Rockets of the future take center stage

Daylong celebration
NASA's announcement served as the kickoff for a daylong celebration of private-sector spaceflight — which the X Prize Foundation intends to turn into an annual rocket extravaganza attracting hundreds of thousands of spectators.

"This is an event that I've been personally dreaming about for years, and it's meant for the public," Diamandis told reporters. Attendance was estimated in the range of 7,500 to 10,000 by late afternoon — a turnout that pleased the event's organizers.

California-based XCOR Aerospace demonstrated its rocket-powered EZ-Rocket plane, which is to serve as the prototype for the nascent Rocket Racing League's first generation of racers. The league plans to conduct head-to-head aerial races at the X Prize Cup starting next year.

Former NASA astronaut Rick Searfoss piloted the EZ-Rocket perfectly through an ear-splitting launch, several turns and a gliding landing. Afterward, Searfoss told MSNBC.com that the flight went completely "as planned" — almost boringly so.

"Boring is good when you're in the cockpit," he said.

Three hours after the first flight, Searfoss took to the air again for a crowd-pleasing encore. Afterward, he told MSNBC.com that the second flight was as boringly smooth as the first, but saw an exciting message behind the day's rocket celebration.

"One of the great things is that we're showing the public that this doesn't have to be a multi-multibillion-dollar project," he said.

Rocket takes a tumble
Between the E-Z Rocket's two outings, Armadillo Aerospace conducted a brief but hardly boring launch of a vertical-launch test rocket. The cone-shaped vehicle blasted off with orange flame, then went to a height of about 15 or 20 feet, as planned. But when the craft eased back down for a landing, it tipped off its landing legs, and the rocket tumbled on its side in the dirt.

"Ohhhhh," the crowd said collectively. Then there was a buzz of laughter and side comments.

"It needs more power," said 11-year-old Ivan Valdez of El Paso, Texas.

Armadillo's Carmack said that the craft went off balance because three of its four legs sank into the mud surrounding the intended landing pad. The tumble damaged a pressurized hose on the test vehicle, killing chances for another try on Sunday.

"I'm disappointed that we didn't get to do the other two flights on that, but at least we got to put something up in the air," Carmack said.

Fiery ‘grand finale’
The exposition's last event was a test firing of Starchaser Industries' Churchill rocket engine. At the end of the countdown, orange flames blasted horizontally out of the engine — and then, with a muffled boom, the engine itself blew up, setting the surrounding grass on fire.

Joan Horvath via X Prize Foundation Starchaser's Churchill rocket engine blew up in its test firing Sunday, setting the surrounding grass on fire.

The crowd was never in danger: Starchaser's rocket firing, like the day's other potentially hazardous events, was staged hundreds of yards away from the viewing area, with fire engines at the ready. Firefighters quickly put out the flames — allowing Steve Bennett, Starchaser's chief executive officer, to joke about the turn of events.

"We wanted to do a grand finale for the X Prize Cup," he told the crowd, "so we thought we'd blow our engine up."

Wind gusts grounded some of the day's other scheduled activities, including launches planned by the Tripoli Rocketry Association. But spectators lined up to see a fairground's worth of exhibits — including a NASA presentation on its moon-and-Mars vision, a mockup of the X Prize-winning SpaceShipOne rocket plane, and replicas of future spaceships being developed by Rocketplane, the Da Vinci Project, Canadian Arrow, Transformational Space and Starchaser.

Diamandis paid high tribute to Sunday's exhibitors: "They're the Wright brothers and the Lindberghs of the 21st century," he said.

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