Friday, October 05, 2007

X PRIZE Cup Details from Space.com

Space.com gives a lot of details on what you can expect to see at this year's X PRIZE Cup. I've mentioned a lot of it before (especially the LLC and student prizes, rocket racing league presence, and Air Force air show), but here are some more things you can expect to see:

On the sightseeing manifest for expo visitors are displays and exhibits by key, leading-edge enterprises, such as Rocketplane Kistler, XCOR Aerospace and Starchaser, alongside Northrop Grumman and NASA.

Space advocacy groups such as the National Space Society, the Space Frontier Foundation's Teachers in Space initiative and the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space are to be on-hand. So too are several space-oriented museums and institutes, including the Robotics Society of America and experts from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy.

At the expo, those taking part will be treated to a full-scale replica of SpaceShipOne – the pioneering vessel that was the first private piloted spacecraft to exceed an altitude of 328,000 feet twice within a 14-day period in 2004, claiming the $10 million dollar Ansari X Prize purse.

Moon and Mars rovers and landers are to be featured. Mock-up hardware related to NASA's post-space shuttle Constellation program are to be on hand too.

... Sure to attract a cue of onlookers is the engineering model of the Dragon spacecraft

There's more, so find out by checking the article.