Posted on 05/10/2006 1:07:11 PM PDT by BenLurkin
MOJAVE - XCOR Aerospace will help develop a rocket engine for NASA's next manned spacecraft under a multimillion-dollar contract announced Tuesday. Mojave-based XCOR is teamed with Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, for the first phase of developing a rocket engine that runs on liquid oxygen and liquid methane, nontoxic fuels that could help lower the overall cost of spaceflight.
XCOR's portion of the $10.4 million contract is $3.3 million, the biggest government contract the company has had to date, CEO Jeff Greason said.
"We were a significant part of this team," he said. "We are very excited about the opportunity to contribute to NASA's exploration program in such a significant way. We are proud that NASA selected our team over many more traditional rocket engine suppliers."
XCOR, seeing an opportunity for some technologies it had already developed, approached ATK about joining it in the contract proposal, Greason said. The larger aerospace corporation had skills of its own in transferring the technology to meet NASA's needs that XCOR lacked.
The two companies already had a relationship from earlier projects.
The first phase of the technology development contract is to design and test a heavyweight prototype rocket engine of the type that would return a spacecraft from lunar orbit to the Earth and to perform in-space maneuvering.
The engine must be capable of 7,500 pounds of thrust, fueled by liquid oxygen and liquid methane.
The project will draw on XCOR's earlier experience with similar rocket engines. Since it was founded in 1999, the company has designed, built and tested a number of different rocket engines. Among these is a 10,000-pound-thrust liquid oxygen-methane version designed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that will be the basis for the NASA engine.
(Excerpt) Read more at avpress.com ...
More on the "moon rocket".
Kevin,
I thought NASA had scuttled the O2-Methane engine?
CHA-CHING!!! YEE-HAW, I'm damned glad I invested a bucket of money in XCOR when I did... maybe I actually *will* be able to retire before I'm 95!
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