XCOR Announces Global Network of Research Integrators

[Danderman]

http://www.xcor.com/press-releases/2011/11-02-28_XCOR_announces_payload_integrators.html

"February 28th, 2011, Orlando, FL, USA: At the commencement of the 2011 Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC) being held in Orlando, Florida, XCOR Aerospace announced its initial team of suborbital payload integration specialists who will begin taking orders and facilitating experiment development and integration for commercial, educational and government suborbital research missions aboard XCOR's Lynx reusable suborbital launch vehicle. Capable of up to four flights per day, the Lynx is expected to provide three to four minutes of micro-gravity and/or exposure to the harsh environment of space and the opportunity to investigate largely unknown regions of our upper atmosphere critical to environmental studies.

These pioneering payload integrators represent both large, established companies and start-up space entities run by seasoned executives and fresh new entrepreneurs from places like Asia, Europe, North America, and South Africa. XCOR will be adding additional specialist firms to the network in the coming months.

The first group of XCOR Lynx payload integration specialist firms include the following (in alphabetical order): the African Space Institute of Durban, South Africa; Cosmica Spacelines of Toulouse, France; NanoRacks of Lexington, Kentucky and Washington, D.C.  ; the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado; Space Chariots in Oxon, England; Space Experience Curacao of the Netherlands and the Caribbean island of Curacao; Spaceflight Services in Tukwila, Washington, Valencia, California, and Huntsville, Alabama; and Yecheon Astro Space Center, Yecheon, South Korea."

[mlorrey]

Yeah, it definitely looks like XCOR is putting the pieces together to be a better value option both for suborbital and orbital launch of small payloads.

[kkattula]

From what I've heard from NSRC, there seem to be a lot of researchers booking sub-orbital flights with XCOR & Virgin Galactic, not to mention Masten & Armadillo.

The research market may well equal if not exceed the tourist market.