Xcor Blasts into Space Tourism

Xcor Aerospace hopes to enter the not-yet-born space tourism industry with the Lynx, a two-seater vehicle capable of 37-mile high suborbital flights.

Xcor Aerospace has announced it plant to enter the not-yet-born space tourism industry with the Lynx, a small, two-seater vehicle that will be capable of 37-mile high suborbital flights. The Lynx is roughly the size of a small private plane and will be capable of several flights a day; Xcor says the first takeoff should happen in 2010.

“We have designed this vehicle to operate much like a commercial aircraft,” said Xcor CEO Jeff Greason in an statement. “Its liquid fuel engines will provide the enhanced safety, durability, reliability, and maintainability that keep operating costs low. These engines will also minimize the impact of these flights on the environment. They are fully reusable, burn cleanly, and release fewer particulates than solid fuel or hybrid rocket motors.”

Xcor also says that it’s in negotiations for a an R&D contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory.

The Lynx is designed to take off and land on a runway like a normal plan—and, it might be noted, like the original vision for NASA’s Space Shuttle back in the 1970s. The vehicle will be able to reach altitudes of 200,000 feet and a top speed of Mach 2; the vehicle will then glide to a landing on a normal runway.

Xcor says the Lynx will provide “affordable” access to space for researchers and individuals. “Lynx will be the ‘Greatest Ride Off Earth,’” said retired USAF Col. Rick Searfoss, XCOR test pilot and former pilot astronaut and Space Shuttle commander, in a statement. “The acceleration, the weightlessness, and the view will provide you with an experience that is out of this world. And the best part of it all is that you’ll ride right up front, like a co-pilot, instead of in back, like cargo.”

The Lynx marks the second effort to spark a space tourism industry: aerospace designer Burt Rutan and Richard Branson recently unveiled a design for SpaceShipTwo, intended to kick-start Branson’s Virgin Galactic space tourism venture. SpaceShipTwo may begin test flights later this year.