>Curious if you have any opinions regarding the possible future of rocket racing.

I think Ed's rocket racing plan is a great idea. I had several comments on it way back in the Space Policy archives, mostly involving changing the "race" event to a "vertical drag race", which has a lot of logistical benefits. This seems to have been picked up as the baseline event.

I think that racing will happen naturally as soon as there are two rocket powered vehicles. The analogy I made (which wasn't popular with the audience, but I still think it correct) is with monster trucks. The first one was built for the hell of it, and did various demonstrations. The next one was built to copy the success of the first, and as soon as you have two of anything, they naturally race. We will positively be flying manned vehicles this year, so there is a reasonable chance we will be involved in some event, although it isn't a focus for us.

John Carmack