Rocket Racing League’s Engine Switch Leaves Questions
Space.com
“A growing fleet of rocket-powered racers will fly with a liquid oxygen and alcohol engine developed by Armadillo Aerospace, instead of an XCOR Aerospace design used during the Rocket Racing League’s public debut earlier this summer…
“When we feel the XCOR engines meet our standards of safety, reliability, reusability, and performance for a rocket racer, then we may bring them back into the league,” Rocket Racing League co-founder and CEO Granger Whitelaw told SPACE.com last week.”
Rocket Racing League Completes Successful Flight Test Campaign at Oklahoma Spaceport
Press Release
The Rocket Racing League announces the successful results of the first seven test flights of the Bridenstine DKNY Rocket Racer conducted at the Oklahoma Spaceport (OKSP), a leading facility specializing in horizontal take-off and landing of Reusable Launch Vehicles, in Burns Flat, Oklahoma.
Continue reading ‘Armadillo Wins Nod over XCOR on Engines, DKNY Racer Completes Test Flights’
There are a few new profiles of folks who are pouring millions of dollars they made off software development into space ventures.
Space Racer Takes Off
Forbes.com
A profile of 38-year-old John Carmack, of “Doom” and “Quake” fame, who founded Armadillo Aerospace.
A cheap shot at space - if it ever gets off the ground
The Guardian
An interview with 37-year-old SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who seems undaunted by three successive failure of his Falcon 1 launch vehicle.
For gaming guru Richard Garriott, space trip will be a working vacation
Austin American Statesman
Millionaut Richard Garriott, 46, discusses the scientific experiments and educational projects he will undertake during his 10-day trip to the International Space Station in October.
Going to Space? First Stop: Eight Months of Grueling Training in Russia’s Star City
Wired
This story about Space Adventures’ millionauts focuses largely on Garriott and his backup, Australian-born playboy Nik Halik. An interesting tidbit here: Garriott would have been the first space tourist instead of Dennis Tito if not for the big dot.com bust back in 2000-01. And, oh yes, Garriott is prone to using that endearing California term, “dude,” when crashing a Soyuz landing simulation. Fascinating stuff, really.
RRL PRESS RELEASE
The Rocket Racing League, the new entertainment sports league that combines the exhilaration of racing with the power of rocket engines, today announced that the First Exhibition Race of the Rocket Racing League will take place on August 1st and August 2nd at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI.
In addition to announcing the dates of the First Exhibition Races, the Rocket Racing League also announced the remaining series of exhibition races for the rest of 2008. Armadillo Aerospace will manufacture liquid oxygen (LOX) engines for the league, officials announced.
EAA AirVenture is the largest air show in the world. For the first time ever, two Rocket Racers will compete head-to-head in a demonstration race in the raceway in the sky. The Rocket Racer pilots will view the “raceway in the sky” via in-panel and 3D helmet displays and the 700,000 people in attendance at EAA AirVenture will witness the racing action live on multiple large projection screens.
Continue reading ‘Rockets to Race at Oshkosh in August; Armadillo to Produce LOX Engines for Racers’
Armadillo Aerospace
Armadillo has put together an interesting video gallery of its test flights.
John Carmack provides an update on the company’s work and his candid thoughts about XCOR, Virgin Galactic, Rocketplane Global and other Armadillo competitors in an April 2 blog entry.
Masten Space Systems
The company’s blog has an update on its testing of the XA-0.1 engine with a video.
LunaTrex
Team LunaTrex reports on efforts to fund its entry in the Google Lunar X Prize in a blog post titled, “Creative Funding.”
Space Careers
Jeff Foust examines a potentially booming career path in an article titled, So You Want to be a Rocket Pilot, over at The Space Review. Sure, it sounds exciting, but will it be as boring as flying the San Jose to Burbank shuttle?
Colonization
Ken Murphy has an essay over at Out of the Cradle on how future lunar colonists might make the barren moon bloom with greenhouses.
Jeff Foust takes a look at what one expert calls an emerging “horse race” between companies in the suborbital tourism arena over at The Space Review.
Although Virgin Galactic has gotten much of the attention, XCOR, Rocketplane Global, Armadillo Aerospace, EADS Astrium and other companies are competing to send tourists on the ultimate joy ride. They are all taking somewhat different approaches to this challenge.
“If it is a horse race, who will win the ultimate prize: not just the first vehicle to enter the market, but the one that wins the market in the long run?” Foust writes. “The diversity of technical approaches, from the takeoff and landing techniques to the number of passengers, makes any predictions difficult.”
Rand Simberg has a few comments about Jeff’s article over at Transterrestrial Musings that are worth a look.