Prepping for the X Prize Cup

Greetings from Las Cruces, New Mexico!

The X Prize Cup goes down at the airport here on Sunday, and I'm snapping photos and writing about it for the Popular Science website. Also gathering story ideas for future issues.

XCOR Aerospace's Rich Pournelle invited me to join the XCOR crew on the tarmac today for prep work on their EZ Rocket.



This rocket powered airplane will be flown at the Cup by former shuttle astronaut Rick Searfoss. Since it's the only manned vehicle to be flown at what will become an annual air show for spaceships, it's pretty much the main event as far as I'm concerned.

So it was a no-brainer for me to blow off a press conference held at the same time and take Pournelle up on his invitation. So glad I did, too, because I got to see Searfoss do a practice flight.



I also got to stop by the hanger where John Carmack's Aramadillo Aerospace crew was prepping their vehicle.



Armadillo's vehicle is a 10-foot-tall technology demonstrator for their planned one-man suborbital spaceship, which Carmack says could launch as early as next year.



Very cool stuff, and though I don't know yet what happened at the press conference, I'm sure I had a lot more fun than my colleagues who went to that.

I'm walking something of a fine line here with my blog, since I'm committed to blogging the XP Cup for PopSci.com, and I don't want to scoop my own story.

However, I have a pretty good idea of what my editors at PopSci want, and I think I can reserve that stuff for them and only cover the stuff they don't want here. For instance today's prep work--it'll be old news by the time PopSci posts my stuff for them on Monday, at the earliest.

After I got the PopSci assignment, was planning not to blog here at all, just to play it safe, but XCOR's Dan DeLong told me today that he told the XCOR folks left back home in Mojave to keep an eye on my blog for news from the Cup. I don't want to disappoint! And I don't think anyone else will be blogging from the Cup, so it looks like it's up to me.

Stay tuned!

Rocket Racing League

I wasn't able to get to the press conference after all--too much prep to do before heading to the X Prize Cup on Wednesday. But two of my editors from Popular Science went to the annoucement of Peter Diamandis' latest venture, and I've gotten the scoop from one of them.

Diamandis is starting a rocket racing league, like the Indy Racing League (IRL). The first event will be held next September. Teams will race rocket planes based on the XCOR EZ Rocket design. Races will be held around the U.S., and then the top teams will face off at the Reno Air Races.

Initially XCOR will build 10 rocket racers. My editor tells me that these babies will cost $1 million each, so that will be a nice boost to XCOR's finances. I'll find out more when I see the XCOR folks at the XP Cup.

These rocket racers will not leave the atmosphere. In fact the EZ Rocket's ceiling is 10,000 feet, according to Aleta Jackson at XCOR. Eric says that the rockets can only burn for up to four minutes, though they can start and mid-flght. Once they burn through their fuel, they'll taxi in for a quick, auto-race-style servicing, during which they they'll be refueled.

The significance of this as I see it isn't whether or not these planes will reach space, but that the races will further the technologies needed for safe, routine spaceline operations.

Engines that can start and restart mid-flight, vehicles that can be quickly refueld, not to mention be reused, and are safe enough to operate around crowds--all of this will help the emerging commercial spaceflight industry.

MSNBC's Alan Boyle filed this report after the press conference.

The Rocket Racing League launched its Web site today.

Doom Rocket Man Preps for Liftoff

That's the title of my latest story for Wired.com on the upcoming X Prize Cup. It'll run as the top story through the weekend.

In it I mention that X Prize chairman Peter Diamandis is launching a new venture on Monday. I've managed to uncover its name: Rocket Racing Inc.

In this photo from XCOR, you can clearly see the spiffy new Rocket Racing logo. That's an actress in the cockpit of the EZ Rocket, filming a promo that will be released at a press conference Diamandis is holding on Monday in NYC to announce the new venture.

I'll be there, and I'll report on it here immediately afterwards. Stay tuned!

da Vinci Project still racing to space

Just got off the phone with Brian Feeney, head of the GoldenPalace.com Space Program Powered by the da Vinci Project (say that 10 times real fast).

This is an all-volunteer effort out of Toronto to launch Feeney into suborbital space aboard a space capsule and booster rocket combo from the bottom of a high altitude balloon.

