homehome Home chatchat Notifications


Space tourism - just 2 years away?

Recently, a small Aerospace company located in California has announced a new type of sub-orbital spaceship that can make your dream come true; that is, if you’ve got the right amount of money and you want to travel into outer space. This spaceship is claimed to provideaffordable front-seat rides to the edge of space for […]

Mihai Andrei
March 27, 2008 @ 11:12 am

share Share

lynxRecently, a small Aerospace company located in California has announced a new type of sub-orbital spaceship that can make your dream come true; that is, if you’ve got the right amount of money and you want to travel into outer space. This spaceship is claimed to provideaffordable front-seat rides to the edge of space for the millions of people who want to buy a ticket.

The company, XCOR Aerospace, announced that it will be able to carry people or payloads to where they will experience weightlessness and see the stars above and the Earth and its atmosphere below. They company hopes that in this way it will “launch” itself into the already rising industry of space travel. Also, it’s supposed to be really not that expensive.

“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. We have designed this vehicle to operate much like a commercial aircraft. Its liquid fuel engines will provide the enhanced safety, durability, reliability and maintainability that keep operating costs low. These engines will also minimize the impact of these flights on the environment. They are fully reusable, burn cleanly, and release fewer particulates than solid fuel or hybrid rocket motors.”

They’ve been developing this technology for 9 years and it seems their work is close to paying off; the Lynx promises to bring the best ride on the face of the planet, in a metaphorical way of course. A price hasn’t been yet officially announced, so we’re quite eager to see what it will be. Also, they’re in the business of developing and producing safe, reliable and reusable rocket engines, rocket propulsion systems, and rocket powered vehicles.

share Share

The most successful space telescope you never heard of just shut down

An astronomer says goodbye to Gaia, the satellite that mapped the galaxy.

Astronauts are about to grow mushrooms in space for the first time. It could help us live on Mars

Mushrooms could become the ultimate food for living in colonies on the moon and Mars.

Dark Energy Might Be Fading and That Could Flip the Universe’s Fate

Astronomers discover hints that the force driving cosmic expansion could be fading

Curiosity Just Found Mars' Biggest Organic Molecules Yet. It Could Be A Sign of Life

The discovery of long-chain organic compounds in a 3.7-billion-year-old rock raises new questions about the Red Planet’s past habitability.

Astronomers Just Found Oxygen in a Galaxy Born Only 300 Million Years After the Big Bang

The JWST once again proves it might have been worth the money.

New NASA satellite mapped the oceans like never before

We know more about our Moon and Mars than the bottom of our oceans.

Astronauts Who Spent 286 Extra Days in Space Earned No Overtime. But They Did Get a $5 a Day "Incidentals" Allowance

Astronauts in space have the same benefits as any federal employee out on a business trip.

Scientists Say the Moon Was Once a Giant Ocean of Molten Rock

China’s Chang’e 6 mission uncovers evidence of a molten lunar magma ocean and a violent ancient impact.

Mars has huge amounts of water hidden beneath its surface — and perhaps life too

There may be an ocean's worth of water trapped inside rocks miles below the surface.

For the First Time Ever, Scientists Have Directly Detected Carbon Dioxide on Distant Planets

The discovery is keeping astronomers on their toes about how planets are formed.