A private rocket-building company that is designing a suborbital space plane for future paid trips to the edge of space will open a new test facility in Texas, company officials announced today (July 9).

 

The Mojave, Calif.-based XCOR Aerospace and the Midland Development Corporation unveiled plans today for XCOR's new Commercial Space Research and Development Center Headquarters in Midland, Texas. The research facility will be used to test components for an orbital version of XCOR's Lynx space plane, a reusable, winged spaceship that is designed to carry two passengers and science experiments to the edge of space.

 

"We are pleased to be establishing our R&D Center in Midland, Texas, where the weather, surrounding landscape, the airport, and the local & state government environment are ideally situated for the future growth and the ultimate realization of a fully reusable orbital system," Andrew Nelson, chief operating officer of XCOR Aerospace, said in a statement. "With future suborbital operational sites on the East and West Coasts of the United States and around the world, plus a manufacturing and test facility geographically separate from our R&D facility