The El Camino Real was once the road that the Spanish took from Mexico City to their distant settlement in New Mexico. It stretched across 1,600 miles of land they barely understood, the rough country of the Old West. Before that, the land was inhabited by the White Rock People, who long ago built Sky City to rise above invaders, and established the region as a people and a territory made one with the Stars.

Today, a Space Trail runs through the center of New Mexico. On June 18, rocket racers kicked off the Spaceport America Cup to stretch the old King’s Highway higher still, to pierce through the obstacles of pioneering the near-Heaven and establish those first settlements and sky cities of an Interstellar Real.

Journey To the “Interstellar Real”

Expected to grow by 800% in the next decade, to a 1.8 trillion dollar industry, the World Economic Forum estimates, commercial Space promises a commercial road with opportunity and protection of far away sovereignties, much like the paths that ran through the State of old.

Tiny Rockets, Limitless Dreams

Collegiate rocketeers will race small-scale rockets. While they are miniatures compared to the scale of the grandiose SpaceX innovations familiar to the general public, these rockets pack a punch. For example, the Austin Community College competitor “Moonshot” has a launch reach of 10,000 feet, a figure it was proud to share with star-eyed elementary school visitors.

Participating universities crafted the majority of their rocket components in house, using available materials and making use of the somewhat limited space of university laboratories. For commercial Space, this is no problem. Miniaturized rockets and Spacecraft, such as cubesats, have become highly attractive components of an industry that is looking to economize, making the production and replenishment of craft and payloads accessible in a competitive market.

For the behemoth of SpaceX, resources to build skyscrapers that launch into Heaven is made to look much cheaper and simpler than it is. For the Every Rocket Man, however, the application of fiberglass and 3-D printed components makes that pioneering endeavor to the Interstellar Real more feasible from a pocket book perspective.  

A Week of Competition To Come

Registration and presentation took place on June 18, with different competing teams photographed, and offering Q&A to spectators about the unique components that make their rockets marketable. For some it was the application of a payload with real-time 3D printers and resin material that can make rocket modifications on the fly. For others, it was crafted with checks and balances and built in “braking” parachute systems that made pivoting rocket flight a more manageable possibility.

The real test begins on June 19, when teams must show in real-time what their craft can accomplish. Sponsors from elite seats in Space origin, such as Space X’s famed competitor Blue Origin, Relativity Space, and Spaceport’s anchor tenant Virgin Galactic, will be looking on, ready to judge not only the craft in question, but the next generation of engineers to take the sum of human dreams into Orbit.