XCOR Lynx

[Frontm]

Я бы тоже с ней слетал :oops:

Сколько будет стоить удовольствие — не сообщается.

:oops:

[Salo]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Giants-hitting-coach-plans-trip-to-outer-space-f?urn=mlb-wp5438

Giants hitting coach plans trip to outer space for 2014[/size]
By 'Duk

The Houston Astros. The Rocket. Bill "Spaceman" Lee. Blue Moon Odom.



Hensley "Bam-Bam" Meulens will join all of the above when it comes to baseball players associated with the outer limits.

Only the San Francisco Giants hitting coach will have a much stronger claim on space than just a nickname. That's because Meulens is actually going to be blasted into orbit during a space expedition that's being planned by his native Curacao.

It sounds like a joke, but it's 100 percent true. As MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch notes in a recent profile of Meulens, the outgoing former player has been selected as an inaugural "astronaut" for "Space Expedition Curacao," a commercial space tourism program the Caribbean nation is trying to launch by 2014.

From MLB.com:

    The first 100 flights, though, have been set aside for a group of so called "Founder Astronauts." Meulens will join three Dutch celebrities — a disc jockey, an air travel pioneer and a supermodel — on flight No. 1. [...]

    "It hasn't clicked," said Meulens, who will go through intense space training classes in advance. "It still hasn't clicked yet."

Luxury Launches says it'd cost about $90,000 for a regular person to buy a seat aboard the space craft, which is being designed by XCOR, an American company.

Meulens, though, is cashing in the miles he accrued by becoming Curacao's first major leaguer in the mid-'80s. Even though he had only 496 professional at-bats after being a prospect for the New York Yankees, he became a national hero and players like Andruw Jones(notes), Jair Jurrjens(notes) and Randall Simon have followed him into the bigs. The nation off the coast of Venezuela is mad about baseball.

Soon Curacao will also be mad about space — if everything goes according to plan — and it will again be Meulens who's leading the charge. He'll need a new nickname, though, if he actually makes it up there — any suggestions?

Related: Jair Jurrjens, Andruw Jones, Houston Astros, New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants, ModernTube, Baseball songs on BLS

[Salo]

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2011/06/14/exclusive-pictures-xcors-lynx-built/

Exclusive Pictures of XCOR's Lynx Being Built[/size]
Posted by Doug Messier
on June 14, 2011, at 4:12 am

I paid my first visit to XCOR since last summer. The shop floor in their hanger at the Mojave Air & Space Port was much more crowded with test articles and equipment than the last time I visited. They are about to get a lot busier over the next year as the company makes a push to build the Lynx Mark 1 test vehicle.



The most striking new element I noticed was the vehicle duck-billed nose, which has been attached to the engineering model.Most of the nose is there; the final version will extend out another two feet or so.





The cockpit and controls have become much better defined since last year.




The above photo shows the vehicle from back looking forward into the cockpit. This is the exact length of the vehicle, whose wings extend out to the left and right of the picture.



Above is the first production engine. Lynx will be powered by four of these propulsion units.



And a cool sign on the shop floor.

The only things I wasn't able to take pictures of are the three metal wind tunnel models that XCOR will use to make small modifications to the design. These are small models that you can hold in their hands, but they are key to a very sophisticated space plane/.

[SpaceR]

http://www.avia.ru/news/?id=1290519153

...
Самолет также может нести надфюзеляжный контейнер весом до 280 кг, который может сбрасываться на большой высоте и пролетать до 700 км с 11-ю минутами микрогравитации.

Там с него ещё и ракеты в космос пускать планируют.
Вот скриншот с ютубовского видео:


Судя по облику ПН, она явно намерена выйти на орбиту.  
При стартовой массе до 280 кг...

Пикоракету для пикоспутников мы вроде ещё не обсуждали.

[Петр Зайцев]

Судя по облику ПН, она явно намерена выйти на орбиту.  
При стартовой массе до 280 кг...

Пикоракету для пикоспутников мы вроде ещё не обсуждали.

Я видел все это, но уверен, что ничего этого не будет, по той же причине, что и большинство АКС прожектов вроде Вирджиновского, Ишима, и пр. А знаете, что будет? Линкс будет летать из Кореи и фотографировать Пхеньян, неожиданно. А то ишь привыкли раскатывать марлю когда спутник пролетает.

