RocketSTEM Issue #5 - January 2014 | Page 43

but spaceflight is always risky business and contingency life support is a must. The Lynx can accommodate one passenger per flight. According to former NASA astronaut, Col. Richard Seafoss, who is now Chief Test Pilot for XCOR, “Flying with us aboard the Lynx is a whole set of different experiences. All of the things that I experienced flying the shuttle, all of those phases of flight, are there. The boosts, the weightlessness, the fact that you are up in the pilot’s seat as opposed to being in the back of the plane like a passenger on an airliner – this is more like “The Right Stuff” kind of experience.” Though the price tag seems high, XCOR is offering flights at a much lower cost than its competition. The company that will emerge as the leader in this exciting area of The Lynx main engine being test fired at the XCOR test site located on the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California. Photo: XCOR Aerospace/Mike Massee commercial spaceflight is yet to be seen, but XCOR is speculated to send up its first tourist flight in 2014. If all goes as planned, it won’t be long until we get to see the world from the perspective of a space tourist. Col. Seafoss has referred to the trip as the ‘Greatest Ride Off Earth’. With that kind of description, it can easily be deduced that one’s head will remain in the clouds long after the flight has landed. Lynx spacecraft making big screen debut By Sherry Valare There is a lot of excitement coming in the near future for the Lynx spacecraft and everyone involved in its development at XCOR Aerospace. In a partnership with Centerboro Productions, XCOR’s Lynx spacecraft is going to be making its acting debut in the upcoming Science Fiction/Action/ Thriller 3D movie   “Newcomers”, where a NASA astronaut becomes the last line of defense against a global alien invasion. Scheduled to start production this year using regular and 3-D cameras on board the Lynx spaceship, this film will be the first to have exclusive footage shot from sub-orbital space by a privately owned commercial spaceflight company