Masten Space Systems Latest X-Prize Cup Sponsor

Are you ready for the upcoming X-Prize Cup event? (Oct. 9, Las Cruces, New Mexico)

Masten Space Systems sure is! They have become the most recent sponsor of this year's X-Prize.
Like many other X-Prize contenders Masten is dedicated to reducing the cost of sub-orbital trips to the "bake sale range." Which means rather than buying a brownie in the cafeteria you could ride a rocket to Low Earth Orbit and watch the sun rise over the horizon of the planet.
Ok, maybe not that cheap, but not tens of millions of dollars either. Someplace at the halfway mark.
The cool thing about the ships currently being developed at Masten (besides their cost) is that they all land vertically (on their tails) "much like the rocket ships in early sci-fi stories."
There is an abundance of research available of Vertical Take-Off and Landing Spaceships, in fact Russia's Klipper is based on the Delta Clipper designed for NASA a decade ago but long since abandoned for cost reasons. The point is, the system works just fine and looks pretty neat, too.


Organizers anticipate "tens of thousands" of spectators in Las Cruces this year, but it still remains to be seen if there is enough actual public interest to keep the event annual. I would like to think people are practically jumping out of their shoes with anticipation (As I am) but we won't know until it gets here.

With support from companies like Masten, success is much more likely, even if it's not yet fully assured. Of course when it comes to Space exploration, nothing is a sure thing except an occasional failure.