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MOJAVE, California – XCOR's EZ-Rocket flew into the history books today. The craft made a record-setting point-to-point flight, departing here from the Mojave California Spaceport, gliding to a touchdown at a neighboring airport in California City. The rocket plane was piloted by Dick Rutan, no stranger to milestone-making voyages. In 1986, Rutan was co-pilot on the Voyager airplane that made the first nonstop, around-the-world flight without refueling. The EZ-Rocket is a modified Long-EZ homebuilt aircraft. The vehicle is propelled by twin 400-pound thrust, regeneratively cooled rocket engines and fueled by isopropyl alcohol and liquid oxygen. The EZ-Rocket is able to...

MOJAVE, California – XCOR's EZ-Rocket flew into the history books today. The craft made a record-setting point-to-point flight, departing here from the Mojave California Spaceport, gliding to a touchdown at a neighboring airport in California City. The rocket plane was piloted by Dick Rutan, no stranger to milestone-making voyages. In 1986, Rutan was co-pilot on the Voyager airplane that made the first nonstop, around-the-world flight without refueling. The EZ-Rocket is a modified Long-EZ homebuilt aircraft. The vehicle is propelled by twin 400-pound thrust, regeneratively cooled rocket engines and fueled by isopropyl alcohol and liquid oxygen. The EZ-Rocket is able to...

XCOR Aerospace announced Monday that it has successfully completed its first series of tests on a 50 pound thrust rocket engine fueled by methane and liquid oxygen. "We are very pleased with the test results and expect increased performance in future versions," said XCOR Chief Engineer Dan DeLong. "These engine tests gave us operational familiarity working with methane. We have extensive experience with liquid oxygen, so running an engine with a cryogenic fuel wasn't a stretch for us."

XCOR Aerospace recently announced a major NASA contract to explore fluoropolymers for cryogenic oxygen storage that can be formed into interesting shapes like wings and fuselages. They showed a test sample of that patent-pending invention at Space Access. This follows their pump and other parts that they are co-developing with interested parties. XCOR is hoping eventually to have everything to put together their Xerus suborbital vehicle.

MOJAVE - XCOR Aerospace announced an agreement with Beyond-Earth Enterprises to provide rocket engines for the Colorado Springs company's commercial space venture. The Mojave-based rocket engine company will design and manufacture the propulsion system for small-payload launch vehicles built by Beyond-Earth. Regarding XCOR, "They're the best in the business when it comes to engines," said Beyond-Earth Enterprises CEO Joe Latrell . Beyond-Earth Enterprises intends to tap into the consumer market for space travel by selling kits that allow customers to send personal objects into suborbital space, essentially adding sentimental value as a space-flown object and providing "bragging rights," Latrell said....

Colorado Springs, Colorado, April 11, 2005: Studies show that 70 percent of Americans would buy a flight into space if they had the chance and the cost was reasonable. Now a cooperative agreement between Beyond-Earth Enterprises and XCOR Aerospace will develop greater accessibility to space for everyone in a safe, reliable, and affordable manner. The agreement will allow Beyond-Earth to purchase manufactured components from XCOR for standardized production of small payload launch vehicles. Beyond-Earth Enterprises is a commercial firm dedicated to providing small payload launch capabilities at affordable rates. XCOR Aerospace, Inc., is a small, private company with proven expertise...

MOJAVE - XCOR Aerospace will continue its own work in developing a composite liquid oxygen fuel tank for NASA's new space exploration plans under a $7 million contract announced Monday. The Mojave-based rocket engine company won the competitive contract as part of the space agency's effort to develop key technologies for manned exploration of the moon, Mars and beyond. "We get a chance to do what we want to do to the benefit of us, to the benefit of NASA and other folks," company co-founder Aleta Jackson said. Over the last few years, XCOR has developed a combination of materials...

XCOR Aerospace thanked and congratulated President Bush on signing HR 5382, "The Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004," into law today. This important bipartisan legislation updates the Commercial Space Launch Act and puts commercial human space flight on a clear legal foundation. The bill also takes other important steps to improve the regulatory environment and reduce investor uncertainty facing this new industry. HR 5382 will help harness the power of private enterprise to the task of making space travel affordable for all of us. "Ultimately, we must give credit to the elected officials who put their reputations on the...

What it is: The XCOR Steam Engine Prize is being offered to anyone who delivers a “steam engine” that meets the requirements of the rules. Third place is USD $2,500.00 to the first person or organization that meets all the requirements listed in the rules. The $3,500.00 Second Place prize will be awarded to the first person or organization that delivers a machine that meets all the third place requirements plus the additional second place requirements. The $5,000.00 First Place prize will be won by the first person or organization who delivers a machine that meets all the above requirements...

MOJAVE - XCOR Aerospace successfully demonstrated a new liquid oxygen pump, technology that may be used to power future rocket propulsion systems. This piston pump technology is a step beyond conventional turbo pump fuel systems that are effective for very large engines, but too big, heavy and complicated for midsized rocket engines. Development of the pump proceeded in stages. Engineers first tested the system using water, then rocket fuel. Using these liquids made testing easier because they are at room temperature, said Dan DeLong, XCOR chief engineer. After success in those initial tests, engineers moved on to low-temperature liquid nitrogen...

