Posted on 12/06/2005 8:47:16 PM PST by KevinDavis
MOJAVE - Peter Diamandis, founder of the Ansari X Prize, has a new venture he hopes will spur interest in space technology - a rocket plane racing league.
Diamandis, who created the $10 million Ansari X Prize awarded last year to the SpaceShipOne team for the first private manned spaceflights, said his new Rocket Racing League will join together entertainment with the pursuit of space technology.
"We are taking NASCAR into the space age," Diamandis said.
Plans call for holding the first race next fall in New Mexico at the X Prize Cup, a space expo event Diamandis is starting up. From there, the league envisions a series of races each year with semifinals being held at the Reno Air Races in Nevada followed by the finals at the X Prize Cup.
Diamandis said there is a possibility of one of the race venues being Mojave.
Pilots of the rocket planes planned for the competitions will have the ability to shut down and restart engines during flight. It is expected that each plane will have about four minutes of rocket engine burn time and eight minutes of glide time.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailynews.com ...
Sounds...ummmm....exciting.
Ping...
Rocket plane racing is *just about* as interesting to me as those TV shows where tatted and sleeveless ex-cons build ridiculous vehicles.
They developed a rocket racing being?
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