science

XCOR Aerospace

XCOR Aerospace is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand XCOR Aerospace rather than just read about it. In short: XCOR Aerospace was an American private spaceflight and rocket engine development company based at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, Midland International Air and Spaceport in Midland, Texas and the Amsterdam area, the Netherlands. XCOR was formed in 1999 by former members of the Rotary Rocket rocket engine development team, and ceased operations in 2017.

XCOR Aerospace — illustration

Key takeaways

XCOR Aerospace belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect XCOR Aerospace to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of XCOR Aerospace from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

XCOR Aerospace was an American private spaceflight and rocket engine development company based at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, Midland International Air and Spaceport in Midland, Texas and the Amsterdam area, the Netherlands. XCOR was formed in 1999 by former members of the Rotary Rocket rocket engine development team, and ceased operations in 2017. By 2015, XCOR was headed by CEO John "Jay" Gibson, who remained CEO until June 2017. XCOR Aerospace was the parent operation, concerned with engineering and building spaceships and had two main subdivisions within it; XCOR Space Expeditions provided marketing and sales, and XCOR Science had been set up to conduct scientific and educational payload flights. By May 2016, XCOR was laying off staff and in 2017, XCOR closed their doors for good and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

History The company was founded in Mojave, California in 1999 by Jeff Greason, Dan DeLong, Aleta Jackson and Doug Jones who had previously worked at the Rotary Rocket company. In 2001, XCOR designed and built EZ-Rocket, the first privately built and flown rocket-powered airplane. EZ-Rocket made its maiden flight in July 2001. XCOR moved its development and manufacturing operations to Midland, Texas from July 2012 to 2015. The company uses the Mojave Air and Space port primarily to conduct test flights. In 2015, XCOR attracted investment from Chinese venture firm Haiyin Capital, valuing the company at $140 million. From 1999 to 2015, Jeff Greason served as CEO. In mid-2015, John "Jay" Gibson succeeded Greason as CEO. Later that year three of the co-founders, Jeff Greason, Dan DeLong and Aleta Jackson, left the company to found Agile Aero, an aerospace company focused on rapid development and prototyping of aerodynamic spacecraft. In May 2016, the company halted development of the Lynx spaceplane and pivoted company focus toward development its LOX/LH2 engine technology, particularly on a funded project for United Launch Alliance. The company laid off more than 20 people of the 50–60 persons onboard prior to May. By the end of June 2017, CEO Gibson left the company, and the company laid off all remaining employees, hiring about half back on a contract basis. The company filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in November 2017.

Projects

Lynx rocketplane

The Lynx was planned to be capable of carrying a pilot and a passenger or payload on sub-orbital spaceflights over 100 kilometres (62 mi). Between 20 and 50 test flights of Lynx were planned, along with numerous static engine firings on the ground. A full step-by-step set of taxi tests, runway hops and full-up flights were planned to get the vehicle to a state of operational readiness. Lynx was envisaged to be roughly the size of a small private airplane. It was planned to be capable of flying several times a day making use of reusable, non-toxic engines to help keep the space plane's operating costs low. The Lynx superseded a previous design, the Xerus spaceplane. The Lynx was initially announced in March 2008, with plans for an operational vehicle within two years. That date slipped, first to 2012, then to 2015 and in January 2016 the company declined to give a projected date for the first test flight. The Mark II was projected to fly twelve to eighteen months after the first test flight depending on how fast the prototype moved through the test program. As of 2012, XCOR had presold 175 Lynx flights at US$95,000 each. On 27 May 2016, XCOR laid off a significant portion of its workforce and placed the development of the Lynx Spacecraft on indefinite hold to focus on development of a rocket engine.

XCOR Orbital Should Lynx prove successful, there was a plan to continue on to a two stage air launched fully reusable orbital launch system. The plan was to use a Boeing 767 as the carrier plane, a first stage with an uncertain number of kerosene-oxygen engines, and a second stage with three hydrogen-oxygen engines. Details are not public.

Thermoplastic polymer development XCOR has developed Nonburnite, a cryo-compatible, inherently non-combustible composite material based on a thermoplastic fluoropolymer resin. Low coefficient of thermal expansion and inherent resistance to microcracking make it well suited to cryogenic tank use and also part of vehicle structure. As of February 2012, Nonburnite was to have been used in the tanks of the Lynx rocketplane.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with XCOR Aerospace

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what XCOR Aerospace claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to XCOR Aerospace before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about XCOR Aerospace ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of XCOR Aerospace

In research: XCOR Aerospace appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses XCOR Aerospace in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: XCOR Aerospace is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2017 disestablishments in California, Aerospace companies of the United States, American companies disestablished in 2017, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for XCOR Aerospace outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study XCOR Aerospace in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what XCOR Aerospace means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain XCOR Aerospace out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is XCOR Aerospace in simple terms?

Why does XCOR Aerospace matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study XCOR Aerospace?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on XCOR Aerospace.