CATS Prize team plans space launch

["David Anderman" <davida@xxxxxxx>]

Los Angeles CA
{May 20}  -- HISTORIC SPACE FLIGHT ATTEMPT SCHEDULED FOR MAY 22

The first space launch of a rocket system designed without government
assistance is scheduled for May 22 1999 from the Black Rock desert in
Nevada. The launch to be conducted by JP Aerospace, a Sacramento area
company, is a test flight for a cash prize offered by the Space Frontier
Foundation and the Foundation for the International Non-Governmental
Development of Space, two international organizations that promote the rapid
human settlement and development of space. The Foundation's Cheap Access to
Space prize has attracted dozens of teams across the world to gear up to win
the $250,000 prize by November 8, 2000.

JP Aerospace plans to launch its rocket to a height of 100 kilometers, a
step towards future rockets designed to attain the 200 kilometer altitude
required to win the CATS Prize.  Although they expect  failures in the
effort to win the prize, the organizers are confident that it can be won by
the deadline and that the project will help change people's thinking about
who can play in the space arena.

Says Foundation President Rick N. Tumlinson, "From the golden age of
exploration to Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic prizes have inspired
imaginations and helped knock down barriers".  He
continues, "The CATS Prize is designed to inspire future Henry Fords and
Thomas Edisons of space and to send a signal that anyone can participate in
the opening of the frontier, not just governments."

The Space Frontier Foundation is a not-for-profit space policy and media
organization that has been changing how we think about and open the space
frontier. The Foundation's goal is the near term and irreversible expansion
of the human race into space and the permanent settlement of the high
frontier.

JP Aerospace can be contacted at 530-757-1808. For information on the
Foundation, call 1-800-78SPACE or visit our WEB Site at:
<http://www.space-frontier.org>.

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