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ANSARI X PRIZE Space Race News!

 
Space Transport Corporation: Display Success at The Museum of Flight
On Sunday and Monday of Father’s Day weekend, Space Transport Corporation
displayed their Rubicon Ansari X PRIZE vehicle in Seattle at The Museum of Flight. At
the event, the 22-foot tall Rubicon, complete with orange nosecone, guidance system and
seven-engine rocket cluster (unfueled), was mounted in the guide rails of STC’s mobile
launch trailer.

On Monday, of course, Scaled Composites (Burt Rutan, Paul Allen and crew) achieved
the first private manned space flight. STC hails this as a wonderful achievement and an
event that shines a good light on all private space programs. It was a step for Scaled
towards winning the X Prize. However, Scaled will not be able to attempt an X Prize
winning flight for over two months. STC believes that a great opportunity still exists to
give Scaled a run for their money. Scaled will need to carry an additional 400 pounds of
payload to win the prize (this could cause them to come up short of the required 100
kilometers). Activity by other X Prize teams is also picking up to make for a lot of fun
and public awareness about private space travel. There is room for many companies to
succeed in private spaceware development, especially space tourism vehicles.
Based on the fact that an enormous market (a prize much bigger than the $10 M X Prize)
is waiting, STC is optimistic about raising funds needed to run its manned spaceflight
development program. The latest proud STC sponsor is the Forks Coffee House in
downtown Forks.

While at The Museum of Flight, media exposure of STC’s efforts, sparked by Scaled’s
test flight, was great. The exposure is a powerful demonstration to potential
sponsors/investors that STC is a serious space technology developer. Selected news
coverage videos will be (or are already) posted to www.space-transport.com/?stc=gallery.

STC expects to launch Rubicon to 15,000 feet on its maiden flight in mid-July from a
location on the Olympic Peninsula near Forks. Keep an eye on the latest updates at
www.space-transport.com.
STC has launched multiple three-stage rockets in the past two months, one reaching 50
kilometers. This pilot project has been valuable preparation for Rubicon flights. A flight
with photograph recovery is expected soon.

posted by Sigurd @ 6/24/2004 12:43:00 PM