XCOR Launch Application Complete

Kulic writes "SpaceDaily.com is reporting that XCOR, a competitor for the X-Prize has had their launch application deemed 'sufficiently complete' by the Federal Aviation Administration's Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation. This significant regulatory milestone means that AST has committed itself either to issue a launch license to XCOR within 180 days or notify Congress that it failed to do so."

Comments

Trip

[ActionPlant]

When do tickets go on sale?

Okay, so maybe we can't just buy our way into space YET, but this certainly seems to help get us that much closer. Maybe I won't need the engineering degree and military career after all.

Damon,

I guarantee none of this will be covered by MEDIA

[zymano]

The only coverage I ever saw of the X-prize was on National Geographic of all places.

That's beside the point

[Media Withdrawal]

As long as you're using rockets and not transporter beams or beanstalks, you have to fly through the air to get to orbit. That's the FAA's baliwick.

The FAA had its roots in the Air Commerce Act of 1926, a year before Lindberg's transatlantic flight. The Air Commerce Act created a series of agencies whose whole point was promoting safe air commerce. Emphasis on commerce. 45 years after the act was passed, you could fly just about anywhere in the world on a jet. That's what I call success, and this is lineage of agencies to talk to if you want to start selling tickets to orbit. Heaven forbid you should talk to NASA, which has been around for 45 years, thinks they own space itself, and distains commerce.

Launch what? X Prize team for sure?

[Gogo Dodo]

Looking over the X Prize teams list, I don't see XCOR listed. On the XCOR Xerus page, it says that their design is "in the preliminary design phase".

So they have a license to launch something they haven't built or even finished designing? I think my money is still on Burt Rutan.

Re:Tried many times

[WegianWarrior]

Tried before? Uhm... you you care to back that statement up, preferable with links? Because, even thought some germans during the last big war messed with rocketproppeled planes, those wasn't meant to go anywhere near space, and the various winged programs (DynaSoar, Shuttle, Buran to name a few) that has been either close to flight or actually has flown have all been large, costly goverment programs.

AFAIK civilians has always dreamed of "cobbling together a rocketship in the backyard" and head up into space, but it's only the last few years that the technology needed has reached a pricepoint where it is possible for anyone but a goverment to afford to develop and build a manned spaceship (or even a suborbital one). Papaerprojects has floated around since before the dawn of the spaceage, but no one went into space on those. It looks like the X-prize and XCOR are the first programs that results in actuall hardware beeing built.

On the other hand, if you want a real affordable, private launch, you could try cobbling together a huge suger or sorbitol rocket, put a chair on it and see if you can't get hold of something like the MOOSE. Off course, you would need a suit too, but as the early suits where souped up versions of a standard flightsuit, a visit to the nearest military surplus store will solve that.

So there you have it... an simple, affordable launchsystem. Wonder why no one has done that... oh, safety. Right.

Re:I guarantee none of this will be covered by MED

[JohnFluxx]

"SpaceDaily.com is reporting that XCOR, a competitor for the X-Prize..."

If it _isn't_ a competitor for the X-Prize as you say, shouldn't you be shouting this out and clarifying this article and that news site?

Re:Thanks PhantomHarlock

[PhantomHarlock]

Well you're welcome...I was just heading out the door when I hit reload one last time, and by golly there's the press release from yesterday. So I decided to stick around and blab. :) Meaningful info is indeed a good thing, brings down the s/n ratio. Education is part of our mission, which is why we started things like the Aerospace reference library and why we take our 15 lb-thrust N2O-Ethane 'teacart' engine to conventions and fire it for people.

Way to go guys

[Alioth]

What XCOR is doing is very interesting, and I wish them every success. I was there for the unveiling of their rocket technology in Mojave, CA. when they flew the rockets (actually for the second time) on a Long-Ez. You can see my writeup of it here (at the risk of a slight Slashdotting).