[SpaceR]

Какую марлю, какой спутник? Вы о чем вообще?

[ZOOR]

Суборбитальный самолет получил первый научный заказ[/size]

Возможно, что первым рейсом суборбитального самолета с научной точки зрения, будет доставка в космос телескопа ATSA.

Институтом планетарных исследований НАСА был подписан меморандум с компанией XCOR Aerospace, в рамках которого была заложена основа того, как суборбитальная обсерватория ATSA будет работать на борту летательного аппарата XCOR Lynx.

Проект ATSA поможет использовать возможности многоразового суборбитального самолета для того, чтобы выполнить недорогие космические наблюдения при помощи специально разработанного для этих целей телескопа. Суборбитальный телескоп выгоден тем, что имеет возможность выхода за пределы атмосферы, и при всем при этом отсутствуют некоторые эксплуатационные ограничения космических телескопов-спутников.

Само слово "atsa" переводится с языка индейцев-навахо как "орел". Новый телескоп был разработан, чтобы вести наблюдение за объектами, находящимися вблизи Солнца, которые практически невозможно изучить при помощи телескопов, расположенных на Земле и орбитальных обсерваторий, подобных Hubble. Как правило, для наблюдения за такими объектами применяются суборбитальные ракеты. Тем не менее, летательный аппарат Lynx может представлять собой менее дорогую и, что важно, более качественную альтернативу, что позволяет выбрать различные траектории полета и выполнить наблюдения, которые были запланированы ранее.

Суборбитальный самолет Lynx уже разрабатывается и скоро будет готов к первому, и надеемся, не последнему полету, который запланировано произвести в 2012 году. В феврале компания XCOR сделала заявление о том, что готова принять заявки на вывод полезной нагрузки.

[SFN]

Судя по облику ПН, она явно намерена выйти на орбиту.  
При стартовой массе до 280 кг...

Пикоракету для пикоспутников мы вроде ещё не обсуждали.

  650 kg

[SpaceR]

Хм, действительно...
Как это я проморгал, видел же эту картинку.  :oops:
Не стоило с ходу верить www.avia.ru .

http://www.avia.ru/news/?id=1290519153

...
Самолет также может нести надфюзеляжный контейнер весом до 280 кг, который может сбрасываться на большой высоте и пролетать до 700 км с 11-ю минутами микрогравитации.

Но всё равно любопытно, что можно вынести на орбиту такой "крохой"? ) Она сама себя едва-едва дотянет.

Придётся, видимо, интегрировать борт КА и аппаратуру СУ РН в единый блок, и на него уже и вешать приборы, иначе смысла нет. Если проживёт хотя бы месяц, и то хлеб.

[avmich]

Из свежего The Lurio Report:

XCOR Aerospace will shortly make the first US announcement of major steps forward under last year's "full wet-lease" agreement with Space Expedition Cura

[avmich]

Лурио сообщает...

The X-Racer was flown seven times in one day, with a minimum turnaround time of nine minutes.  The Lynx is to fly only four times a day, which as Nelson indicates is, "based on a fairly straightforward 2 hour turn around process by a small ground crew, and some limits on how many staff we wish to have on the clock on any given day ...[that] projection is based on our experience gained in flying EZ-Rocket and X-Racer and our estimates of time between flights...

В этом году, вероятно, полетят. Основные проблемы были деньги, сейчас они есть.

[ronatu]

[ronatu]

[avmich]

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/xcor-reveals-lynx-test-schedule-366803/

[Петр Зайцев]

Так получили они этот летный фюзеляж или нет?! Обещали неделю назад получить. Где фюзеляж? Гре фотографии?

[Pol]

http://www.satnews.com/cgi-bin/story.cgi?number=1280735594

February 27, 2012

XCOR Aerospace... Financially Speaking + New Integrators...

XCOR Aerospace recently closed a $5 million round of equity funding.
The round, combined with cash on hand plus anticipated and existing contracts, should fund the company through production of its Lynx Mark I Suborbital vehicle. The financing included participation of new and previous investors. Among them are Esther Dyson, Pete Ricketts (co-owner of the Chicago Cubs) and several top Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and former venture capitalists.

