The Wire - rocket races and moon X

Home

News

Home

News

News from Space

rocket races and moon X

| Print |

E-mail

Written by staff
Wednesday, 05 October 2005
>NASCAR in the sky with Diamandis X-Prize co-founder Peter Diamandis recently announced the creation of a new sport: rocket racing. Run by the Rocket Racing League, the sport will feature special rocket planes designed by XCOR Aerospace of Mojave, Calif., which will race around a two-mile-long loop track 5,000 feet in the air. Pilots will be able to determine their exact location on the airy course using detailed GPS information. “The Rocket Racing League will inspire people of all ages to once again look up into the sky to find inspiration and excitement,” said Dr. Diamandis in a recent press release. Portsmouth High School graduate, shuttle commander and X-Prize judge Rick Searfoss will pilot one of the new racers in a demonstration in Las Cruces, N.M., on Oct. 9. >moon X The recently-discovered 10th planet, located far beyond Pluto, is now believed to have a moon, according to a recent AP story. Scientists are still not in agreement that the planet is a planet at all, since it is located so far out in the solar system as to be a part of the distant Kuiper belt of objects. No formal definition exists for what a planet is, and not even the presence of an orbiting body will cinch the deal. In the meantime, the planet has been nicknamed “Xena,” and its moon “Gabrielle.”

< Prev		Next >

dig, dug

After a rough start, the Phoenix Mars Lander is successfully analyzing dirt samples dug up from...

clumping

While the robot arm on the Phoenix Mars Lander has successfully delivered dirt to the lander, at...

scoops and dumps

On June 2, NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft lifted its first scoop of Martian soil as a test of...

greetings from the Martian arctic

On May 25, NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander successfully touched down in the Martian arctic in...

now with a pulsating carbon surface

Hidden right in the familiar Big Dipper, astronomers have discovered a new type of white dwarf...

ATV in space enounters rough patch

No, not an All Terrain Vehicle—an Automated Transfer Vehicle, which was launched by the...

and in this corner; taken too literally

and in this corner

Iran has launched a rocket into space from its own space center...

bright comet

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has probed the bright core of Comet 17P/Holmes, which...

extrasolar system

Astronomers have discovered a fifth planet circling 55 Cancri, a star beyond our solar system,...

the goddess who flew to the moon

On Monday, Nov. 5, China’s Chang’e 1 satellite successfully entered lunar orbit, only...

walking; now with more black holes

walking

Space Shuttle astronauts recently completed installing a new solar power...

massive darkness

news from space

we’ll take two
The National Security Space Office has issued a...

the dark side of Iapetus

the dark side of Iapetus

“The side of Iapetus that faces forward in its...

burst; ion power

burst

A recently detected burst of radio waves has stumped scientists, who have...

hollow Mars

NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft has discovered entrances to seven possible caves on the...

the Victoria era; the inconvenient polar ice

the Victoria era NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has descended into...

crashing in Kazakhstan

A Russian Proton-M rocket carrying a Japanese communications satellite malfunctioned after...

aqua vitae

aqua vitae

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, while observing a young solar...

galactic dominion

As if detailed satellite maps of the Earth weren’t enough, or a virtual globe that you can...

Music
Seacoast CD bestsellers this week introducing The Buoy in Kittery Foreside; Funky Divas of Gospel and Rock My Soul Deerhunter; Hauschka; The Walkmen; Ocean a royal flush

Film
Student Bodies Quantum of Solace 976-EVIL

Boing Boing

NY Times: The Los Angeles of Ry Cooder and Mister Jalopy

Near The Burgess Shale

Homes with Tails: Homeowners providing their own fiber