Free Republic

MOJAVE - Progress on rocket engine technology continues at XCOR Aerospace, as the company this week announced the successful completion of the first round of testing of its new 56-pound thrust rocket engine, the XR-3E17. The new engine is a direct descendant of the company's first "Tea Cart" engine, which debuted in 2000 and has been used as a demonstration model of the company's capabilities. "We needed a more updated engine," said Aleta Jackson, co-founder of the company, which is based at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The new engine provides nearly four times the thrust of the original...

LOS ANGELES -- Just a few years ago, the idea of bankrolling starry-eyed ventures to fly ordinary people into space was laughed off as science fiction. Now some investors are betting on space tourism as the next big thing. The infant industry got a boost in June when a Boston-area investment group backed a private rocket company developing a spaceship that will take off and land like an airplane. The deal between Boston Harbor Angels and XCOR Aerospace, believed to be the first investment by a group of angel investors in a commercial launch company, raised hopes that others will...

When XCOR Aerospace last week unveiled the design of its suborbital spacecraft, intended to offer a glimpse of black sky and the Earth below to space tourists, one of those excited about the opportunity to experience what few have before was Esther Dyson. Dyson, of EDventure Holdings, ... is one of the investors who will help make it possible. Dyson is an angel investor, an individual who provides seed money for a young company, typically bridging the gap between self-funding and the later, larger investment by venture capitalists. "She has a knack for finding what's new and different in technology,"...

The space tourism firm XCOR Aerospace Inc. announced plans in 2008 to launch its private two-seat Lynx space plane. Lynx was expected to fly paying space tourists to an altitude of about 38 miles above Earth, where passengers would experience 90 seconds of weightlessness. The company first estimated flight tests would begin in 2010, with private flights to follow soon after. Many space tourists bought into XCOR's Lynx model for the chance to briefly experience weightlessness at the edge of space. Having paid XCOR $100,000 for a ticket, customer Nael Hamameh thought his flight would come as early as 2011,...