"We have announced this important news at the Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference here in Silicon Valley because we believe the future of commercial space access will be driven by enterprise customers like the attendees here today," said Andrew Nelson, XCOR's Chief Operating Officer. He added, "This investment represents a vote of trust and confidence in the markets represented by NSRC participants." Jeff Greason, Founder and CEO of XCOR, said, "I believe we were able to raise funds in these trying economic times because XCOR has demonstrated compelling value to investors and customers. Our $60-plus Million backlog of orders for Lynx suborbital vehicles, flights on Lynx, and our unique reusable non-toxic rocket engines gives the investor community reason to take notice."

As part of this financing, XCOR is also happy to announce a reformulated Board of Directors. The directors include newcomer Esther Dyson, former venture capitalist Stephen Fleming, Chairman of the Space Studies Institute Dr. Lee Valentine, and company founders Jeff Greason and Dan DeLong.  Ms Dyson is well known for her perceptive early investments in the Internet, software and social media industries, her service on private and public corporate boards and foundations, and for leading NASA's Technology and Innovation Advisory Council.  Mr. Fleming is a former general partner at the venture capital firm of ATV Partners and is now Vice President at Georgia Tech where he leads the Enterprise Innovation Institute. Dr. Valentine is well known in the commercial space community for his leadership of the Space Studies Institute and his work with many early stage startup companies.

Work proceeds on the Lynx suborbital vehicle at XCOR. With the recent receipt of the Lynx Mark I fuselage, the continued testing of the liquid oxygen and kerosene propulsion system, the fielding of the non-toxic high performance bi-propellant reaction control system, and the recent release of request for quotes for the cockpit pressure vessel and wing strakes, XCOR is getting ever closer to first flight.

Additionally, at the Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC) 2012 in Palo Alto, California, XCOR Aerospace announced that EMXYS of Spain, Texas A&M's Space Engineering Research Center, and the Planetary Science Institute have joined XCOR's payload processing sales channel for the Lynx suborbital vehicle. The new members of the XCOR team will provide services to the research, scientific, educational, engineering, and medical markets that are using the XCOR Lynx suborbital reusable launch vehicle for experiments and investigations. They join XCOR's existing payload integration channel partners including: the Southwest Research Institute of San Antonio and Boulder, NanoRacks of Washington DC, Spaceflight Services of Tukwila, Washington, Space Expedition Curacao, Yecheon Astro Space Center of South Korea, Cosmica of France, and African Space Institute in South Africa.
The payload integrators will sell Lynx research flight services and assist in creating standardization in research hardware for the suborbital market. Each payload integration specialist firm will help facilitate and provision flight services on the Lynx by ensuring that end users understand the packaging, environmental, safety, operational flight profile(s) and interface (physical, electrical and data) requirements of the Lynx for both automated experiments not requiring user intervention during flight, and those experiments when the scientist accompanies the payload to the edge of space. The integrators will provide a variety of additional value added services depending on their individual service offering and customer needs, including, but not limited to fabrication, test and qualification of experiments for the Lynx environment.

XCOR will be responsible for: (1) developing and periodically updating the Lynx interface control document, payload user's guide and other payload related processes and procedures in consultation with the payload integration specialists, end customers and regulators; (2) operating an annual Lynx payload user's group conference to solicit feedback and promulgate best practices across the payload integrators network and user community; (3) addressing any specific non-standard needs identified by payload integration specialists and their customers such as special flight trajectories or unique vehicle integration needs; (4) any special licensing or regulatory actions pertaining to the flight; and (5) with the integration specialist and customer, performing a final safety and pre-flight review meeting before the mission is flown and a de-briefing of the mission after flight.

[Pol]

http://www.satnews.com/cgi-bin/story.cgi?number=690971628

March 03, 2012

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) + XCOR Aerospace... Signing On For Test Flights

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has reached an agreement with XCOR Aerospace, Inc. to conduct pioneering....
....suborbital space missions with Institute payload specialist astronauts flying aboard one or two test missions in the XCOR Aerospace Lynx Mark I vehicle. The flights will test capabilities of the Lynx vehicle with actual researchers and research experiments aboard. In 2011, SwRI and XCOR Aerospace inked a deal for six SwRI suborbital flights aboard Lynx, with options for three more. This announcement moves the first such flights ahead of XCOR's commercial services to be a part of XCOR's Lynx test flight program.

