XCOR Aerospace, Scaled Composites featured in article
Airport tenants make Newsweek
XCOR Aerospace, Scaled Composites featured in article
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Tuesday, September
30, 2003.
By ALLISON GATLIN
Valley Press Staff Writer
MOJAVE - In the not-so-distant past, Mojave Airport often made the national
news for the long
lines of airliners parked in desert storage as the airline industry slumped.
Now, however, it is making news for being home to cutting-edge innovations
in aerospace.
Two of the airports' tenants are featured in the Oct. 6 issue of Newsweek
magazine, in an
article highlighting the emerging space tourism industry.
"We're always grateful when the national media takes notice of our progress
and the progress
of others in our industry," said Jeff Greason, CEO of XCOR Aerospace, one
of the Mojave
companies featured.
XCOR, already successful in demonstrating its rocket engine technology
with the EZ-Rocket
airplane, has a marketing agreement with Space Adventures Ltd. to offer
suborbital flights in
the Xerus, its next-generation rocket vehicle under development.
The vehicle will carry a pilot and passenger to an altitude of 62 miles
during a one-hour flight.
The passenger will experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the
Earth from space.
Just down the flightline from XCOR, Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites is blazing
a trail with the
development of its SpaceShipOne, designed to carry a pilot and two passengers
on a suborbital
flight.
The first manned spacecraft built without government support, SpaceShipOne
is designed to
launch from the White Knight, then use a rocket engine to boost it to 100
kilometers - 62.5
miles - above the Earth. The spacecraft will then descend to a runway landing,
much like a
glider.
The White Knight completed its first flight in August 2002. The first joined
flight was in June,
and SpaceShipOne made its maiden glide flight on Aug. 7.
SpaceShipOne is one of two dozen entries in the X-Prize race, an international
competition
intended to jump-start the space tourism industry.
The competition will award $10 million to the first privately funded team
to build and
successfully launch a spacecraft capable of carrying three people to 100
kilometers above the
Earth and return safely, then turn around and duplicate the feat with the
same ship within two
weeks.
The national spotlight is a sign that the industry is growing in the public's
consciousness.
For quite some time, there has been a psychological barrier to private
spaceflight, with a
general belief that it could not be accomplished. That perception, however,
is starting to
change, Greason said.
XCOR is no stranger to the national spotlight. In December, the company,
its EZ-Rocket
airplane and chief engineer Dan DeLong were featured in Esquire, Popular
Science and
Scientific American magazines.
The Newsweek article, however, did include one glaring error, stating that
"the company is
totally broke."
"XCOR has always operated on a shoestring, but no more so now than before,"
Greason said. If
anything, the company is actually somewhat better off financially now than
usual, he said.
The company recently was awarded a $750,000 contract by the Defense Advanced
Research
Projects Agency to develop a prototype rocket engine propellent pump.
More may be said about Mojave Airport and space travel in the future, as
the airport has
applied to the Federal Aviation Administration for a license to launch
space vehicles. If granted,
it would make the site the first inland spaceport in the country.
The airport, already home to seven rocket and space exploration companies,
receives regular
inquiries about using the facility for launches.
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