The New Space Race

Ludo-Hum Along
Music: I've become interested in Alot of Alternative Bands lately, namely The Killers who's video you see above. Other bands that have recently captured my interest are: Atreyu, Ludo, and My Chemical Romance, much of which play music I havent really been into until now. I reccomend anyone to these bands, especially if your into Emo and Heavy Rock.

Space News:SpaceX says its first low-cost Falcon rocket has been set up on the launch pad at California's Vandenburg Air Force Base in preparation for putting the TacSat-1 military communications satellite into orbit.

"We will be doing a hold-down test firing in December (pending range availability), and our first launch is slated for late January 2005," Dianne Molina, marketing manager at SpaceX, reported in an e-mail. "Vandenberg will be closing down from Thanksgiving through mid-January, so the last week of January is the earliest we can get in there to launch."

On another topic, I was curious whether SpaceX founder Elon Musk was interested in pursuing the $50 million orbital spaceflight prize announced last week by hotel magnate Robert Bigelow. "According to Elon, we are waiting to see the final details of the prize before making a decision," Molina said.

Meanwhile ..
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SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan is hoping to go to the moon in 10 years, according to a report from last weekend's Space Frontier Conference passed along by Armadillo Aerospace's John Carr. "He is not known for making wild statements," Carr wrote in an e-mail. "I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets the support from the industry to do it!"
Armadillo's latest video about its own rocket program was reportedly a hit at the conference, and is now posted on the Armadillo home page.
An Associated Press story about the private-spaceflight legislation bottled up in Congress says efforts to hammer out a more palatable compromise will continue next week, with the aim of getting something passed during next month's lame-duck session.

For more about SpaceX, SpaceShipOne, Armadillo and all the other usual suspects, click on over to Clark Lindsey's RLV News. And for more on space politics, check out Jeff Foust's aptly named Space Politics blog.