"We are very excited to advance the capability to do suborbital research with Lynx by becoming a part of the planned test flight program for this innovative and highly capable new human spaceflight vehicle," says Dr. Alan Stern, SwRI Space Science and Engineering Division's Associate Vice President, who leads the project.

Andrew Nelson, XCOR's chief operating officer, adds that "XCOR is as serious about our research missions as other parts of our Lynx flight manifest, and this effort will help us validate flight procedures using trained test engineers not involved in early operations, much as we did with our X-Racer rocket-powered aircraft program. We're proud to announce our intention to team with SwRI in adding these research test missions to our comprehensive flight test program."

Stern and project co-investigators Dr. Daniel Durda and Dr. Cathy Olkin have been training for suborbital spaceflight aboard zero-G aircraft, centrifuges and F-104 jet fighters since 2010. All three researchers are expected to fly and operate suborbital experiments during the six-mission flight sequence under the SwRI and XCOR contract.

"By putting scientists in space with their experiments, researchers can achieve better results at lower cost, and with a higher probability of success, than with many old-style automated experiments," Stern added. "The effort we're announcing today with XCOR will put SwRI researchers at the leading edge of this revolutionary new kind of suborbital research."

[Salo]

http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/AW_05_14_2012_p26-456595.xml&p=1

XCOR Lynx Mark I Taking Shape In Mojave[/size]
By Guy Norris
Source: Aviation Week & Space Technology


May 14 , 2012

Guy Norris/Los Angeles

Four years after the rocket-powered Lynx project was unveiled at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the presence here of a full-scale vehicle mockup at the Spacecraft Technology Expo reveals two fundamental truths about the "new space" market.

Firstly, propelling a privately developed spacecraft to suborbit is extremely difficult. When it first announced the project in March 2008, XCOR Aerospace hoped to be flying within two years, yet is only now assembling the first Mark I vehicle at its Mojave, Calif., facility. The company's long journey to suborbit is partly reflected in the many detailed design differences between the mockup and the artist's concept of 2008.

Secondly, the project shows staying power while underscoring XCOR's determination and the resilience of the market. Despite the challenges and the sluggish economy, the company continues to find support and raise funds. XCOR holds more than $60 million in backlog orders and recently closed a $5 million round of equity funding from new and previous investors, including Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and well-known technology "angel" investors such as Esther Dyson.

XCOR CEO Jeff Greason also continues to exude confidence in the project and the market as a whole. "It took a while, but we think we're there," he says, describing the path to Lynx. "We've been through two generations of rocket-powered vehicles so far. Firstly, there was the EZ-Rocket between 2001 and 2005, which was aimed at pushing down the cost of rocket-powered operations. Then there was the X-Racer, between 2006 and 2008, which was all about operational tempo. We got it down to around nine minutes between flights and up to seven flights per day."

Now, with the prospect of long-awaited suborbital flights looming in 2013, Greason says the influence of pioneering operations such as the Lynx will be greater than the sum of its parts. "People talk about the tradeoff between robotic operations and humans—but I don't think a robot has been invented that can enjoy the spaceflight for me, or can do experiments and say, 'Mmmm . . . that looks funny to me.' So it's a game-changer in a way that will impact other uses of human spaceflight."

Assembly of the initial vehicle is underway, with the truss structure that will support the propulsion system currently being attached to the fuselage. The structure will provide a housing for the vehicle's four XR-5K18 liquid oxygen/kerosene (LOX/RP) rocket engines. Initial tests of the LOX piston pump are about to start, paving the way for closed-loop testing of the engine using its own pump-fed fuel, rather than pressure-fed from offboard sources. XCOR has also received the LOX tank and is issuing requests for bids for the aerodynamic strakes, or fairings, which will enclose the fuel tanks between the fuselage and the wing.

The mockup at the show indicated the changes made to improve the stability and control of the final configuration, including the broader nose section and extended chine. Other changes—which were made after subsonic wind-tunnel trials in 2009 at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, and follow-on tests at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center—included larger-chord wingtip-mounted vertical fins with extended ventral sections. A final set of wind-tunnel campaigns in both facilities is scheduled shortly to confirm minor aerodynamic changes.

