X Prize Update 

OK, almost certainly the coolest piece of news I didn't get to blog during my absence was Thursday's announcement that Canada's da Vinci Project X Prize team will be launching their spacecraft October 2 in a prize attempt flight. The launch will be just 3 days after the scheduled first prize attempt launch of Scaled Composite's SpaceShipOne, meaning that, if both are successful, either could still win the prize based on turnaround speed. After the first launch, teams have 2 weeks to make their second flight, but the pressure is now on to make a second launch much more quickly, turning this into a true race. Exciting times, indeed.
Spicing the contest up even more was the Washington-state-based test of the Rubicon 1 rocket, which exploded Sunday, during a test.
Addendum: Cosmic Log has dome interesting commentary.
Addendum: Scaled is apparently planning a October 4 second flight of SS1, which would almost certainly claim the prize, unless Wild Fire can fly twice in 2 days.

:: :: 10:15 :: David :: [permalink] ::