Free Republic

Officials announced Tuesday a British company engaged in the international race to build commercial space vehicles will open a New Mexico office. Starchaster Industries, a contender for the $10 million Anasari X Prize, plans an office in Las Cruces, said Rick Homans, New Mexico's economic development secretary. Launches in New Mexico could begin as early as 2006.

Who'll be first with star ship Private Enterprise? JIM GILCHRIST We’ve put people on the moon and hundreds more into orbit. Yet more than 40 years after Yuri Gagarin’s momentous first circuit of the globe, space travel remains the prerogative of government agencies - Russian, American and, shortly, Chinese - which no longer rate manned space missions high on their priorities. Contrary to the interplanetary pioneering spirit and back-room boffinry which informed much early science fiction, private enterprise, so far, has failed to put a man into space. Granted, there have been two "space tourists", Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth,...

WHO: Independent rocket builder Starchaser Industries LtdWHAT: The unveiling their new "NOVA" rocket capsuleWHERE: STRONG ENTERPRISES 11236 SATELLITE BLVD. ORLANDO, FLWHEN: MONDAY July 14, 2003. Please arrive 10am sharp for the 10.30am unveiling. Weighing in at 440 lb and measuring 10 feet in length, the single seater Nova II capsule is being fitted with a bespoke parachute system prior to shipment to Arizona. The manned capsule will then be dropped from a C-123K transport aircraft at an altitude of 14,000 feet over the Red Lake Drop Zone, in order to practice landing the reusable craft.

X Prize contender Starchaser Industries of the United Kingdom is to carry out manned drop tests of its three-seater capsule over the Arizona desert in July. The Nova mark 2 drop tests are slated to take place high above a Red Lake, Arizona drop zone between July 21 - 25, according to the rocket organization. The main purpose of the tests is to verify the capsule's parachute, navigation and landing systems. The capsule will be dropped at a height of 14,000 feet from a C-123K transport aircraft. The group is pressing forward on its Project Thunderbird - a low cost...