New Rocket Aims for Space Tourism Market

Greason wouldn't discuss what Lynx operators might charge for a ride, but he said Xcor's price to operators should allow them to charge passengers half what others charge. The ability to launch four times a day will make up for the fact that the Lynx will only carry one passenger at a time, he said.

The Lynx will have a pressurized cabin but the pilot and passenger will wear helmets and pressure suits for safety. Passengers will need some kind of medical clearance and perhaps a day's training in such things as operating the suits and evacuating the rocket. The Lynx will have an escape capability but no ejection seats.

While SpaceShipTwo will be flown by a crew of two with passengers in seats behind them, Xcor chief test pilot Rick Searfoss, a former space shuttle commander, emphasized that the passenger on each Lynx flight will ride "in the co-pilot position essentially, with an incredible view the whole time."

A Lynx flight will begin with all four rockets firing to send the craft down the runway, said Searfoss, 51. The Lynx will tilt up in near-vertical flight, with increasing acceleration.

"Toward the end you're feeling close to four Gs of acceleration pushing you back against the seat," he said.

Drawing on his shuttle experience, Searfoss likened the G-force feeling to lying on his living room floor with legs sticking up in the air and "having two big dogs sitting on your chest."

Searfoss said that when the engines shut down three minutes into flight, the passenger will instantly feel weightless as the Lynx coasts to the top of its ballistic trajectory.

While a SpaceShipTwo passenger might unbuckle and float briefly, a Lynx passenger will remain strapped in. But Searfoss said the main enjoyment will be the vantage point "high enough to look out across the horizon and see that thin blue line of the atmosphere, see the blackness above you even though its broad daylight below."

On the way down, the Lynx will go into a long circling glide, landing 30 minutes after takeoff.

Greason was asked whether a flight to 200,000 feet about 37 miles is high enough considering that SpaceShipTwo's predecessor, SpaceShipOne, topped 62 miles in three flights in 2004.