XCOR wins a major customer

XCOR Aerospace announced this afternoon a major business development for the suborbital vehicle developer: a contract to provide suborbital space launch services for a South Korean organization. XOCR will provide and operate a Lynx Mark 2 vehicle to the Yecheon Astro Space Center under a “wet lease” model, pending export control approvals. The center will use the Lynx for “space tourism, educational, scientific and environmental monitoring missions”, according to the announcement.

The center, formerly known as the Yecheon Astronomy Foundation, is not well-known, at least outside of Korea: the center’s web site is in Korean, and a Google search primarily turns up references to this announcement. The press release states that the center has put together “a broad coalition of regional and national entities” to fund the project.

That funding, estimated to be $30 million, could be critical to XCOR. At the Space Investment Summit 7 conference in Boston in late September, XCOR COO Andrew Nelson said that the company was looking for abut $10 million in investment or sales to fund development of the Mark 2 vehicle, which will be able to fly to higher altitudes than the single Mark 1 prototype under development.

1 comment to XCOR wins a major customer

  • John J Leonard

    The news Yecheon is prepared to invest US$30m in XCOR is the most splendid news to end this most note worthy decade that saw the X Prize won and people fly to space on a non-government spaceship. I do hope the investment meets with regulatory approval and spurs XCOR on to ever greater heights, especially orbital heights, this is what we really need. And thank you to Jeff Foust for all your efforts to bring us the news as it happens. JJL

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