Mastin & XCOR to develop unmanned landers

Mastin's Xombie performs during second leg of last October's Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

CSM/Space.com

Two California companies, one a rocket engine builder and the other a mock moon lander champion, have teamed up to develop new private unmanned vehicles that NASA could send to the moon, Mars and asteroids.

The companies are XCOR Aerospace, specializing in rocket engines, and Masten Space Systems — which won a $1 million NASA contest to build and fly robotic vehicles on simulated hops on the moon. The two companies hope to combine their areas of expertise in anticipation of NASA-sponsored unmanned lander projects, according a joint announcement this week.

"It seems like NASA may actually be interested in a commercial approach to landers," Michael Mealling, of Masten Space Systems, told SPACE.com Tuesday.

Read the article HERE.

Greason: It's time to base U.S. space policy on the "truth"

Robert Block
The Write Stuff
The Orlando Sentinel

"Jeff Greason is a founder of XCOR Aerospace company, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, and one of the most outspoken members of the White House’s Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee. He has said that the committee work took up about 90 hours a week since it was created last May to take hard look at NASA’s human exploration plans. He spoke to Sentinel Space Editor Robert Block by telephone from New Mexico shortly after the committee report was released in Washington on Thursday."

Here is an excerpt of the interview:

Jeff Greason fitted for a Space Suit

Sneak Peak: XCOR CEO Jeff Greason performs a suit fit check in an
engineering mockup of the Lynx pressure cabin.

An Interview with Jeff Greason after he donned the latest version of the Orbital Outfitters pressure suit.

Q: Some call the suit a space suit, but you prefer the term “pressure suit.” Why?

At the altitude the Lynx will fly, where there is no atmospheric pressure, you need more than just an oxygen supply to stay alive. You need a pressure suit. There are many arguments about what a space suit is, some say that the term space suit only applies to those suits you would use for extra-vehicular activity, others call anything you wear in space a space suit. I prefer to avoid all those arguments and just call what we use pressure suits.

Q: Why did you personally wear the suit?

There are two reasons why I wore the suit as we checked out the Lynx cockpit. First, I am unusually tall when I am sitting down. My torso is in the 95 percentile. So that makes me a good model for height. On the other hand, our Chief Test Pilot, (former NASA Astronaut and retired USAF Col. Rick Searfoss), has unusually long legs. So between us, we span a very wide range of people that the cockpit has to fit.

The second reason I wore the suit is that I didn’t spend so many years of my life building this vehicle to find out just before first flight that I didn’t fit in it.

Read Interview HERE.
XCOR Newsletter

Mojave: Where the Old Frontier Meets the Space Frontier

By Mark Madler

San Fernando Valley Business Journal

"It’s where civilians learn to fly at the National Test Pilot School and where the WhiteKnightTwo makes its test flights in anticipation of the day it takes paying customers of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo into space.

“What you get in Mojave is a group of dreamers who take their destiny into their own hands,” observed Rick Tumlinson, founder of Orbital Outfitters, a North Hollywood firm developing and making spacesuits for the NewSpace market.

"The airport is comparable in size to LAX and has runways long enough to handle the passenger jets flown in for temporary storage or put up on blocks and stripped for their parts. More than 40 businesses call it home, some mundane as a car rental agency or UPS facility.

"In the aerospace arena, rocket developers and aircraft storage and maintenance are found alongside advanced avionics companies and compositors who can turn materials into aircraft wings or windmill blades. Global defense contractors BAE Systems Inc. and Northrop Grumman share the airport with fledgling startups funded by savings accounts and credit cards."

Read the Article HERE.

Tuskegee Airman Breaks New Barriers – In Space

Col. Ralph Smith, president of the Western Region of the Tuskegee Airmen, left, and Le Roy Gillead. - Doug Graham Wall St. Journal

By Andy Pasztor

LOS ANGELES – Four months shy of his 90th birthday, Le Roy Gillead is about to become an improbable player in the latest space race.

XCOR Aerospace, a startup based in Mojave, Ca., is offering Mr, Gillead, a World War II aviator who was a member of the fabled Tuskegee Airmen, a free trip to briefly experience the thrill of zero gravity. XCOR made the announcement that Mr. Gillead would be among its first passengers during a ceremony Saturday honoring the Tuskegee group of pioneering African American aviators.

Read the story HERE.

Hyperbola: Altair Ascent CH4 fueled?

