Progress at XCOR
Lynx Spacecraft Development in Pictures, XCOR
“XCOR Aerospace today announced marked progress on the path to commercial space flight with the integration of the cockpit to the fuselage on XCOR’s Lynx(R) spacecraft. With the fuselage, pressure cabin and strakes delivered, XCOR is bonding these structures together and integrating sub-assemblies, such as the landing gear, at its hangar in Mojave.”
The tortoise keeps moving forward while the hare dithers..
Looking at the photos suggests don’t need $billions$ and tens of thousands of people to build a spaceship, I wonder why there are not not lots more companies doing the same. But maybe most people with lots of money (or in control of budgets) are not interested in spaceflight.
It shouldn’t be a great mystery why aren’t there “lots” of companies building spacecraft, there’s no assurance yet of what kind of demand will or won’t emerge. It’s a fairly big risk to invest in developing a vehicle that nobody is sure will find a sustainable market. Even just getting to market in the first place is an accomplishment in and of itself, plenty of other companies (RpK, t/Space, Rotary, Beal..) have tried and failed.
That depends on the definition of “spaceship.” Lynx is cool, but it’s a small, suborbital spaceplane. That’s a whole ‘nother animal from a deep-space spacecraft and a super heavy-lift launcher. I’m not totally defending NASA and SLS here, because they certainly don’t have their act together. Just pointing out that just because XCOR can build one type of spacecraft with a fairly small budget and staff doesn’t mean the same holds true across the board.
Maybe @mfwright was too general with “spaceship” but I can echo his sentiment for small suborbital spaceplanes.
In terms of the Lynx/SS2 class of spaceplanes, I would agree with both of you. Hopefully XCOR and Virgin Galactic are blazing a trail that others will follow. If the price of a suborbital flight were brought down into the range of say, a cruise, it would be an enormous boost to the general interest in space travel, which would then benefit the companies doing orbital and deep-space missions.
I have to admit I thought they would have been further along after 15 years. It seems there is still a long way to go to build the Lynx vehicle pictured here.
Cudos to them for trying though, I hope they succeed.
Your link goes to Spaceref, not XCOR.
“Lynx Spacecraft Development in Pictures, XCOR”
How are those engines doing I wonder? Good to hear some news.