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[i]XCOR Aerospace of Mojave, Calif., the latest entrant to the derby to blast thrill-seekers into the upper reaches of the atmosphere, is expected to unveil plans Wednesday for a rocket-powered vehicle that is substantially smaller, slower and less expensive to build than any of those proposed by rivals. With tickets projected at $100,000 a pop, the low-fare carrier to the heavens would hardly be cheap. Anticipated to cost less than $10 million to build and to be more compact than many propeller planes used by recreational pilots, XCOR's Lynx vehicle is intended to carry a pilot and a single passenger at twice the speed of sound to about 37 miles above the earth. The entire outing, which would begin and end at a conventional airport and include about two minutes of suborbital zero gravity, would take less than half an hour. ...at Wednesday's news conference in Los Angeles, XCOR's management and private backers also are expected to announce a symbolic first in combining private and federal efforts. The Air Force Research Laboratory has agreed to use the Lynx as a platform to test the performance of space hardware in an actual zero-gravity environment. Instead of investing hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars to build a satellite and then worry about how various components or subsystems will work in orbit, military officials are looking to leverage private investment to assess reliability during brief suborbital missions. By balancing private investment with federal dollars, XCOR has focused on steady growth and shied away from overly optimistic projections.[/i]
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