Virgin Galactic put out a press release last week along with this video about the successful conclusion of the first round of rocket motor tests for its SpaceShipTwo passenger ship, being built by Scaled Composites.

Not too many technical details here, so I did some digging to find out more. Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn referred my queries to Mark Sirangelo, manager at engine contractor Sierra Nevada Corporation. Sirangelo gave me just a few more tidbits before passing me on to Scaled Composites president Doug Shane, who told me simply, "Sorry, but we’re not able to provide any further information at this time."

Scaled kept mum throughout the development of SpaceShipOne, the first privately built ship to send an astronaut out of the atmosphere, and its managers want to do the same here. The involvement of Virgin Galactic in this project has pushed the door open a little further, but only to a point.

"These were the first full scale live fire of this version of motor system and fuel," Sirangelo told me in an email exchange. The tests began last December and concluded last month, he said.

"The primary goals were to obtain actual information regarding motor and fuel performance from the research conducted over the past year regarding the search for the optimal combination of subsystems, fuel choice and overall motor design." In other words, the tests allowed the team to nail down the design choices they had made on paper and get the data they needed for tweaks before the next phase of testing.

"I can't commit on the next round of tests at this point," said Siranangelo.

It seems likely that the next round of tests will ramp up to full-duration burns; when I asked Sirangelo whether that had been accomplished during the recent tests, he mutely referred me to videos showing a burn of about 20 seconds. SpaceShipTwo's motor will need to fire for several times that duration to send its paying passengers into space.

"There has been a tremendous amount of work completed on the entire program," Sirangelo told me, "and we all can see the first revenue flight in the not to distant future. It is amazing when one steps back to realize what we are doing and to see the dream many of us had turn into reality. We are thrilled to be part of making space history."

My book about the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, now not only has a cover, but a finalized table of contents as well.

Full title: The Department of Mad Scientists: How DARPA Is Remaking Our World, from the Internet to Artificial Limbs

Publisher: Smithsonian Books/HarperCollins

Publication date: October 20, 2009

Table of Contents:

Introduction
How I came to write the book and why DARPA may just be the most important government agency most people have never heard of.

Chapter 1: An Arm and a Leg
DARPA's quest to build a prosthetic arm as functional as a native one, and why cutting-edge military hardware development doesn't have to break the national budget.

Chapter 2: A Special Projects Agency
DARPA's origins in the Cold War as America's first space agency.

Chapter 3: The Intergalactic Computer Network
How DARPA funding launched the Internet and interactive computing, and how its current experiments in information technology could change your life.

Chapter 4: The Robot Will See You Now
DARPA helped set the standard in today's surgical robots. Now for the next step: autonomous surgical suites that bring the hospital to trauma patients, instead of the other way around.

Chapter 5: Back Seat Drivers
Ten days in the desert with the self-driving cars that will redefine the great American obsession.

Chapter 6: Crazy-Ass Things
DARPA's longest-serving director and his quest to bring back the exuberance that marked the agency's early days.

Chapter 7: The Final Frontier
How DARPA is getting back into the space access business after ceding its original mission to NASA.

Chapter 8: Power to the People
Super-efficient solar cells, jet fuel made from vegetable oil, and DARPA's mission to remove energy as a source of world conflict.

My DARPA book now has a cover. Thanks to Harry LeBlanc for suggesting a variation of the subtitle. Now it's off to copyediting and fact checking, and we're on schedule for October's publication date.

My second daughter, Jade Star, was born Saturday, 3/28/09, at 4:19
a.m. She was 6 pounds, 11 ounces.

She made a dramatic entrance; Wendy and I only barely made it to the
hospital in time after a very short labor. Jade was in Wendy's arms
within 10 minutes of our hitting the door.

Both Wendy and Jade are in perfect health. I'll bring them home this
morning, after taking our 3-year-old, Amelie, to daycare.

Popular Mechanics made my roundup of spacefaring nations and their current capabilities the top story on popularmechanics.com today.

With the Space Shuttle set to retire next year, the Russians getting increasingly focused on manned commercial spaceflight, and ambitious government space programs ramping up around the world, we're definately heading into a new era.

Popular Mechanics has made my first published piece for them the lead story today on popularmechanics.com.

The story explores possible ways to get to space on the cheap--really cheap--like 20 bucks for a trip to suborbital space.

I also provided initial research help on last month's cover story, the one with the shuttle-derived ship taking off in the screenshot.

I have more Web stories for PM in progress and a spread in next month's magazine. Stay tuned!

Today I launched some upgrades on my website to reflect a new focus for my work: high-tech copywriting.

I've been engaged in marketing and public relations writing in one form or another since 1995, when I became a freelance technical writer for companies like Northwest Airlines and Target. I moved next into public relations writing, still with an emphasis on technology.

When SpaceShipOne left the planet in 2004 with the first commercial astronaut on board, I jumped at the opportunity to cover the story and others like it as a freelance journalist for media outlets like Reuters, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, New Scientist, Financial Times, and many others. Along the way, I've written two books on advanced technology development for HarperCollins.

At the same time, I kept my hand in PR writing through the partnership I run with my wife, fellow writer Wendy Kagan.

Now I'm combining the two threads of my work as a writer by offering copywriting services to organizations engaged in advanced technology development.

This is an exciting direction for me. It means I get to get to spend more time with some of the most exciting business ventures on (and off!) the planet. At the same time I won't always be tied to the dictates of magazine and news publishing.

Visit the new Copywriting Services page on my website, or read the free white paper I've just posted about Selling Breakthrough Technology to learn more.