Countdown to X-Prize: Redux

In preparation for next years X-Prize competition, where actual space launches will be demonstrated, this years X-Prize event will offer flight demonstrations and previews of future Spacecraft. But don't get your hopes up about seeing SpaceShipTwo from Scaled Composites.
According to a story on SpaceDaily.com:


It will take at least a year to prepare for actual launches, so as a debut program, organizers at the X Prize Foundation are putting together a five-day event called "Countdown to the X Prize Cup," to be held in Los Cruces, N.M., from Oct. 4-9.
"We're not going to launch anything in 2005," X Prize Foundation spokesman Ian Murphy told UPI's Space Race 2, "but there will be flight demonstrations."
Exactly which, if any, X Prize contenders plan to participate is not yet known, but a spokeswoman with Rutan's firm, Scaled Composites in Mojave, Calif., told Space Race 2 they were planning to take a pass.
Read the entire story here.

It still sounds like a real blast, with or without Rutan and his Amazing Machine. Five days of Space talk, examples of future Spacecraft designs and orbital station plans; expect everything but the kitchen sink from International Space Station; if it's Space related I anticipate it will be on display this October.
Who knows, in a couple years NASA mission specialists may have to sell their homes and move to Los Cruces if they intend to stay in the Space Industry.