“Our two greatest problems are gravity and paperwork,” Wernher von Braun is credited as saying. “We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.” That’s a sentiment likely shared by some of the companies hoping to compete in the Lunar Lander Challenge late this week at the Wirefly X Prize Cup. While some companies are dealing with technical challenges, some are mired in the paperwork required to get an FAA/AST experimental permit.

As New Scientist reports, none of the four teams originally planning to compete in this year’s competition has received an AST permit. Two of the registrants, Acuity Technologies and Masten Space Systems, decided not to compete this year because of technical concerns: throttle valve problems for Masten and unspecified “rocket motor” issues with Acuity. Armadillo Aerospace and Micro-Space are still in the running, if their vehicles are ready and approved by AST.

Red Herring also looks at the paperwork issue. X Prize officials told the magazine that only Armadillo to actually compete, but that’s predicated on receiving a permit; John Carmack said he was not interested in paying for a tethered, non-prize flight if he didn’t get a permit. Richard Speck of Micro-Space said he hopes to get a permit at the last minute, saying that he has “a pretty good vehicle and a good chance” to win if he does get the permit.

Speck is also profiled in his local newspaper, the Denver Post, today; the article includes images of his Crusader LL vehicle. He said that if he doesn’t get a permit he will display the vehicle at the Cup, but not fly it, tethered or otherwise. X Prize spokesman Ian Murphy: “I would say right now the two front-runners to win money this year would be Armadillo Aerospace and Micro-Space.” Of course, they’re the only ones planning to compete—if they can lick the paperwork.

In an article in this week’s issue of The Space Review, Rocky Persaud reexamines the idea of “space sports” discussed last week in a Taylor Dinerman article. Persaud believes that zero-gravity sports (like the “Zero Gravity Football” his company, IPX Entertainment, is trying to develop) could spur public interest in spaceflight and space tourism. It’s in the interest of space sports promoters to encourage orbital space tourism in the long run, if for nothing else to have an in-person audience for their events: “Two teams facing off in zero gravity will be much more exciting to a television audience if they can hear the cheers and shouts of the people floating courtside. It might even make good marketing sense to make sure the arena is full by subsidizing or giving away those seats to the rich and famous who can pay for their own launch into orbit.”

Also in The Space Review this week, I interview Jim Benson about his decision to leave SpaceDev and create a new company, Benson Space Company. The genesis of Benson Space Company goes back to SpaceDev’s planning for the COTS competition, as an alternative means of bringing in private money to SpaceDev (through revenue rather than stock sales); Benson decided to proceed even though SpaceDev didn’t win a COTS award. I asked Benson how he would set his company apart from the various other ventures that are planning suborbital commercial spaceflight services in the next several years, and he believes that he can get the Dream Chaser into service before his competitors complete their vehicles: “I truly believe that Benson Space will be the first to market because we have absolutely the most elegant solution,” he said. “May the best company win.”

On Tuesday and Wednesday New Mexico State University will host the second International Symposium for Personal Spaceflight (ISPS) in Las Cruces. The local newspaper, the Sun-News, offers a preview of the event, with conference organizers trying to drum up interest in the event from the local community. “There are going to be some amazing people at the symposium and you can meet and hear their ideas about the challenges and opportunities for commercial space flight,” said ISPS co-chairperson Patricia Hynes.

The conference agenda is online and, from the looks of it, the event does offer a broad perspective of the emerging space tourism industry. Some of the panels do look overloaded, though: one panel, “Panel With The Entrepreneurs”, features nine panelists in a session lasting less than 90 minutes. (”There will be a limited amount of time for questions from the audience,” the agenda advises, perhaps unnecessarily.) the second day features a number of astronaut panels, including one titled simply “Ask the Astronauts Your Questions”, with six astronauts scheduled to participate.

David Bowie, it seems, has no desire to be a real-life Major Tom. According to a report from the entertainment news service bangshowbiz.biz, Bowie has said rumors that he has signed up to fly on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo are “total tosh”. (We’re not completely sure what “total tosh” means, but it doesn’t sound too favorable.) Bowie: “This must be Branson going for some cheap PR.” Bowie joins good company: both William Shatner and Sigourney Weaver have denied reports in recent months that they are also Virgin Galactic customers (although both are said to have “been invited to make the journey into orbit” in the article, nevermind that Virgin Galactic is initially a suborbital service.) Of course, the same report says that passengers must “earn to endure G-forces of up to 300mph”…