XCOR Aerospace

XCOR Aerospace
Private
Industry Aerospace and space tourism
Founded September 1999
Headquarters Mojave Air and Space Port, Mojave, California[1]
Key people
 Jeff Greason (President and Co-Founder)
Products suborbital spaceflight
Revenue n/a
Number of employees
 40[1]
Website www.xcor.com

XCOR Aerospace is an American private rocket engine and spaceflight development company based at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California.[2] XCOR was formed by former members of the Rotary Rocket rocket engine development team in September, 1999. XCOR is headed by Jeff Greason, who is the CEO.[3][4]

History

The company was founded in Mojave, California in 1999.[5]

In 2001, the XCOR designed and built EZ-Rocket, the first privately built and flown rocket-powered airplane.[6] EX-Rocket made its maiden flight in July 2001, flown by test pilot Dick Rutan.

XCOR announced a move of its development and manufacturing operations to Midland, Texas in July 2012. XCOR considered a number of locations for the move, including Spaceport Colorado,[5] before announcing that they would be moving their company headquarters and R&D activities to Texas, in part due to a significant set of financial incentives (US$10,000,000[7]) offered to XCOR by the Midland Development Corporation (MDC) and the Midland City Council.[8]

Key people

Founders Jeff Greason, Dan DeLong, Aleta Jackson and Doug Jones[1] each previously worked at the Rotary Rocket company.[3] Rick Searfoss, Chief Test Pilot, joined the company in the mid-2000s.[9] Scaled Composites record-setting test pilot Brian Binnie joined XCOR in 2014 as both a test pilot and engineer.[10]

Projects

The prototype Rocket Racer, a modified Velocity SE climbing to 10,000 feet on its first full flight, October 29, 2007 at the Mojave Spaceport
The Rocket Racer on landing roll-out at Mojave.
Aft view of the Rocket Racer on landing roll-out at Mojave.

Lynx rocketplane

The Lynx is capable of carrying a pilot and a passenger or payload on sub-orbital spaceflights over 100 kilometres (62 mi). Between 20 and 50 test flights of Lynx were planned, along with numerous static engine firings on the ground. A full step-by-step set of taxi tests, runway hops and full-up flights were planned to get the vehicle to a state of operational readiness. Lynx was envisaged to be roughly the size of a small private airplane. It would be capable of flying several times a day making use of reusable, non-toxic engines to help keep the space plane's operating costs low.[11] The Lynx superseded a previous design, the Xerus spaceplane.[12] The Lynx was initially announced on March 26, 2008, with plans for an operational vehicle within two years.[11] That date slipped, first to early 2012,[13] and then to 2015.[14] The Mark II would fly twelve to eighteen months afterwards depending on how fast the prototype moved through the test program.[14][11]

As of July 2012, XCOR had presold 175 Lynx flights at US$95,000 each.[1]

Thermoplastic polymer development

XCOR has developed Nonburnite, a cryo-compatible, inherently non-combustible composite material based on a thermoplastic fluoropolymer resin. Low coefficient of thermal expansion and inherent resistance to microcracking make it well suited to cryogenic tank use and also part of vehicle structure.[15] As of February 2012, Nonburnite will be used in the tanks of the Lynx rocketplane.[16]

XCOR/ULA liquid-hydrogen, upper-stage engine development project

In March 2011, United Launch Alliance (ULA) announced they had entered into a joint-development contract with XCOR for a flight-ready, 25,000 to 30,000 pounds-force (110–130 kN) cryogenic LH2/LOX upper-stage rocket engine. Partially as a result of positive results achieved from an earlier (2010) effort to develop a new aluminum alloy engine nozzle using innovative manufacturing techniques, ULA believes the new engine technology will save several hundred pounds of weight from the large engine and will "lead to significantly lower-cost and more-capable commercial and US government space flights."[17]

The "multi-year project’s main objective is to produce a flight-ready LOX/LH2 upper-stage engine in the 25,000 to 30,000 pounds-force (110 to 130 kN)-thrust class that costs significantly less to produce and is easier to operate and integrate than competing engine technologies" [18]

"The demonstrations announced [on March 22, 2011] are from integrated engine/nozzle test firings with XCOR’s Lynx 5K18 LOX/kerosene engine. The engine/nozzle combination demonstrates the ability of the aluminum nozzle to withstand the high temperatures of rocket-engine exhaust over numerous tests, with no discernable degradation of the material properties of the alloys. The tests validated the design, materials and manufacturing processes used in the nozzle, and laid a foundation for scaling the design to EELV-sized engines."[19]

The length of the development program will depend on "the level of investment as milestones are met in the build-a-little, test-a-little approach favored by XCOR." If investment is minimized, flight engines would not be available, as of March 2011, for five to ten years.[18]

A subscale 2,500 pounds-force (11 kN)-thrust LH2/LOX engine has been developed, named the XR-5H25, in order to support the XCOR/ULA engine development program. The first hot fire test of the prototype engine was in November 2013, the test was deemed successful.[20] It was also the first demonstrated use of a piston-pump-fed LH2 rocket engine, a new method to design "liquid hydrogen rocket engines that fundamentally breaks current cost, reliability and operational models."[20]

In April 2015, ULA announced that the XCOR/ULA joint-development rocket engine is one of the candidate engines for a new ULA upper stage rocket to be fielded no earlier than 2023. The Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage (ACES) is a long-life-on-orbit, high-performance, upper stage that, after consideration/competition by ULA, will use one of three engines to go into production with. The other engines under consideration are the 110-kilonewton (25,000 lbf)-Aerojet Rocketdyne RL-10 and the 490-kilonewton (110,000 lbf)-Blue Origin BE-3. ACES will be a second stage for the Vulcan launch vehicle after 2023, in lieu of the Centaur upper stage that will fly on Vulcan beginning in 2019.[21]

