Xcor builds private spaceliner

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From the AP newswire:


LOS ANGELES - A California aerospace company plans to enter the space
tourism industry with a two-seat rocket ship capable of suborbital
flights to altitudes more than 37 miles above the Earth.

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The Lynx, about the size of a small private plane, is expected to
begin flying in 2010, according to developer Xcor Aerospace, which
planned to release details of the design at a news conference
Wednesday.

The company also said that, pending the outcome of negotiations, the
Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded it a research contract to
develop and test features of the Lynx. No details were released.

Xcor's announcement comes two months after aerospace designer Burt
Rutan and billionaire Richard Branson unveiled a model of
SpaceShipTwo, which is being built for Branson's Virgin Galactic space
tourism company and may begin test flights this year.

Xcor intends to be a spaceship builder, with another company operating
the Lynx and setting prices.

The Lynx is designed to take off from a runway like a normal plane,
reach a top speed of Mach 2 and an altitude of 200,000 feet, then
descend in a circling glide to a runway landing.

Shaped something like a bulked-up version of the Rutan-designed Long-
EZ homebuilt aircraft, its wings will be located toward the rear of
the fuselage, with vertical winglets at the tips.

Powered by clean-burning, fully reuseable, liquid-fuel engines, the
Lynx is expected to be capable of making several flights a day, Xcor
said.

"We have designed this vehicle to operate much like a commercial
aircraft," Xcor Chief Executive Officer Jeff Greason said in a
statement.

Greason said the Lynx will provide affordable access to space for
individuals and researchers, and future versions will offer improved
capabilities for research and commercial uses.

Xcor has spent nine years developing rocket engines in a facility down
the flightline from Rutan's Scaled Composites LLC at the Mojave
Airport north of Los Angeles. It has built and flown two rocket-
powered aircraft.

SpaceShipTwo is being developed on the success of SpaceShipOne, which
in 2004 became the first privately funded, manned rocket to reach
space, making three flights to altitudes between 62 miles and 69 miles
and winning the $10 million Ansari X Prize.

Powered by a hybrid engine -- the gas nitrous oxide combined with
rubber as a solid fuel -- SpaceShipTwo will be flown by two pilots and
carry up to six passengers who will pay about $200,000 apiece for the
ride.

Like its predecessor, SpaceShipTwo will be taken aloft by a carrier
airplane and then released before firing its rocket engine. Virgin
Galactic says passengers will experience about 4 1/2 minutes of
weightlessness and will be able to unbuckle themselves to float in the
cabin before returning to Earth as an unpowered glider.

Xcor's Lynx also is intended to return as a glider but with the
capability of restarting its engine if needed.