In an informative posting Rob Coppinger at Flight Hyperbola, after hearing NASA engineers discussing the possibility Altair, the eventual Constellation lunar lander, might end up designed as a single-stage vehicle, is now asking if the Ascent Stage (illustrated above) may be fueled by liquid methane (CH4).

If so, will XCOR Aerospace get the contract?

XCOR Test-Fires proposed Lynx Engine

MOJAVE - PRNewswire XCOR announced Monday it successfully completed a first test fire of the rocket engine that is planned for use as power the Lynx suborbital launch vehicle to the edge of space.

The new engine, designated the 5K18, produces between 2500-2900 lbf thrust burning a mixture of liquid oxygen and kerosene. The engine was fired Monday at XCOR's test facility located at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. 

The first test of the engine was performed using pressure-fed propellants whereas the final version of the engine will be fed using XCOR's proprietary cryogenic piston pump for liquid oxygen and a similar piston pump for kerosene.

"Today's successful hot fire marks an important step forward in building the Lynx," said XCOR CEO Jeff Greason. "The 5K18 builds on our previous experience in designing and building reliable, durable and fully reusable rocket engines from 15 lbf thrust up to 7500 lbf, that will make it possible to provide affordable access to space."

Read more HERE.

XCOR Announces Ticket Sales for Suborbit

XCOR is heavily promoting a press announcement of its partnering with another company to sale tickets for suborbital flights. Never a company to mince words, touting itself as "builder of the 2-seat Lynx rocket powered suborbital vehicle," so far appearing only in YouTube videos, the company calls their planned news conference in Beverly Hills, "a display of the power of competition."

"American entrepreneurs have broken the government monopoly on space travel, and succeeded in lowering the cost of space access before a single paying participant has taken a flight," the announcement reads. "Even if the overall economy may look down, the market for space tourism is looking up.

"On Tuesday, December 2, XCOR Aerospace is introducing its General Sales Agent for ticket sales and will announce a price that is substantially lower than prices quoted by leading competitors."

XCOR says it "will introduce its new partner, a well-known and established travel entrepreneur with extensive experience in high-end adventure travel, who will outline the total Lynx flight experience, from initial screening, to training, and finally, the flight itself."

Read more HERE.

XCOR unveils suborbital LYNX

Mike Massee/XCOR

Mojave – 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.

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

“Lynx will be the ‘Greatest Ride Off Earth,’” said XCOR test pilot, former pilot astronaut and Space Shuttle commander, Col. Rick Searfoss (USAF-Ret.).

“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.”

XCOR has nine years’ experience developing reliable, reusable and non-toxic rocket propulsion systems and has already built and flown two different rocket-powered vehicles. The firm designed, built and flew a rocket propulsion system on its record-setting EZ-Rocket aircraft. The XCOR team then developed a more powerful engine with an advanced pump-fed fuel system for a larger aircraft now being flight-tested for a commercial customer.

“The Lynx builds on our track record in rocket-powered vehicles,” Greason said. “By addressing profitable near-term markets, the Lynx will strengthen the financial and technical foundation for increasingly capable future spaceships for suborbital and orbital markets.”

“XCOR’s mission is to radically lower the cost of spaceflight, because affordable access to space for everyone means far more than breathtaking views and the freedom of weightlessness,” said Greason. “It means unlocking the material and energy resources and economic opportunities of our solar system for our children.”
Click here to view an animation of the Lynx.

XCOR Aerospace is a California corporation located in Mojave, California. The company is in the business of developing and producing safe, reliable and reusable rocket engines, rocket propulsion systems, and rocket powered vehicles.

Jeff Foust - Personal Spaceflight

XCOR Press Release - March 26

XCOR has an announcement coming

Space Ventures, the official Blog of the Space Angels Network, reports XCOR Aerospace has an announcement coming this Wednesday...

A press release:

A Press Conference will be held Wednesday, March 26th at 10 am PDT at:

The Beverly Hilton
9876 Wilshire Boulevard
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Ph. 310 274 7777

PRESS CONTACT:
Doug Graham
Media Relations
XCOR Aerospace
Office: 661-824-4714 ext. 138
Cell: 661-742-7514
dgraham@xcor.com

"I'll be in LA next week," Space Ventures reports, "so I'll likely attend. I know what the announcement will be, but I'm under a non-disclosure. I think that people interested in alt space will find it a significant milestone. I'm sure that it will be discussed extensively at Space Access at the end of the week as well."