XCOR To Design and Analyze Rocket-Powered Vehicle

The US Air Force announced at the 23rd National Space Symposium April 11 that it awarded XCOR Aerospace a contract to design and analyze a rocket-powered vehicle that will reach 200,000 feet altitude and supersonic speeds.

The Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase 1 contract is part of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Air Vehicle Directorate's Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Access Mission. The SBIR program is one of the most important public policy programs, with a goal of generating innovative high technology firms and promoting competitiveness and growth.

Using government and private funding, XCOR will construct a simple, all rocket-powered vehicle that will fly low suborbital demonstration missions.

Preliminary vehicle design is currently underway.

Private investment will be matched with USAF resources to complete vehicle fabrication during the SBIR Phase II period.

The vehicle will build on the success of XCOR's previous commercial and government technology projects, including reusable liquid rocket engines capable of hundreds of restarts, piston propellant pumps, low-cost highly-reliable valves, rapid propellant-filling techniques, and proven reliable ignition systems.

The contract provides the AF with a tool for demonstrating operationally responsive high-performance rocket systems with relevance to space lift and other military requirements, and will produce a flyable vehicle that it can use as a test bed to empirically assess the parameters that drive operational responsiveness.

These parameters include labor hours per flight, turnaround time, which subsystems require the most unscheduled maintenance, what the frequency of failure is, and what their time of replacement is.

The AFRL will be able to insert new technologies, such as Integrated Systems Health Management, longer life subsystems, or other technologies that the AF may want to evaluate and measure for their impact on vehicle performance and responsiveness.

XCOR has several years' experience with a rocket-powered vehicle, the EZ-Rocket, which flew 26 times, demonstrated a three-hour turnaround time, and flew two sorties per day.

Said Jeff Greason, XCOR president and co-founder, "XCOR is excited to be working with the Air Force Research Laboratory Air Vehicles Directorate on this project. We look forward to advancing capabilities that solve the overlapping needs of the military and commercial space flight."

Located in Mojave, CA, and founded in 1999, XCOR Aerospace develops and produces reusable rocket engines, rocket propulsion systems, and rocket-powered vehicles.

FMI:  www.va.afrl.af.mil, www.xcor.com