E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
XCOR Aerospace
XCOR Aerospace's Lynx rocket plane soars above Earth in this artist's concept.
XCOR Aerospace and Space Expedition Curacao announced today that they're going forward with a deal worth more than $10 million to start offering rocket plane rides beyond the edge of space from the Caribbean island starting in 2014.
The wet-lease arrangement follows up on an agreement in principle reached a year ago. Under this type of contract, the Curacao venture would have XCOR's Lynx rocket plane available for its use, but XCOR would be in charge of the ground operations and provide the pilot.
California-based XCOR's development plan calls for beginning flight testing about a year from now, using a prototype version of the Lynx that's built for flights up to an altitude of 38.5 miles (62 kilometers). By the time the Curacao deal kicks in, XCOR aims to have one or two "Mark II" production models ready to fly to altitudes in excess of 62.5 miles (100 kilometers), which is the internationally recognized boundary of outer space.
The rocket-powered Lynx is designed to seat a pilot and a single passenger side-by-side, with windows all around the front and top to provide a panoramic view of the curving Earth beneath the black sky of space. The fliers would get a feeling of weightness for four minutes or so, and feel a maximum acceleration of 4 G's.
The Lynx is being offered as a tourist plane as well as a platform for suborbital space experiments.
Space Expedition Curacao's deal would involve the use of XCOR's second Mark II model, with the option to use XCOR's first Mark II for up to three months a year. That provision covers the possibility that XCOR's production schedule encounters delays, as well as the possibility that Curacao will need more flight capacity or need to start tourist flights early, said Andrew Nelson, XCOR Aerospace's chief operating officer.
The deal is still dependent on federal approval for XCOR's export licensing arrangements, but the Curacao venture has already made an initial payment to XCOR. “Now that the ink is dry and the check has cleared we can proceed at full pace to begin operations in Curacao in 2014,” XCOR's chief executive officer, Jeff Greason, said today in a news release.
The news release characterized the deal as an "eight-figure" contract, meaning it's worth at least $10 million, but the precise value was not disclosed.
The going rate for rides on the Lynx is $95,000. Space Expedition Curacao co-founder Michiel Mol said his venture "has signed up 35 spaceflight participants since the beginning of April, with a goal to sell 50 before the holiday season." Mol said the customers included Victoria's Secret model Doutzen Kroes; San Francisco Giants batting coach (and Curacao native) Hensley Muelens; and Armin van Buuren, host of an internationally broadcast radio show titled "A State of Trance."
Other flights are to be purchased by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines for frequent-flier awards, educational incentives and vacation packages. The flight operation would be based at Curacao International Airport.
"We've been working hard on the infrastructure end of things as well," said Ben Droste, president and co-founder of Space Expedition Curacao. "Our relationship with Curacao Airport Holdings continues to be strong as they ready the facilities necessary to make this vision a reality. Things are now moving at an accelerated pace."
The commercial space industry is also advancing on other fronts, in Washington and California:
Sierra Nevada Corp.
Sierra Nevada Corp. is in line to receive another $25.6 million for reaching four optional milestones in the development of its Dream Chaser space plane, shown in this artist's conception. The Boeing Co. could be eligible for another $20.6 million.
• NASA today unveiled its plan for the next step toward procuring commercial space transport services to carry astronauts to the International Space Station sometime around the middle of the decade. The draft request for proposals outlines a contract that would be awarded to multiple companies, to provide a complete end-to-end design for transportation services. The space agency would award an Integrated Design Contract valued at up to $1.61 billion and running from July 2012 through April 2014.
In a news release, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said the newly released acquisition strategy serves as "further evidence we are committed to fully implementing our plan — as laid out in the Authorization Act — to outsource our space station transportation so NASA can focus its energy and resources on deep space exploration."
The exact amount of money available for commercial crew development would be dependent on congressional appropriations, which are still in flux for fiscal 2012 and beyond.
NASA also said it was amending its existing agreements with two companies to fund optional milestones for the development of crew-capable vehicles. Sierra Nevada Corp. would be eligible for an additional $25.6 million if four optional milestones are reached, bringing the potential payout to $105.6 million. The Boeing Co., which was awarded up to $92.3 million this spring for design work on its CST-100 crew vehicle, could get another $20.6 million if it meets three optional milestones.
Mark Greenberg
More than 80 employees of The Spaceship Company gather for a group photo with the SpaceShipTwo rocket plane and its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft at the new Final Assembly, Integration and Test Hangar at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.
• The Spaceship Company, a joint venture involving Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites, today announced the opening of a 68,000-square-foot facility in Mojave, Calif., for producing SpaceShipTwo rocket planes and WhiteKnightTwo carrier planes. The facility — known as the Final Assembly, Integration and Test Hangar, or FAITH — will be where the vehicles are completed and tested prior to delivery to customers. The first customer is Virgin Galactic itself. Virgin Galactic is working its way toward powered SpaceShipTwo tests that would eventually cross the 100-kilometer space fontier. Virgin's billionaire founder, Richard Branson, said last week that the effort "on track for a launch within 12 months."
