A U.S. aerospace company plans to enter the space-tourism business with a two-seat rocket capable of suborbital flights to altitudes more than 60 kilometers above the Earth. The Lynx, about the size of a small private airplane, is expected to begin flying in 2010, according to developer Xcor Aerospace. The company also said the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded it a research contract to develop and test features of the Lynx. Xcor's announcement comes two months after aerospace designer Burt Rutan and billionaire Richard Branson unveiled a model of SpaceShipTwo, which is being built for Branson's Virgin Galactic space-tourism company and may begin test flights this year. Xcor intends to be a spacecraft maker, with another company operating the Lynx and setting prices. The Lynx is designed to take off from a runway like a normal airplane, reach a top speed of Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound) and an altitude of 61,000 meters, then descend in a circling glide to a runway landing. Powered by clean-burning, fully reusable, liquid-fuel engines, the Lynx is expected to be able to make several flights per day, Xcor said. “We have designed this vehicle to operate much like a commercial aircraft,” chief executive Jeff Greason said in a statement.
