"Breaking Atmo"

A company named XCOR has made an announcement today that they will be joining the "Space Tourism" industry. XCOR is a company out of Mojave, CA who has been in rocket engine development for different rocket engines over the last 9 years.

XCOR will create a personal aircraft sized spacecraft that will launch and fly out to the edge of the atmosphere for passengers to view the Earth from space and to experience a short duration of weightlessness.

XCOR plans to use a liquid fueled rocket system due to both the saftey of the system and the minimal impact on environment as compared to other rocket configurations. Liquid fueled rockets are safer due to the fact that they can be shut down once started, you just cut off the fuel and oxidizer flow to the engine. Hybrid rockets also work like this, but solid fueled rockets can not be stopped once they have been ignited.

With the safety of the liquid fueled system, comes a heightened complexity to the rocket. A liquid fuel system requires a lot of cooling and piping, as well as turbo pumps to feed the fuel into the engine.

If you want to take a look at the new vehicle proposed by XCOR, check out their website XCOR.com


Godspeed