Thought Virgin Galactic had the public space travel market sewn shut? Well think again -- there's a new player coming to the game.
The company, XCOR Aerospace, of Mojave, CA, announced that its two-seat Lynx suborbital spaceship will carry people or payloads to where they will experience weightlessness and see the stars above and the Earth and its atmosphere below. This will launch XCOR into the emerging space tourism market, estimated at over a half-billion dollars.
The Lynx will offer affordable access to space for individuals, researchers and educators," said XCOR CEO Jeff Greason. "Future versions of Lynx will offer ever-improving capabilities for scientific and engineering research and commercial applications.
The spaceship, roughly the size of a small private airplane, will first take off in 2010 and will be capable of flying several times each day.
Rides will last approximately 30 minutes from take-off to landing, but there's no word on pricing yet. It's definitely going to be cheaper than $200,000 Virgin Galactic rides, but probably still expensive. My guess is a tentacled arm and leg! Get it? Because aliens have tentacled appendages. That was a space joke. Just like this one: Why doesn't NASA let me fly the space shuttle? Because I'm a fucking idiot!
Another picture showing what a typical flight will consist of, along with a worthwhile video, after the jump.
XCOR Aerospace Website
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