A desert airdrome in Mojave, California is on the final glide path to getting government approval for becoming an inland gateway to space. The Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites)'s Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST) is expected next month to certify that the Mojave Airport Civilian Flight Test Center as a non-federal spaceport to handle horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft. As such, Mojave Airport can offer a range of launch and landing services making it a hub for high-flying craft intended to help spark public space travel. The Mojave Airport is located approximately 100 miles north of...

MOJAVE - XCOR Aerospace, home to cutting-edge rocket engine technology, is now the proud recipient of the nation's second space launch license. The company's neighbor at Mojave Airport, Scaled Composites, was granted the first-ever space launch license in April. XCOR's license differs somewhat in that it authorizes a rocket vehicle take-off from the ground. Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne, in contrast, is air-launched from a carrier aircraft. The license also is unusual in that it was granted for a vehicle that is not yet built, said Rich Pournelle, XCOR's director of business development. "We've developed most of the technology to go inside...

MOJAVE - It's the biggest thing to come to town, possibly ever in Mojave's history. Mojave Airport and the surrounding community are readying to host as many as 300,000 visitors as Burt Rutan and his Scaled Composites team attempts to win the $10 million X-Prize sometime this year. Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne already has flown two successful flights firing its hybrid rocket motor and is widely seen as the front-runner in the international competition intended to jump-start the commercial space tourism industry. The competition will award $10 million to the first privately funded team to successfully build and launch a spacecraft...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A California company received on Friday the second ever federal license to fly a manned rocket on suborbital flights. The Federal Aviation Administration granted XCor Aerospace Inc. the license for its Sphinx, a rocket-powered plane that is still on the drawing board. The license covers up to 35 flights of the yet-to-be-built plane, which should test operation and propulsion concepts for an even later craft that could ferry paying passengers on suborbital flights, according to the FAA. The license is good through 2006. Company chief executive officer Jeff Greason said the license would allow the company...

MOJAVE - At a time when space travel existed only in the realm of science fiction, Aleta Jackson knew it was in her future. "I decided when I was 6 I would go into space," she said. This was in 1954, three years before the Soviet satellite Sputnik launched the space age. Now, nearly 50 years later, Jackson has not quite made the trek into space herself, but she is deeply involved in private-industry efforts to get there. Jackson is a co-founder of Mojave-based XCOR Aerospace, a company working to provide safe, reliable and reusable rockets for access to space....

XCOR Aerospace announced today that it has been informed by the Federal Aviation Administration's Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation (AST) that its application for a commercial space launch license has been deemed "sufficiently complete." This significant regulatory milestone means that AST has committed itself either to issue a launch license to XCOR within 180 days or notify Congress that it failed to do so. "We still have work to do, but this a major step toward being issued a launch license," said XCOR's Randall Clague. "It shows that the process AST has put in place is achievable even for...

The clock is ticking for XCOR To date three companies have started filing applications with the FAA's Office of the Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation (AST) for a suborbital RLV launch license: Scaled Composites, Armadillo Aerospace, and XCOR Aerospace. At Thursday's meeting of the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) at FAA Headquarters, AST head Patti Grace Smith announced a new milestone: XCOR is the first company to have submitted a "substantially complete" application. This declaration starts a 180-day evaluation period by AST on the license, which means that by late April AST must either reject the application or...

In the not-so-distant past, Mojave Airport often made the national news for the long lines of airliners parked in desert storage as the airline industry slumped. Now, however, it is making news for being home to cutting-edge innovations in aerospace. Two of the airports' tenants are featured in the Oct. 6 issue of Newsweek magazine, in an article highlighting the emerging space tourism industry. "We're always grateful when the national media takes notice of our progress and the progress of others in our industry," said Jeff Greason, CEO of XCOR Aerospace, one of the Mojave companies featured. XCOR, already successful...

MOJAVE - Innovators developing the emerging field of commercial space travel are exploring uncharted territory, not just in space but in regulatory bureaucracy as well. Before commercial space travel can get off the ground, entrepreneurs and federal regulators need to reach agreement on how such reusable, suborbital spacecraft will be licensed. As these space travel pioneers seek to license operations of their fledgling spacecraft, two different branches of the Federal Aviation Administration are competing for jurisdiction over them. The impasse threatens further investment and development of the projects. "It's adding a lot of delay and confusion," said Jeff Greason ,...

It was to be "The Last Flight of the Roton," but the flight was not nearly as long as organizers hoped. The last vestige of an attempt to create a low-cost space-launch system, the Roton ATV was headed from its birthplace at the Mojave Airport for display at Classic Rotors, a helicopter museum located at the Ramona Airport. But like many flight experiments before it, this one ended in disappointment Saturday morning. The effort to carry the six-story, cone-shaped vehicle, created by Rotary Rocket, beneath an Army helicopter ran into unexpected difficulties once airborne and the two never left the...