A private rocket-building company that is designing a suborbital space
plane for future paid trips to the edge of space will open a new test
facility in Texas, company officials announced today (July 9). The Mojave, Calif.-based XCOR Aerospace and the Midland Development Corporation unveiled plans today for XCOR's new Commercial Space Research and Development Center Headquarters in Midland, Texas. The research facility will be used to test XCOR's Lynx space plane, a reusable, winged spaceship that is designed to carry two passengers and science experiments to the edge of space.
The company also plans to eventually develop and test components for an orbital version of the Lynx vehicle in Midland, company officials said.
The new R&D headquarters will be established in a newly renovated 60,000-square-foot hangar at the Midland International Airport
(MAF). Construction of the office space and test facility will begin
early next year, company officials said, and is expected to be complete
by late autumn in 2013. XCOR recently announced it is aiming to begin operational Lynx flights from California's Mojave Spaceport in 2013, and flights from the tiny Caribbean island of Curacao the following year. XCOR is not the only private rocket company that has expressed interest
in building new facilities in Texas. California-based SpaceX, the
private aerospace firm that successfully launched the first commercially
built, unmanned spacecraft to the International Space Station, has proposed building a launch facility in Cameron County in southern Texas for orbital and suborbital vehicles. Space.com
