One New Zealander is really looking forward to taking a suborbital flight on Virgin Galactic. How much? The New Zealand newspaper The Press reports that he recently changed his name to “Mark Rocket”. Seriously. (Mr. Rocket would not disclose his previous name.) He is apparently one of Virgin Galactic’s “Founders”, the elite group of 100 that will get the first rides on SpaceShipTwo. As part of his status, he attended the ISDC in Los Angeles earlier this month with a number of other Founders, and also got a look at the development of SS2 at Scaled Composites. “I guess I’m just a real space nut,” he admitted. You don’t say.

Rocketplane Kistler announced late last week that it has teamed up with Alenia Spazio North America to work on cargo containers that could be used on commercial ISS resupply missions. (The Rocketplane press release about the agreement is not on either the Rocketplane or Kistler Aerospace; free registration is required to read the article in The Oklahoman about the deal.) The agreement covers the development of pressurized cargo containers, and not passenger modules, that would be used for commercial ISS flights as part of the NASA COTS effort.

The state of Michigan isn’t pursuing a spaceport, unlike next-door neaighbor Wisconsin (which may or may not be serious about a spaceport), but an editorial Friday in the Bay City Times suggests that the state should take the idea seriously. Why? Jobs and money, of course: “Don’t just think out of the box in trying to save, rebuild or reshape the state’s economy. Think out of this world.” (The editorial cites an economic impact report for the New Mexico spaceport, which in the interests of full disclosure I should note was performed for the state by my employer.) The Times even has scouted out a location for the facility: “an enormous, old bomber base with humongous runways up in Oscoda”, on the shores of Lake Huron. Beyond this editorial, however, there’s no sign the state is considering the idea of a spaceport.