FYI,

"Rockets to Roar at Air and Space Expo"
SPACE.com
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20070920/sc_space/rocketstoroaratairands
paceexpo;_ylt=AsDpW3zsRTv3JbjDShqKWQEE1vAI

: This year's Wirefly X Prize Cup is shaping up to become a unique
: rocket festival that salutes forward-looking technology, space
: exploration and education, while showcasing a contest between
: private sector lunar lander vehicle designs.

: The Wirefly X PRIZE CUP '07 Holloman Air and Space Expo is being
: held October 27-28, staged at the Holloman Air Force Base in the
: city of Alamogordo, New Mexico.

: "It'll be a cool show," said Bretton Alexander, Executive Director
: of Space Prizes and the Wirefly X Prize Cup in Washington, D.C.
: "There won't be as much down time, if you will, that there has been
: in the past. It will be far more dynamic," he said, noting that the
: event will involve more performances, presentations and displays
: than ever before.

: In the past two years, X Prize Cup activities were held in Las
: Cruces, New Mexico. This year's larger venue covers some 30 acres
: with ground displays featuring spaceships, U.S. Air Force aircraft,
: robots and rovers, along with Jumbotrons to enable those attending
: to keep an eye on all the action.

: Personal spaceflight: next major milestone

: In many ways, the annual Wirefly X Prize Cup provides a status
: check on the blossoming variety of private space travel ventures.
: As example, prior to the expo, the Third International Symposium
: for Personal Spaceflight will take place October 24-25 at the New
: Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in neighboring Las Cruces,
: New Mexico.

: "The personal spaceflight industry is alive and well. We continue
: to have significant and growing private investment," said Peter
: Diamandis, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the X Prize
: Foundation, headquartered in Santa Monica, California.

: The personal spaceflight industry now embraces numbers of new
: systems in development, Diamandis told SPACE.com, from the
: passenger-carrying SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceliner now being
: built, the prototype Bigelow Aerospace expandable modules now in
: Earth orbit, to the Falcon 9 rocket and reusable, crew-carrying
: Dragon orbital capsule of Space Exploration Technologies
: Corporation.

: Diamandis said that the next major milestone is the routine
: commercial operations of these new systems leading up to the first
: successful Initial Public Offering, or IPO.

: "Once one of these commercial space companies conducts a vibrant
: IPO I think we'll have what I've been calling a 'Netscape event'
: where in investors will stand up and take notice and capital will
: begin to flow into the pre-IPO space companies," Diamandis
: predicted.

: Free event

: The Wirefly X Prize Cup and Holloman Air and Space Expo will be a
: free event, Alexander said, with ground and static display areas
: spotlighting private, industrial, as well as NASA hardware. Seven
: hours each day consists of live rocket competitions, launches, and
: air show performances, he said.

: "We are going to be displaying our Nova rocket this year, in
: collaboration with Doña Ana Community College (DACC), a branch of
: New Mexico State University," said Steve Bennett, head of
: Starchaser Industries. The Nova/Starchaser 4 is a single-seater
: rocket is some 37 feet (11 meters) tall – sure to be an eye-catcher
: at the expo.

: The UK-based Starchaser Industries Limited is currently working on
: larger versions of this rocket that will be used for space tourism
: purposes. Furthermore, the company's New Mexico development at
: Starchaser Rocket City is progressing well. A twenty thousand
: gallon water storage facility will be installed close by, which
: will allow the construction of Starchaser's 10,000 square foot
: rocket manufacturing and assembly building.

: On October 26, thousands of students from schools from across the
: United States will attend the Wirefly X Prize Cup education day at
: Holloman Air Force Base for rocket launches, astronaut sessions,
: career panels, and competitions, Alexander said.

: Another student-outreach initiative is the Pete Conrad Spirit of
: Innovation Award, asking high school-aged students to develop a
: new, innovative concept to benefit the personal spaceflight
: industry within the next 50 years. The award is named after Conrad,
: the late astronaut who flew Gemini and Skylab missions, and
: commanded the Apollo 12 landing on the Moon.

: Prizes on the line

: A major expo attraction will be the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander
: Challenge. The event involves rocket teams vying for $2 million in
: prize money, flying their respective lunar lander ships through the
: sky to touchdowns on simulated lunar surface landscape – under time
: constraints.

: NASA, which signed a Space Act Agreement with the X Prize
: Foundation before last year's competition will once again fund the
: prizes through the space agency's Centennial Challenges program
: – an effort that promotes technical innovation through prize
: competitions.

: This year's Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge is shaping up
: well, said William Pomerantz, Director of Space Projects for the
: X Prize Foundation in Washington, D.C. Rocketeers will demonstrate
: the ups and downs of carrying out simulated lunar lander flights
: with the $2 million in prizes on the line, he said.

: "All told, our teams have spent about 35,000 man-hours, almost all
: of them volunteered, working on this challenge thus far," Pomerantz
: added. "And what a great investment for NASA...they've gotten
: 35,000 man-hours and countless innovations and solutions, and
: haven't spent a single dollar thus far," he emphasized.

: Sensory overload

: Major emphasis is being placed on safe flight of rocket-powered
: craft taking part in the Northrop Lunar Lander Challenge, said
: Lt. Col. Angelo Eiland, 49th Fighter Wing Deputy Director of Staff
: at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.

: On tap is an integration of rules from the Federal Aviation
: Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation, the
: National Transportation Safety Board, X Prize, as well as Holloman
: safety regulations that govern operations on the base, Eiland
: noted.

: Rocket teams taking part in the Challenge that do not fully meet
: the necessary free-flight requirements prior to the Air and Space
: Expo may be required to do tethered launches, Eiland said.

: "The opportunity to partner with X Prize helps round out the
: picture of telling the air and space revolutions that have taken
: place over the last 50 and 60 years," Eiland told SPACE.com. Given
: the melding of top aviation and private space innovation, he added
: that the upcoming two-day Holloman Air and Space Expo could see an
: audience of 100,000 people flooding through base gates.

: The schedule of events is tightly packed, alternating between space
: and rocket activities to aircraft takeoffs, flyovers, and landings.
: Slated for public viewing are mission-ready F-117A Stealth
: Fighters, for example, and the F22-Raptor.

: "I think it's going to present sensory overload," Eiland
: explained. "The biggest challenge that I see, logistically, is just
: giving people a break so they can use the restroom or have a meal."

: For detailed information and updates regarding the 2007 Wirefly X
: Prize Cup, go to the Internet web site:
: http://space.xprize.org/x-prize-cup

Mark Reiff