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding me to your Google+ circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
Leave a Comment:
I like the international interest in space tourism, plus it's a nice bit of business for California (both XCOR and FAITH).
Here's hoping that we have pioneer a new industry of getting to and from space with better safety, frequency and efficiency.
Hopefully within 20-30 years there is a lot of competition and it becomes affordable to someone other than the rich.
Ok, right now I'm broke so it's obviously not plausible. But the new company in Curacao is offering a flight for 95,000. It's been a childhood dream for many to go up into space. Plenty of average middle class people who really value that dream could save up 95,000 given time.
Like you said, competition will make it cheaper. But we have that now, and shouldn't have to wait 20 years. The fact that it appears there are many competing companies developing this business. What do we have now, Virgin who's got it worked out and is pretty much ready for tourists. SpaceX with their dragon, who are poised to do government contracting for the ISS trips. Jeff Bezos is testing his Blue Origin. The company mentioned in the article. I know there are at least four or five more out there in development.
20 years down the road all these companies will be working with more experience, better newly developed equipment, and having gotten the return on initial investment they might be in a position to lower the price and open it up to a new market of the lower classes...
It's something I plan on doing if I'm in the position monetarily. Waiting for the kinks to be worked out will hopefully make it both cheaper and safer. Nobody wants to pay 95,000 to blow up in the sky. So perhaps an average person waiting another 10 years to take the trip is a smart thing...
@ Dangerous Mind
It may happen sooner rather than later.
Remember, all of the major aerospace players, some that don't even exist anymore, had come up with ultra-high altitude aircraft/spacecraft as early as the 1960's and 1970's.
We've also got a lot of fascinating engine designs that are being tested right now, or were part of experimental craft from decades gone by that were never utilized for mainstream use and could very well be tapped in the coming decade.
For example:
Cancelled projects/engines
Ongoing Projects(?)
In short, there's a lot of interesting stuff that's been tabled, or is currently being explored both privately and via government funding. Perhaps we will have a new technological renaissance in similar fashion to jets replacing props or transistors replacing tubes.
While I have been to Curacao before and like the island for the coral reefs, I have to question the choice of having rocket plane rides to the edge of space from that island.
A few years back, on the way to the island, we were diverted to the Dominican Republic and forced to de-board the plane and go through their customs for some reason. Then, when trying to leave Curacao after our stay, I was stranded on that island when one of the few airlines that serviced that island went bankrupt or on strike and the only way on or off the island shut down. Tickets were no longer good. The airport was crowded, people had been camping out there for days just wanting to go home, and I cannot say I was impressed by the airport and their staff. It was a strange experience all the way around.
I wish they would start rocket plane rides to the edge of space from somewhere that has a "state of the art" airport and more confidence in the ability of the people to get your there and back safely.
Those are probably among the reasons the island is encouraging this to happen. It would probably bring their country a lot of money in tourism, allowing them to spend on things like modernizing the airport.
If I were to do it I would go with the company with the most success so far. Which appears to be Virgin Galactic. They won the X-Prize, they've had a good start on the others. They're also doing it out of a desert town in California. Which would be easier for us Americans to get to, like you said.
earthlings must develop and evolve much more before they can explore there extierore outer limits
I can certainly see why they didn't want to do it in America. The Federal regulations to such a thing must be a virtual nightmare. And imagine the lawsuits that could take place.
Looks like the private industry is taking over where the government industry is failing.
Well, Curacao is now a constituent state of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
I wonder if it is like the Flags of Convenience for the Cruise Ship Industry...that because they are subject to the laws of the Netherlands, that the business of space places are easier for them to do.
Like you said, Federal Regulations in the US might tie their hands for several years while the Dutch just say...sounds great, go with it and see what happens.
LOL NASA got privatized.
Now lets not exaggerate this too much. This a a vehicle that takes one passenger on a suborbital jaunt equivalent to what the Air Force X-15 rocket plane did in the early 1960s. It doesn't begin to touch what NASA has done in all the decades since, even with the much reduced funding that they have had to contend with since President Nixon canceled the last lunar missions and the NERVA engines that would have been capable of taking the first humans to Mars by 1981. I applaud XCOR for their fine efforts but I do not regard this as a substitute for a real space program that can finally break out of low earth orbit and transform us into a truly interplanetary species.
@ StanUlam
Agreed.
But I think NERVA was far too risky. Heck, the test sites for those nuclear rockets are going to be too radioactive for humans for millenia!
Keep stretching.
To Ran Ran:
Anyone who earns a middle income can get to the point of affording this flight if they live modestly and invest from an early age. Not many people buy a suborbital flight, but few would bat an eye if someone bought a $400,000 house instead of a $200,000 house after a lifetime of work in their 50's. All it takes is desire and planning and determining one's priorities. How do I know? Because I got there, and I never made more than $80,000 a year, and that only late in my career. But by sharing inexpensive housing after college, driving cars to 150,000 miles, finding bargains, refusing to be an early acquirer (I still don't have cable TV!) and a lifetime of saving, my money eventually earned more than I do. This is a lifelong dream and I am grateful to those willing to invest in an untried business for making even the possibility a reality.