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Spaceracing became popular towards the end of the century once the economy had recovered sufficiently from the war effort for private ownership of spacecraft to be possible. The first race held was sponsored by the Confederation of Shipbuilders with a view to stimulating public demand for such craft. The entrants were teams representing most of the important manufacturers and the ships themselves were all prototypes of potential production models. The race was intended as a showcase for all the makers but as the market at the time was extremely limited the spirit of competition was fierce.
The course was designed to show off the performance of the ships in both space and atmospheric conditions and ran from Miami Spaceport, round the moon and back to Earth. Public holovid screens were set up in centres all round the World and Mars and the whole course was covered by camera ships. The race was rather unspectacular in comparison with later ones as the ships were all built to production specifications, but after the Austerity it was a welcome relief and generated a great deal of excitement.

The winner was the Keeble-Springer Dart, which as a result was one of the four craft to go into production.
In subsequent years the nature of the races gradually changed as personalities and privately entered craft became more significant than the manufacturers' teams. Increasingly the craft became more competitive, and machines built specifically as racers began to dominate the field. The famous exception to this trend was the AveryFrost Orion which, although basically a production craft, in racing trim was a consistent winner for a number of years.
Without doubt one of the most popular private craft even today, the Orion was designed by René Lenain of R. Frost Engineering and produced by Avery Astronautics in the old North African Yards.

The main difference between the racing and production versions was in the method of propulsion, the former being fitted with a liquid bipropellent system using oxygen and hydrogen to generate about 240,000 lbs thrust. Range was drastically cut in favour of maximum speed, and this configuration was obviously unsuitable for private use as the operating costs were prohibitively high. A purchaser of an Orion had a wide range of thrustpack options to choose from, the most popular being the dual system specified here, which represented a good compromise between performance and range.
The racing scene is now mainly the preserve of specialist concerns and private teams and few of the purposebuilt craft are suitable for general production. There are, however, many smaller club events where the Orion is still a common and successful entry.