RocketShip Tours is an Americanspace tourism company founded in 2008 by travel industry entrepreneur Jules Klar and which planned to provide sub-orbital human spaceflights to the paying public, in partnership with rocketplane developer XCOR Aerospace. Klar created RocketShip Tours to act as General Sales Agent for XCOR Aerospace. Jules Klar got his start in the travel business in New York City in 1961. He founded $5-A-Day Tours in partnership with Arthur Frommer of Frommer's fame. Klar's company, became one of the most successful wholesale travel organizations in America through the succeeding years. The company's space tourism package included screening, training and a trip into suborbital space. Jules selected XCOR Aerospace to partner with, due to its record of reliable rocket engine development and technological approach towards suborbital space travel. In 2012 XCOR signed Space Expedition Corporation as their new General Sales Agent For Space Tourism Flights.
Spacecraft
Designed and built by XCOR Aerospace, the Lynx rocketplane will have four liquid rocket engines at the rear of the fuselage burning a mixture of LOX-Kerosene and each of them will give between 2500-2900 lbf of thrust. The Lynx is projected to carry one pilot, a ticketed passenger, and/or a payload or small satellites above 100 km altitude. The occupants would wear pressure suits made by . The Lynx was initially announced on March 26, 2008, with plans for an operational vehicle within two years. That date has since fallen to late 2011. Mark I Prototype Maximum Altitude: 61 km Primary Internal Payload: 120 kg External Dorsal Mounted Pod: 280 kg Secondary payload spaces include a small area inside the cockpit behind the pilot or outside the vehicle in two areas in the aft fuselage fairing. Mark IIProduction Model Maximum Altitude: +100 km Primary Internal Payload: 120 kg External Dorsal Mounted Pod: 650 kg and is large enough to hold a two-stage carrier to launch a microsatellite or multiple nanosatellites into low Earth orbit. Secondary payload spaces include the same as the Mark I.
Overview
Suborbital flight tickets are now available. The initial deposit qualifies the passenger for a four-day orientation, medical screening and G-Force training at an Arizona resort. A final payment is required to take the flight aboard the Lynx rocketplane. It is expected that the spacecraft will be piloted by Richard A. Searfoss, a retired United States Air Force colonel, NASAAstronaut and current XCOR test pilot. The craft is projected to be a one-passenger, one pilot rocketplane. Its planned trajectory will overlap the Earth's atmosphere at 70,000 feet, which will make it a sub-orbital journey with a short period of weightlessness. The spacecraft, the Lynx rocketplane, is a Suborbitalrocket-powered aircraft being developed by the California-based company XCOR Aeorospace. When operational, the vehicle will fly over 100 km. The time from liftoff of the Lynx until the touchdown of the vehicle after the sub-orbital flight will be about 1.0 hour. The sub-orbital flight itself will only be a small fraction of that time. The weightlessness will last approximately 5 minutes.
Competition
Besides RocketShip Tours, there are numerous other companies actively working on commercial passenger suborbital spaceflight. Additionally, there are several others developing commercial manned orbital spaceflight capability, which is a significantly more difficult problem than suborbital spaceflight. In 2013, tickets were available through the XCOR partnership with Space Expedition Corporation. Priced at $95,000, they were around half the $200,000 cost quoted by Virgin Galactic, the main competitor in the commercial sub-orbital spaceflight market.
Base
Test launches are planned to take place from the Mojave Spaceport, where XCOR Aerospace is constructing the spacecraft. RocketShip Tours expects that initial passenger flights will take place there, as well.
