NASA Goes For XCOR’s Big Cat

[SatNews] NASA is contracting for space taxi cabs of sorts.

NASA has selected XCOR Aerospace to provide suborbital flight and payload integration services for research and scientific missions in a program that will offer up to $10 million dollars in contracts to match payload customers with flight vehicle services. The awards were announced by NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program, a part of NASA’s Office of the Chief Technologist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC that is managed at Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.

“Through this award, NASA has recognized XCOR’s Lynx suborbital vehicle as a useful payload platform that will benefit both NASA’s R&D needs and the private research, scientific, and educational communities,” said Jeff Greason, XCOR CEO.  “By encouraging and incentivizing frequent, low cost access to space, NASA is helping to ensure America’s future as a leader in space.”

XCOR’s suborbital reusable launch vehicle, Lynx, is capable of up to four flights per day using advanced rapid call-up and turnaround operations. The Lynx will provide three to four minutes of microgravity as well as, if desired, exposure to the harsh environment of space. This will provide opportunities to investigate the largely unexplored regions of our upper atmosphere.   

The Lynx is XCOR’s entry into the commercial reusable launch vehicle (RLV) market.  This two-seat, piloted space transport vehicle will take humans and payloads on a half-hour suborbital flight to 100 km (330,000 feet) and then return safely to a landing at the takeoff runway. Like an aircraft, Lynx is a horizontal takeoff and horizontal landing vehicle, but instead of a jet or piston engine, Lynx uses its own fully reusable rocket propulsion system to depart a runway and return safely.  This approach is unique compared to most other RLVs in development, such as conventional vertical rocket launches and air-launched winged rocket vehicles “dropped” at altitude from a jet powered mothership.

Lynx will operate as an FAA AST-licensed suborbital reusable launch vehicle. XCOR already has successfully passed the AST licensing process with an earlier vehicle concept, and they have been actively involved in the development of the statutory and regulatory framework within which Lynx will operate. Lynx will have aircraft-like operations up to four times per day from any licensed spaceport with a 2,400 meter (7,900 ft) runway, suitable abort options, fast turnaround (two hours), low maintenance intervals (designed for 40 flights before preventive maintenance action), and low cost operations. Lynx operates under visual flight rules (VFR), and initially it will only fly during days of good visibility. Mojave Air and Space Port, the planned first operating location for Lynx, has good visibility 360 days per year and acceptable winds 345 days per year.

XCOR has partnered with four leading payload integration providers in the US to give NASA and the research community a first-rate experience for the Program’s missions. The Planetary Science Institute (PSI) of Arizona, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Texas, NanoRacks LLC of Kentucky and Washington, DC, and Spaceflight Services of Washington will provide payload processing and related support services based on their multiple areas of expertise. 

These independent payload service providers specialize in atmospheric science, physics, microgravity research, planetary science, Earth observation, and life sciences, and other areas.  XCOR’s partners are among the premier organizations in specialized suborbital and orbital commercial payload development and integration.  PSI recently announced their Atsa Suborbital Observatory, a versatile facility that will maintain cameras and telescopes to conduct astronomical observations or remote sensing of the Earth, will fly on Lynx. SwRI is the pioneering national research institute that will be the first Lynx launch customer for broad based suborbital payload integration and research. NanoRacks and Space Flight Services are national leaders in orbital payload integration and science experimentation, with NanoRacks already providing research platforms on the International Space Station and SpaceFlight Services offering stand alone on-orbit research and transport of experiments to the ISS in the SpaceX Dragon capsule.

“We’re building our Lynx suborbital vehicle to accommodate as many of these missions as possible,” remarked XCOR’s COO Andrew Nelson. “By integrating multiple payload spaces both inside the pressurized cabin and exposed to the vacuum of space we can handle a large variety of experiments as well as the researchers themselves. This is currently a very underserved market, with long lead times and no guarantee of payload recovery on conventional sounding rockets. NASA is jump-starting a revolution in the commercial space industry and scientific research by pairing up payload investigators with cutting edge private suborbital vehicle providers such as XCOR.”