By Xinhua
Washington : A U.S. aerospace company based in California on Wednesday unveiled a new suborbital spaceship with two seats for private space tourists.
The company, XCOR Aerospace announced that its two-seat, rocket-powered Lynx spaceship, is capable of suborbital flights to altitudes of more than 37 miles (60 kilometers) above the Earth.
The spaceship, roughly the size of a small private airplane, will first take off in 2010 and is expected to be capable of making several flights a day, according to XCOR.
“Lynx will offer affordable access to space for individuals, researchers and educators,” said XCOR Chief Executive Officer Jeff Greason in a statement on Wednesday. “It will carry people or payloads to where they will experience weightlessness and see the stars above and the Earth and its atmosphere below,” he added.
According to Greason, the vehicle was designed to operate much like “a commercial aircraft,” with which the company will enter the emerging space tourism market. Its liquid fuel can minimize the impact of the flights on the environment. The engines are fully reusable, burn cleanly, and release fewer particulates than solid fuel or hybrid rocket motors.