XCOR will upgrade and expand into an existing 60,000 sq ft hangar and ramp space at Midland International Airport

Texas Business reports: MIDLAND—The Midland Development Corporation (MDC) and XCOR Aerospace jointly announced the establishment of XCOR’s new Commercial Space Research and Development Center Headquarters that will be created over the next eighteen (18) months. 

XCOR manufactures reusable rocket engines for major aerospace prime contractors and is the designer, manufacturer and operator of the Lynx, a winged fully reusable, high performance suborbital space vehicle that is designed to safely carry two persons or scientific experiments to the edge of space and back up to four times per day.

XCOR will be establishing their new R&D center on the flight line at Midland International Airport (MAF) in a renovated 60,000-square-foot hangar, which will include office space and a test facility.

The renovation is expected to commence in early 2013, and be completed by the late autumn.

 “XCOR will be upgrading an existing hangar at Midland International Airport,” said MAF director of airports Marv Esterly in a prepared statement. “This new R&D facility has the potential to open the door to even more economic development at our airport and for our community.”

“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,” said XCOR Aerospace chief operating officer Andrew Nelson in a prepared 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, Midland will truly be at the heart of XCOR’s innovation engine.”

“Today we celebrate the economic diversity that XCOR’s Research and Development Center Headquarters will bring to Midland along with the $12,000,000 of new payroll and capital investment over the next five years to our community with an estimated average annual wage of over $60,000 per job,” said MDC chairman Laura Roman in a statement.

In parallel with the XCOR facility renovation, the City of Midland is applying to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for a Commercial Space Launch Site designation for MAF, an estimated 12 to 18 months process.  Upon completion of the licensing process and the hangar renovation, the XCOR presence will begin to ramp up.

 XCOR Aerospace develops reusable rocket powered vehicles, propulsion systems, advanced non-flammable composites and other technologies. XCOR is working with aerospace prime contractors and government customers on major propulsion systems, and concurrently building the Lynx, a piloted, two-seat, fully reusable, liquid rocket powered suborbital vehicle that takes off and lands horizontally and serves research & scientific missions and private spaceflight. The Lynx production models (designated Lynx Mark II) are designed to be multi-mission commercial vehicles capable of flying to 100+ km in altitude up to four times per day and are being offered on a wet lease basis.