New design warms up the space cruise ship race

Today, in Los Angeles, a private company introduced the 2-seater Lynx rocket, for guests who pay to visit Earth's orbit. This is the latest design in the race to create space cruises.

The Lynx, developed by XCOR Aerospace, will allow a passenger to sit with the pilot experiencing weightlessness and observing the earth from space.

" From the beginning, we have aimed for a fully reusable, regular, economical and secure means of re-use to succeed, in the market we hope will be healthy, competitive, "said company director Jeff Greason.

XCOR has been quietly working with rocket-fueled rocket engines on all sizes and designs in Mojave, California since 1999.

The boundary between the earth and the universe is determined at an altitude of nearly 100 km, and spacecraft built by private companies aiming to cross this boundary in 4-5 minutes in a state of weightlessness. quantity, before falling back to earth. This distance is too short for shuttles at 25 times the speed of sound.

Design of Lynx.(Photo: Popsci)

However, the short flights mentioned above are still a major challenge for any private company, and so far, only Scaled Composites (California) is truly able to overcome, with Product is SpaceShipOne ship. To achieve this goal, the ship must pass 3 times the speed of rocket fuel, keep the tourists alive with the onboard support system, be able to orient themselves in the universe and survive. when returning to earth.

SpaceShipOne did all that in 2004 to win an $ 10 million Ansari X award. This award stimulated British aviation tycoon Richard Branson to invest in SpaceShipTwo for his newly formed Virgin Galactic.

XCOR plans to launch the Lynx in 2010, the same year Virgin plans to launch SpaceShipTwo.