The new web site for the upcoming X Prize Cup is now online, a few days (or few weeks) later than planned. The site has information about what events are planned for the two days of the event (October 20-21), as well as travel information for those who plan to attend and webcast information for those who can’t. A few items of note:
- They plan on starting early: 7am MDT both days, “to take advantage of optimal weather conditions.” Of course, at 7am of last year’s event there was a thunderstorm passing through Las Cruces…
- There’s no information listed on the site about other ancillary events before or after the competition, like the Personal Spaceflight Symposium held at New Mexico State Univ. or the education day at the New Mexico Museum of Space, both held in the days before last year’s event. (The first day of this year’s cup, though, will be a “Field Trip to Space” for up to 5,000 students.)
- As noted by Robin at the Lunar Lander Challenge blog, the site claims that there will be “Three teams planning to compete for NASA’s two million dollar Lunar Lander Challenge and Vertical Rocket Challenge prizes”. Armadillo Aerospace and Masten Space Systems are known to be two of the three; who’s the third?
- While the site mentions that the Rocket Racing League’s Mark-1 X-Racer will be at the event, it doesn’t appear right now that it will make any flights: it doesn’t show up on the current schedule. RRL officials told MSNBC that a decision not to fly the vehicle at the Cup “had to do with business strategy rather than technological concerns”.
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