Jon Goff has a long, but interesting description of Masten activities at last weekend’s X-Prize Cup. And rocket geeks may want to chime in the comments section with John Carmack about the theoretical and practical Isp of the Masten engines.

Jon’s post reminds me that I forgot to mention this past weekend the tragic news that he notes about Ed Wright’s company, which lost five personnel in the crash of a camera chase plane. My condolences to him and his coworkers. It’s ironic, of course, because while we may expect to lose people in the development of new vehicles, an accident like that is always completely unexpected, and a shock.

One thing that strikes me is the behind-the-scenes look at the confusion of the operations people on the field, which was also apparent (but less so) from the press tent. Hopefully, they’ll get better at this in future years, and be able to offer a better show.

Another is the continued and heart-warming camaraderie of the industry, with cooperation and well wishes between all the players. A sign of maturation may be when they start to feel more competitive, because there are real businesses going, with real fortunes to be won or lost.