XCOR shoots for space travel

Valley Press on ^ | Wednesday, October 24, 2007. | JIM SKEEN

[BenLurkin]

PALMDALE - The people behind Mojave-based XCOR want to go into space, but to get there they need to bring adventure tourists with them, one of the company's founders said Tuesday. XCOR, comprised of a handful of workers, has visions of creating a reusable spacecraft that will take a pilot and a passenger 100 miles above Earth, giving the high-flying tourist a view of the black sky of space and three minutes of weightlessness. The company envisions being able to conduct five or six such flights a day at a rate of about $20,000 per passenger, said Aleta Jackson, one of the company's founders.

"We want to go to space," Jackson told the audience at the Antelope Valley Board of Trade luncheon. "The only way to do it is to make it cheap enough for the rest of you to go."

Contracts are selected to help XCOR develop technologies they need to build their own spacecraft, a vehicle they dub Xerus.

"We don't take contracts off our baseline," Jackson said.

The company was founded at the Mojave Air and Space Port in 1999 by four partners who were laid off by Rotary Rocket. XCOR started small, building a 15-pound thrust engine they called the "briefcase engine" that they could easily showcase to highlight their skills.

The company has steadily built their business to the point where XCOR made Inc. magazine's list of the top 500 fastest-growing private businesses. The Mojave-based company came in at No. 446 on the list, which ranks companies based on the percentage increase of revenue over a three-year period. XCOR, founded in 1999, has seen its revenue grow 646% from 2003 to 2006.