Lost in all the developments surrounding the X Prize Cup was a report that Lockheed Martin would invest $45 million towards the development of a spaceport in Nova Scotia for PlanetSpace. Well, so much for that. The Globe and Mail reported a day later that Canadian officials had quashed any such investment plans, which were tied to the Canadian government’s purchase of Lockheed-built C-130 cargo planes. “There have been no discussions between Industry Minister Prentice or any member of his staff regarding Lockheed Martin investing $45-million of its own money in the so-called PlanetSpace space-tourism project in Cape Breton. Nor will there be any such discussions,” a spokesman for Canada’s industry minister told the paper. Apparently government officials flinched at investing anything linked to space tourism: “Space tourism will be left to tourists.”

When Rocket Racing League’s Granger Whitelaw announced last Friday that their prototype X-Racer had performed three test flights the day before in Mojave, he declined to show any photos or video of the flights, and provided few technical details about the tests. There’s still no information about the tests on the RRL’s web site, but there is now an independently-produced video available by Ben Brockert. In an email earlier this week Brockert said he filmed the tests standing outside of airport property, “so that I’d be free to share the video on my terms.” That distance means that the video doesn’t show a lot of details, although you can clearly see the X-Racer make a few short hops off the runway.