A brand-new travel agency is selling front-row seats on an XCOR Aerospace rocket plane that will soar more than halfway to outer space, for $95,000 apiece on their Lynx Mark I rocket ship. The Lynx Mark I won’t fly as high as Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo tourist rocketship, which is under construction just down the street from XCOR’s headquarters in Mojave, Calif. This first-generation Lynx is designed to take off and land like a regular airplane, and fly as high as 38 miles (61 kilometers). That’s short of the internationally accepted boundary of outer space (100 kilometers, or 62 miles), as well as the U.S. Air Force’s lower standard for spaceflight (50 miles).
Charles Lurio, writer/publisher of The Lurio Report said, “The thrills on the Lynx are meant to be out of this world: The rocket-powered rise should result in about 90 seconds of in-your-seat weightlessness at the top, and passengers could experience up to 4 G’s of acceleration on the way down. The difference here is that Virgin Galactic’s passengers would get a longer dose of zero-G, with the ability to unstrap themselves from their seats and float around.” But the biggest difference is arguably the cost: Virgin Galactic’s space tour package is going for $200,000, while RocketShip Tours is aiming for a $95,000 price point.
XCOR’s plans call for the Lynx Mark I to start test flights in 2010, If the test schedule goes as hoped, Wimmer should get his ride in 2011, said Andrew Nelson, XCOR’s chief operating officer. He said there 22 customers have signed up for tickets, based on pre-announcement word of mouth. XCOR has designed the reusable Lynx to handle up to four flights a day.
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