For a while last year it looked like Feeney might be Rutan's only competition for the X Prize, with a license from the Canadian government to launch on October 2, just two days before what turned out to be Rutan's final X Prize winning flight. It was not to be, but Feeney got himself a lot of press that way because everyone loves a good race story.

Brian tells me he and two other members of his team will be at the X Prize Cup this October 6-9 in Las Cruces, New Mexico, along with the actual space capsule "in tow," not a mockup. He also pointed out that the da Vinci Project web site has been completely redesigned, and updated with information about the group's orbital space plans.

Feeney and the da Vinci Project were part of discussions earlier this year to help form the New Mexico Spaceport Authority now being formed. More on that exciting project in a later post. Stay tuned...

Carmack says he might reach space next year

Last night I spoke with John Carmack, head of former X Prize contender Armadillo Aerospace. He's also the programming genius behind best selling games by ID Software such as Doom and Quake. He and his crew will be at the X Prize Cup this October 9, flying a ten-foot tall remote controlled rocket. The machine is a demonstrator for a one-person suborbital spaceship the group is building right now. Carmack tells me he may go for an unmanned test flight before the end of this year, with subsequently higher and faster unmanned flights through next year, leading up to a manned flight by the end of 2006.

The manned ship will carry only one person. On its first manned flight will be Armadillo's Russell Blink. Blink won't so much fly the ship as hang on tight for the ride; the gimbal-steered craft will need machine-fast reflexes to guide it, so it'll be mostly computer controlled. Blink will hold a dead man switch which, if released, will trigger the abort mode, a powered landing. It will also have parachutes for an emergency landing in case the rocket motor fails.

The ship will take off and land on its tail like the science fiction rockets of old. After reentry, instead of deploying parachutes or gliding down on wings, it will fire up its rocket engine again. This is the flight profile of the McDonnell Douglas DC-X, or Delta Clipper, which was a test vehicle for a planned single stage to orbit craft.

Carmack tells me he always envisioned a one-person craft, rather than the 3-place ship required to win the Ansari X Prize. Now that Scaled Composites has won the X Prize, Carmack says he's free to revert back to his original plans. He likes much better the idea of flying lots of one-man missions, rather than fewer multi-person missions. He'll entertain offers to pay for rides on his vehicle, and he's planning to pursue government contracts for his company. "We're really on the cusp of having significant capabilities here," he told me last night.

My PopSci cover story now on the Web

My October cover story for Popular Science on t/Space is now up on PopSci.com. Full text and all images from the print version. Enjoy!

Also I've just landed an assignment to blog from the X Prize Cup for PopSci.com. It's an exclusive they have, so I won't be blogging the event here. I'll post a link here when the time comes, though.

Just received a digital SLR camera and I now have two weeks to learn how to use it. Also starting an online photojournalism course. First assignment: photograph the X Prize Cup. Oh, and, incidentally, have the photos posted to the Popular Science Web site. I guess there aren't many beginning photojournalists who get to jump in feet-first like that!

Ex-shuttle pilot to fly rocket plane at X Prize Cup

I'm gathering info in advance of some articles for Wired News on the upcoming X Prize Cup in Las Cruces, New Mexico October 6-9. This is the first annual space expo put together by X Prize founder Peter Diamandis. The idea is that in future years it will be the Indie 500 of spaceships, with head-to-head competition between rocket builders and pilots to see who can fly the highest and fastest and the greatest number of passengers to orbit.

This year it looks like only one vehicle will be piloted, a rocket-powered Long-EZ airplane developed by XCOR Aerospace and dubbed the EZ Rocket. At the controls will be Rick Searfoss, who was chief judge for the X Prize. He's also an accomplished test pilot and a veteran of three space shuttle missions, one of which, STS-90 in 1998, he commanded.

Searfoss tells me the new commercial space industry is where the action is. Retiring NASA astronauts, he told me just now on the phone, generally have two choices--either to go work for big aerospace companies, or to "descend into management" at NASA. Neither option appealed to him; he wanted to fly in space again, and he feels XCOR gives him a good shot at it.

Flying the EZ Rocket gives a good taste of what's to come; XCOR is planning a suborbital space plane that will take off from a runway under rocket power. Should be a good show on Sunday, October 9. Searfoss is due to blast off at 1:30 and 4:30 p.m.