Historical projects

Completed projects have included:

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Petty, Kathleen (2012-07-07). "A look at XCOR". Midland Reporter-Telegram. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
  2. ↑ Pappalardo, Jeff (July 2008). "New Area 51: Mojave's Desert Outpost Holds Space Flight's Future". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Our Team: Founders". Bios. XCOR Aerospace. Retrieved 2012-02-14. Founders: Jeff Greason, President; Dan DeLong, Vice President and Chief Engineer; Doug Jones, Co-Founder and Chief Test Engineer; Aleta Jackson, Co-Founder and Manager
  4. ↑ XCOR Aerospace Company Overview, accessed 2009-02-19
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 David, Leonard (2012-05-23). "Potential Colorado Spaceport Plan Gaining Steam". Space.com. Retrieved 2012-05-23.
  6. ↑ Knapp, Alex (2014-06-18). "Bootstrapping To The Stars". Forbes. Retrieved 2014-06-19.
  7. ↑ Midland, Texas ideal destinations for aviation industry, officials say, "a $10 million economic development deal"
  8. ↑ Carreau, Mark (2012-07-10). "XCOR Selects West Texas For Suborbital, Orbital R&D Hub". Aviation Week. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  9. ↑ "XCOR Team – Pilots". XCOR Aerospace. Retrieved 2013-05-16.
  10. ↑ Klotz, Irene (2014-04-04). "Spaceship Pilot Joins Rival Firm". Space News. Retrieved 2014-04-03.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "XCOR Aerospace announces new suborbital vehicle "Lynx" to fly within two years". XCOR Aerospace.
  12. ↑ Foust, Jeff (31 March 2008) One size may not fit all The Space Review, Retrieved 20 January 2015
  13. ↑ "Countdown has begin for SXC". Space Expedition Curacao. 2011-04-12. Retrieved 17 April 2011. Early next year, we will make the first sub-orbital flight, after which the final development will speed up tremendously. According to our schedule, we will be ready for commercial take-off by the end of 2013
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Norris, Guy (8 October 2014) XCOR Lynx Moves Into Final Assembly Aviation Week, Retrieved 20 January 2015
  15. ↑ "XCOR Aerospace: Cyro Compatible Fluoropolymer Composite Material". XCOR Aerospace.
  16. ↑ "A Perspective on XCOR’s Progress Towards Flying "Lynx"". RLV and Space Transport News. 2012-02-02. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
  17. ↑ "XCOR and ULA Demonstrate Revolutionary Rocket Engine Nozzle Technology — also sign contract for Liquid Hydrogen Engine Development". ULA. 2011-03-17. Retrieved 2011-03-23.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Morring, Frank, Jr. (2011-03-23). "ULA, XCOR to Develop Upper-Stage Engine". Aviation Week. Retrieved 2011-03-25. United Launch Alliance (ULA) and XCOR Aerospace are planning a joint effort to develop a low-cost upper-stage engine in the same class as the venerable RL-10, using technology XCOR is developing for its planned Lynx suborbital spaceplane. The two companies have been testing actively cooled aluminum nozzles XCOR is developing for its liquid oxygen/kerosene 5K18 engine for the Lynx, a reusable two-seat piloted vehicle the company plans to use for commercial research and tourist flights.
  19. ↑ "XCOR and ULA Demonstrate Revolutionary Rocket Engine Nozzle Technology; Also Sign Contract for Liquid Hydrogen Engine Development". press release. XCOR Aerospace. 2011-03-22. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Messier, Doug (2013-11-19). "XCOR Reaches Milestone in Liquid Hydrogen Engine Program". Parabolic Arc. Retrieved 2013-11-20.
  21. ↑ Gruss, Mike (2015-04-13). "ULA’s Vulcan Rocket To be Rolled out in Stages". SpaceNews. Retrieved 2015-04-19.
  22. ↑ "XCOR To Fly EZ-Rocket At X Prize Cup Countdown", Space Daily, August 19, 2005, accessed February 19, 2009
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Products Overview, XCOR Aerospace, undated, accessed 2010-12-27. "Twin 400 lb-thrust XR-4A3 engines aboard the EZ-Rocket" (with in-flight photograph) ... "Another engine that we have developed in parallel is the XR-4K14, ... a 1,500 lb thrust regeneratively cooled LOX and pump-fed kerosene system ... used as the Rocket Racer aircraft's main engine."
  24. ↑ XCOR X-Racer, by Nancy Atkinson, Universe Today, 2009-08-06, accessed 2010-04-26.
  25. ↑ X-Racers, Start Your Rockets! : The creators of the X prize offer a sensational vision of rocket-powered airplanes speeding through the sky. But can their new racing league steal a bit of Nascar's thunder?, Michael Belfiore, Popular Science (feature cover story), 2006-02-15, accessed 2010-09-02.
  26. ↑ Gatlin, Allison (2008-07-11). "XCOR performance tested". Antelope Valley Press. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
  27. ↑ "XCOR Aerospace - 15 lb-thrust nitrous oxide / ethane rocket engine". XCOR Aerospace.
  28. ↑ "XCOR Aerospace Completes Successful Development of Methane Rocket Engine" (Press release). XCOR Aerospace. 2005-08-30. Retrieved 2012-12-03.
  29. ↑ "XCOR Aerospace Begins Test Firing of Methane Rocket Engine" (Press release). XCOR Aerospace. 2007-01-16. Retrieved 2012-12-03.

External links