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.

I’m in the media building at Holloman AFB, having gotten out of a press conference a little while ago about the X Prize Cup and related announcements. A few highlights:

Rocketplane Global, as expected, unveiled its new design for the XP suborbital spaceplane. The company is no longer using Learjet hardware for the vehicle, deciding instead to use a new design that is superficially similar in shape to the old one (with the exception that the V-tail has been replaced with a T-tail, and with more windows in the fuselage), but able to accommodate five passengers plus a pilot. They’re using a different jet engine, the J-85, but the same AR-36 rocket engine under development by Polaris Propulsion. The vehicle also features new landing gear similar to that used by the F-5 fighter. The interior will be designed by Frank Nuovo, a designer who has worked with clients ranging from Nokia to BMW.

While the new XP cabin is bigger, Rocketplane vice president and test pilot John Herrington said that the passengers, at least initially, won’t be allowed to float around the cabin once in weightlessness. His concern is that people will become disoriented trying to move around and could injure themselves and others. Down the road, it may be possible to remove a couple seats and allow the rear two passengers to float, he said.

Rocketplane officials, including Herrington and program maanger Dave Faulker, said that they believe they will be able to raise the money needed to develop the vehicle by the end of the year. They did not, though, disclose how much money they’re looking for. Current schedules call for flight tests to begin in 2010; AR-36 engine tests are scheduled to begin in the near future.

Rocket Racing League officials did announce three new teams, bringing the total number of teams to six. CEO Granger Whitelaw also confirmed rumors that their prototype X-Racer flew three times yesterday in Mojave, although he declined to offer many technical details regarding the flights, including their length and the turnaround time between flights. Whitelaw said that “exhibition” flights would begin at air shows in spring 2008, with actual competitive flights slated to begin in 2008-2009, depending on when they secure a TV contract and other sponsorships.

Teachers in Space announced that it wll soon start collecting applications by teachers for suborbital spaceflights. There will be two competitions: one for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) teachers, and one for K-12 teachers in general; both will have to submit either lesson plans or proposed experiments they would perform during their flights. (In an interesting twist, all the lesson plans submitted by will be posted online in an wiki.) The project has no application deadlines right now. The effort has commitments from five companies (Armadillo, Masten Space Systems, PlanetSpace, Rocketplane Global, and XCOR) to carry flights; Ed Wright’s company, the US Rocket Academy, has purchased a number of flights from XCOR Aerospace that is in the “double digits”.

The X Prize Cup gets started today with an education/media day at Holloman AFB that’s not open to the general public; the full event (open to the public and with free admission) is Saturday and Sunday. There’s a press conference scheduled for late this morning with several announcements planned:

• An unspecified announcement by the Teachers in Space project;
• An announcement by Rocketplane Global (the suborbital arm of Rocketplane Inc.) and Launch Magazine; this is expected to be the unveiling of the new Rocketplane XP design that is a move away from the modified-Learjet design the company had been pursuing in favor of something that is bigger and/or more affordable;
• An announcement by the Rocket Racing League. The league did announce this morning that three new teams had joined the league (one of which is led by former da Vinci Project founder Brian Feeney), but the expectation is that the announcement will be something bigger. RRL CEO Granger Whitelaw was a no-show during a panel session he was supposed to be a part of Thursday afternoon at ISPS; his replacement, another RRL official, said that Whitelaw was “off seeing his rocket fly”. There have been rumors that the cup might feature a video feed of an X-Racer test flight in Mojave; we’ll see…

Like with the ISPS, as time and technology permit I’ll post updates here and on Twitter during the day.

One of the other events that took place during the day Friday was a press conference where the Rocket Racing League (RRL) unveiled its first X-Racer rocketplane and its name, Thunderhawk. The event got some star power with guest appearances by Buzz Aldrin and Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico:

(Richardson is the second from the left, between Peter Diamandis and RRL’s Granger Whitelaw.) After the announcement, Richardson was asked about how he felt about the RRL, which is setting up shop in New Mexico . To say he was effusive with praise is a minor understatement. “What’s most exciting is the Rocket Racing League,” he said. “You’re going to see, come next year, that Rocket Racing League is going to be as popular as NASCAR.” That’s a little difficult to believe, given both the breadth and depth of interest in NASCAR in the US, but hyperbole comes part and parcel with such events.

Asked if he’d like to take a flight on any rocketplane or suborbital vehicle, he responded, “Yeah, eventually, sure I will. I gotta lose a little weight first.”

The Rocket Racing League (RRL) won’t have anything flying at the X Prize Cup, but they are getting grounded in a good way in Las Cruces. The company reported that the Las Cruces City Council unanimously approved the sale of 69.34 hectares (171.35 acres) of land near the airport for the company’s headquarters and industrial park. RRL plans to break ground for a 4,640-square-meter (50,000-square-foot) headquarters by November 2007, and will provide land for “industries that support the League”. RRL will also have 10 hangars at the airport and a smaller R&D facility on the New Mexico State University campus.

Also, on Friday during the X Prize Cup the RRL will announce the name for the first X-Racer, the result of a competition run by the league.

The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that the city council will consider a proposal Monday to sell nearly 170 acres (68 hectares) of land near the city’s airport to the Rocket Racing League for $2.3 million. The RRL would also get right of first refusal on an additional 175 acres by the airport as well. The league plans to use the land for the “RRL Industrial Park”, which it calls a “world-class destination for businesses and tourists” and “a sought-after destination for visitors from around the world.”