Rocket Racing League

ABOUT:

ROCKET RACING LEAGUE

The Company

Rocket Racing, Inc. is an aerospace entertainment company. The Rocket Racing League®, owned and run by Rocket Racing, Inc., is a governing body which was established to host rocket-powered airplane and spaceship racing events that combine speed, technology, heroes and competition. This company draws from and builds on key elements from other successful business models such as IRL, Champ Car World Series, Formula One, and NASCAR.

The Rocket Racing League® is launching an entirely new breed of rocket-powered airborne race vehicles that lift spectator perceptions of excitement, awe, thrill and danger to entirely new levels. It is also focused on stimulating rapid world advances in safe, low-cost, reliable transportation to and from space. The time is upon us when the technology to create such advanced vehicle designs is within reach.

The Rocket Racing League® and its strategic partners are leveraging the success of the Ansari X PRIZE competition, the victory of Burt Rutan's SpaceshipOne vehicle and the purse payout of $10 million to Inc. to inspire a new wave of innovation to come forth as rapidly as possible.

Rocket Racing is founded and chaired by aerospace entrepreneurial visionary and X PRIZE founder Peter H. Diamandis, M.D. and presided over by entrepreneur, venture capitalist and two-time Indy 500 team winner, Granger B. Whitelaw.

The Vision

Instead of racing high performance cars around a ground track, the Rocket Racing League®'s three-dimensional track will host manned, rocket-powered airplanes racing on a three-dimensional track which reaches into the sky. Initially, the track is planned to extend one mile vertically, two miles down-track and one-half mile in the cross-plane direction. Virtual race tracks are displayed to both spectators and pilots. They are governed by a series of GPS designated waypoints which shape the closed circuit track. Spectators experience the close-in roar of rocket power as clusters of aircraft compete for the purse.

Later, the race zone is planned to contain a more expansive volume of airspace stretching to sub-orbital altitudes, and may ultimately evolve into a track that extends beyond that, anticipating a future where the race begins with a fleet of sponsor-branded spaceships on a spaceport tarmac in the New Mexico desert. The race extends through the atmosphere into low earth orbit, circles the Earth one or more times, executes a high-speed re-entry and ultimately returns to the spaceport tarmac to the applause and awe of tens, if not hundreds, of millions of spectators worldwide.

Getting Started

The Rocket Racing League® will exist as the primary race support and hosting element of the X PRIZE Cup. The first full-scale pathfinder Mark-1 X-Racer will be flown at this year's Countdown to the X PRIZE Cup on October 9, 2005 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The first race is planned for October 2006 at the official inaugural X PRIZE Cup.

The Rocket Racing League® has initiated the design and development phase for the first fleet of rocket powered racing vehicles, denoted the Mark-1 X-Racer. Initially, the Rocket Racing League® plans to roll out a fleet of four Mark I X-Racers at the 2006 X PRIZE Cup. This fleet is planned to be piloted by celebrated, high-profile pilots. In anticipation of the 2007 X Cup, the Rocket Racing League® plans to evolve the Mark I X-Racer into a fully custom high performance state-of-the-art Mark II ship, designed with the specific intent of close-in, high-speed, rocket powered racing. Thereafter, race teams are expected to begin developing their own designs with enhanced capabilities for the race events, following, building upon, and taking to an entirely new level the successful models of the auto race industry.

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