XCOR

XCOR Aerospace was established in 1999 by a team of four founders—Jeff Greason, Dan DeLong, Aleta Jackson, and Doug Jones—who had previously collaborated on the engine development team at Rotary Rocket Company. The venture was rooted in their collective experience, particularly Greason's, who had a background as an engineering manager at Intel and was the engine team lead at Rotary Rocket. He served as XCOR's CEO until 2015. The company's initial focus was on developing reliable, reusable, and low-cost rocket engines and launch vehicles.

The firm's business model centered on two primary areas: the development and sale of rocket engines and the prospective market of suborbital space tourism. A significant part of its commercial strategy involved selling tickets for flights aboard its flagship vehicle, the Lynx spaceplane. By 2012, the company had pre-sold 175 flights at a price of $95,000 each, which later increased to $150,000. Its clients were envisioned to be space tourists and scientific or educational entities needing payload flights. XCOR also secured development contracts, notably a partnership with United Launch Alliance (ULA) to develop an advanced, low-cost upper-stage engine.

The flagship product under development was the Lynx, a two-seat, piloted, horizontal-takeoff-and-landing spaceplane. Designed for rapid reusability, the Lynx was intended to be capable of up to four flights per day. It was powered by four of its own XR-5K18 liquid-fueled rocket engines, which used a non-toxic combination of liquid oxygen and kerosene. The vehicle was designed to carry a pilot and one passenger or a payload to altitudes over 100 kilometers, providing several minutes of weightlessness and a view of the Earth's curvature. An advanced version, the Mark III, was planned to carry an external pod for launching small satellites into low-Earth orbit.

XCOR marked an early achievement with the EZ-Rocket in 2001, the first privately built and flown rocket-powered airplane. However, the ambitious Lynx project faced continuous delays and financial hurdles. In 2016, development on the Lynx was halted to concentrate on the ULA engine contract, leading to significant layoffs. This pivot was insufficient to secure the company's future. Following the loss of the ULA contract and the failure to attract new investment, XCOR laid off all remaining employees in mid-2017 and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in November 2017, leading to the liquidation of its assets.

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