A mockup of the two-person cockpit was also displayed alongside the vehicle. The layout is dominated by two multi-function displays, numerous standby instruments and a camera view of the rocket plume. XCOR says visual checks of the plume from a tail-mounted camera will provide the pilot with instant verification of the stability of the rockets, and will warn of issues before anything is picked up on instruments. The company says avionics provided by L-3 Communications, CMC/Esterline, Aspen, MGL, Avidyne and Garmin "are all being considered," and a final decision on the suite of avionics suppliers will be made over the summer.

XCOR aims to start powered taxi tests later this year with high-speed runs by December, and first flight in 2013. [/size]

[Salo]

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2012/05/10/cool-images-from-the-spacecraft-technology-expo/

[instml]

Lynx Mark I, возможно, полетит в космос в 2013 году

На майской выставке Spacecraft Technology Expo был представлен очередной макет космосамолёта Lynx Mark I разработки XCOR Aerospace. Вместе с его появлением компания сделала ряд заявлений, касающихся ближайшего будущего разработки и своих планов по налаживанию космического туризма.

О начале проекта Lynx американская компания XCOR Aerospace заявила четыре года назад. Оптимизма — и это ещё мягко говоря — её руководству было не занимать. CEO Джефф Гризон тогда зачем-то сказал, что первый полёт может состояться через два года. Да, эскизы Lynx были готовы уже в 2008 году, но дистанция от них до космоплана, готового к старту, чуть-чуть больше, не так ли?

На Spacecraft Technology Expo г-н Гризон выступил со списком модификаций, предпринятых его командой по мере продвижения проекта. Бумага внушительная, и это скорее хорошо. Баки с жидким кислородом, расположенные между фюзеляжем и крылом, решено закрыть обтекателями, носовой обтекатель был значительно уширен, центропланные части крыла сделаны более выступающими... Словом, орбитальный самолёт ещё больше приблизился к интегральной аэродинамической схеме.

По итогам продувок в аэродинамической трубе Исследовательской лаборатории ВВС США в Дейтоне, принято решение о значительном развитии законцовок крыла, придающих новому Lynx его столь необычный вид. В то же время большинство основных параметров оставлено без изменений. Lynx Mark I — это по-прежнему орбитальный самолёт с углепластиковым корпусом, высоким аэродинамическим качеством, четырьмя ракетными двигателями на жидком кислороде / керосине. Алюминиевые сопла (концепция несколько необычная для многоразового корабля, предназначенного для полётов космос), по словам Джеффа Гризона, подтвердили свою живучесть во время стендовых испытаний двигателей XR-5K18 (с поршневыми насосами).

Основным предназначением Lynx Mark I, по г-ну Гризону, будет туризм: что-то вроде аттракционов в ЦПКиО, но для больших, а главное, обеспеченных мальчиков. Взлетая горизонтально с обычного аэродрома, машина будет набирать высоту до 42 км, поддерживая умеренную скорость в M2. Затем двигатели отключатся, но Lynx Mark I по инерции «подскочит» ещё на 19 км. На самом пике доступного кораблю диапазона высот он испытает примерно четырёхминутную невесомость, после чего вновь войдёт в атмосферу и, планируя, сядет на аэродром. Весь полёт, предположительно, займёт не более получаса. При этом ракетоплан задуман буквально для конвейерной работы: четыре полёта в день, после каждых 40 вылетов (10 дней полётов) — ТО.

Преимуществ — с точки зрения космического туризма — у аппарата много. Главное — он не очень быстр, причём как на подъёме, так и на спуске, что позволяет сделать теплозащитную оболочку надёжной (ибо тепловое воздействие мало), но при этом не одноразовой, как у SpaceX Dragon.

Учитывая, что стоимость двухместного орбитального самолёта, по обещаниям компании, не превысит $10 млн, с четырьмя полётами в день аппарат быстро окупится. После чего будут созданы более амбициозные Lynx Mark II и III, с высотой орбитального полёта в 100 км и более и с платной нагрузкой до 650 кг.

Сейчас постройка головного Lynx Mark I идёт полным ходом. Первые испытания на сверхзвуковых скоростях в атмосфере намечены на нынешний декабрь, а первый космический полёт — на 2013 год.

http://science.compulenta.ru/679270/
http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/AW_05_14_2012_p26-456595.xml