On December 17th, 2009, XCOR
aerospace announced a collaboration
with the Yecheon
Astro Space Center, South Korea in which
XCOR
will provide the center with suborbital
space launch services. Yecheon in turn will
provide the $30M needed to see the Lynx
program through development of first the
lower altitude (61km) Lynx Mark I prototype
and then the Lynx Mark II, which can reach
altitudes greater than 100km. The partnership
will work with the US government to insure
that all space technology export restrictions
are satisfied, e.g. a so-called "wet
lease" arrangement will leave all vehicle
service and operation in the hands of XCOR
personnel.
Lynx Mk. 1 Flight Profile (full
size, pdf)
The first Lynx could begin test flights
by early 2011. The vehicle carries a pilot
and one passenger. Below is a video describing
the Lynx system and what a Lynx flight would
be like.
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