurs, founded the team with rocket racing in mind as the next great challenge for fighter pilots, who, Rickard says, will be rendered obsolete by robot vehicles in 10-15 years. That's Rickard in the flight suit shaking hands with RRL CEO Granger Whitelaw as Peter Diamandis, RRL cofounder and X Prize chairman (left) and Grantham look on.

After putting down their initial $100,000 deposit to secure their place as the RRL's charter team, they'll have to come up with $1.1 million more for the X-Racer itself, which is set to debut October 19-22 at this year's X Prize Cup. They'll also have to pay $500,000 in fees for a full race season, the first of which is to launch next year. Those prices make RRL team ownership a bargain compared to auto racing, which can cost a team $18 million a year, says Whitelaw, a former Indycar auto race team owner.

Want to own your own RRL team? Nine more slots are open, and the RRL is taking applications. Apply here:

http://www.rocketracingleague.com/team_form_team.html

The RRL is also looking for race venues. Two are set--the annual Reno Air Races, and the X Prize Cup, but the RRL is looking for four more venues thorughout the country. If you're an airport looking to add some rocket powered excitement to your life, fill out a form here:

http://www.rocketracingleague.com/company_venue.html

Finally, you can get a crack at naming the first of the X-Racers, now called somewhat prosaically the Mark-1 X-Racer. The RRL is taking suggestions for names now, here:

http://www.rocketracingleague.com/contest.html

The ten best names will be selected by a judging panel in June and posted online for fans to vote on, with the winner announced at the X Prize Cup. Winner gets a year's worth of free race passes and some cool gear along with the fame and the glory.

My PopSci editor on CNN today

If you can get near a TV today between 1 and 1:30 pm Eastern Time, tune into CNN Headline News. My features editor at Popular Science, Eric Adams, will be on to talk about the Rocket Racing League. I might be able to upload a clip of it afterwards...probably highly illegal, but what the hell, I'll see how it goes. Will post an update here in any case.

--UPDATE at 2:41 Eastern--
Eric did a great job laying out the concept of the Rocket Racing League in just a couple of minutes--an eternity on TV, but not much time to explain a complex subject. He talked fast, and hit all the main points. He must have practiced. :)

Got a clip of it here (6 megabytes).

Windows Media file, unfortunately for you Mac and Linux folks out there; an MPEG file would have been just too big for my Web host. Anyone wants to host a 27 Meg MPEG file, I have it; just drop me an email (my contact info is at www.michaelbelfiore.com).

NASCAR with Rockets!

The February Popular Science has just hit the stands with my cover story on the Rocket Racing League. The RRL and the folks at XCOR, the RRL's builder, say they're happy with it, which makes me happy.

Lots of great photos by Mike Massee, who shoots for both XCOR and Scaled Composites, as well as some very cool conceptual art by Nick Kaloterakis.

PopSci editor in chief Mark Jannot devotes his editor's letter to the story. Opening line: "Peter Diamandis is a visionary." Indeed.

I'll track XCOR's and the RRL's progress as they build the first of the League's rocket powered race planes, the X-Racer, which is scheduled to debut at this year's X Prize Cup in October. The X-Racer's development is great timing for my book on commercial spaceflight, which I have through this year to write.

The XCOR/RRL story is a perfect example of the entrepreneurial companies I'll cover in the book: small company in the desert building revolutionary machines by hand, a new business founded by the man who made the idea of private spaceflight mainstream, a former space shuttle commander staking his career on the private sector and his faith in it getting him back to space...great stuff.

More details on the book coming up....

"The Entreprenauts"

It's not my title--my next door neighbor gave it to me a couple years back. And it's not original to him. But it's the name of my book on commercial spaceflight. And now I've got a publisher: Smithsonian Books/Harper Collins. Full working title: The Entreprenauts: Visionaries and Daredevils of the New Space Age.

My agent, Linda Loewenthal of the David Black Literary Agency in NYC, cut the deal just before Christmas. It's been more than two years in the making.

Two years ago I approached Linda with a proposal to write a book about the $10 million X Prize. That was before Scaled Composites won the prize with the world's first private manned spaceflights. Before the mainstream took the idea of private spaceflight seriously. And before I had any credibility in this field whatsoever. If you had published some articles on this topic, said Linda, you might have a chance.

Shortly after that, on December 17, 2004, Brian Binnie took Scaled's SpaceShipOne on its first powered flight. Holy shit, I thought, these guys are really going to do this! When Scaled announced the first attempt to reach space in a private manned spaceship, I was ready with a stack of editors to call for an assignment to cover it. I knew that if I could get to Mojave with press credentials doors would open for more assignments and I'd get the cred I needed.

The New York Post gave me my break with a "curtain-raiser" story shortly before the flight. For good measure, I also picked up a magazine story assignment from a local arts and culture mag here in New York's Hudson Valley. It was totally inappropriate for the mag, which covers the local arts scene and politics. The editor just loved the idea of private spaceflight and he couldn't resist it. Surprised himself as well as me, I think.

That first spaceflight was on June 21, 2004, and it changed everything. There I was, proudly wearing a press badge that said "New York Post" on it. One of the other reporters there asked me what my beat was, what I write about. "Commercial spaceflight," I told him without hesitation. "I write about commercial spaceflight." He laughed at me. "Ho, ho, ho. Sure is a lot of that going on!" he cracked.

Now, after turning in my third Popular Science cover story in 12 months on that subject, along with countless reports for Reuters, Wired.com, and more, no one laughs when I tell them what my beat is.

I rewrote my book proposal, now about the rise and probable trajectory of commercial spaceflight and went back to Linda with it. I think it's safe to say she was blown away by what I had accomplished in such a short time. But I think it's more a testament to what a force this industry is becoming than my own abilities. Plenty of other writers could have done the same; it's just that I was one of the few freelancers who took the subject seriously enough to stake a career on it at the right time.

I have a year to write the book. My publisher and editor believe in the industry's inevitable rise toward the stars as much as I do. The same institution that houses such historically important air- and spacecraft as the Wright Flyer, the Spirit of St. Louis, the Apollo 11 Command Module, and SpaceShipOne, now has the first comprehensive book on commercial spaceflight as well. They're targeting summer 2007 for publication.

In my next post I'll give you details on what the book will cover. Don't go away.