XCOR Begins Lynx Build
Rob Coppinger
Hyperbola Blog
Coppinger has photos of XCOR’s Lynx high-altitude tourism vehicle, now being assembled at the company’s facility in Mojave, Calif.
XCOR Rocket Engine to Continue Flight Testing
Rob Coppinger
Flight Global
XCOR Aerospace is by July to restart flight testing its XR-4K14 1,500lb-thrust (6.67kN) liquid oxygen/kerosene engine and the aircraft it propels, the Rocket Racing League’s X-Racer…The XR-4K14 is the predecessor to Xcor’s single-stage-to-suborbit Lynx vehicle’s 5K18 engine and it will have changes made to its piston driven pump’s drive gas consumption before flight testing resumes.
Dale Hawkins of The Tehachapi News has the latest goings-on at the Mojave Air & Space Port, America’s only licensed civil-use spaceport. Scaled Composites is busy at work on SpaceShipTwo, XCOR is building its Lynx spaceplane, Rocket Propulsion Engineering Corporation is testing - of all things - rockets, and the National Test Pilot School is training new aviators.
The Antelope Valley Press has an interesting piece on financier and space enthusiast Esther Dyson, who is one of the angel investors backing XCOR Aerospace’s Lynx space tourism vehicle.
“This is a very real-world company. It’s not out here making wide-eyed promises,” Dyson told the Press.
Dyson, founder of EDventure Holdings, has investments in Space Adventures, Zero-G Corporation, Constellation Services International, Airship Ventures and Icon Aircraft. She also helped to fund Flickr and del.icio.us, which were both sold to Yahoo!
Dyson is organizing the fourth annual Flight School, which will be held in Boulder Colorado, on June 6-8. The website describes the confab as “an executive workshop for entrepreneurs who want to identify and address major challenges facing start-ups in private aviation and commercial space.”
David Livingston of The Space Show recently interviewed Dyson. You can listen to the podcast here.
Rob Coppinger has posted detailed notes of his interview with XCOR’s chief engineer Dan DeLong on his Hyperbola blog. DeLong discusses the Lynx Mk. 1’s technical details and flight profile. He also provides information about the more powerful Mk. 2 version.
XCOR’s announcement about its Lynx high-altitude vehicle has generated a lot of buzz about how Lynx stacks up with space tourism vehicles being developed by Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and EADS Astrium.
Officials at the Mojave, Calif.-based XCOR say their vehicle will soar to about 200,000 feet (38 miles/61 km) beginning in 2010. Although this is below the 262,500-foot (50 mile/80 km) altitude at which the U.S. Air Force has awarded astronaut wings, the pilot and passenger would still experience about 90 seconds of weightlessness in the small cockpit of the business jet style vehicle.
The company plans to offer flights for about half the cost of Virgin Galactic, which has been selling suborbital tickets for $200,000. XCOR also plans to build a more powerful version of the Lynx that will fly to over 360,000 feet (68 miles/110 km).
Continue reading ‘Lynx vs. Virgin Galactic vs. EADS: How They Stack Up’
XCOR PRESS RELEASE
Los Angeles, March 26, 2008 – A small California aerospace company today unveiled a new suborbital spaceship that will provide affordable front-seat rides to the edge of space for the millions of people who want to buy a ticket.
The company, XCOR Aerospace, of Mojave, CA, announced that its two-seat Lynx suborbital spaceship will carry people or payloads to where they will experience weightlessness and see the stars above and the Earth and its atmosphere below. This will launch XCOR into the emerging space tourism market, estimated at over a half-billion dollars.
The Lynx will offer affordable access to space for individuals, researchers and educators,” said XCOR CEO Jeff Greason. “Future versions of Lynx will offer ever-improving capabilities for scientific and engineering research and commercial applications.
The spaceship, roughly the size of a small private airplane, will first take off in 2010 and will be capable of flying several times each day.
Continue reading ‘XCor Unveils the Lynx; New Vehicle Will Fly to the Edge of Space’