Eric Anderson from Space Adventures had to cancel at the last minute, so I just gave an impromptu presentation on the market potential for delivering propellants to low earth orbit for the Vision for Space Exploration. It seemed well received. No decaying vegetation was hurled, at any rate.

Jeff Greason is now giving the XCOR pitch. Suborbital is turning into a very viable market, versus 1999 when the company was founded. Market segments are passengers, payloads (for a few minutes of microgravity, or scientific instruments), and use of suborbital vehicle with expendable upper stage for orbit.

Developments in the last couple or three years: a) customers coming to them, which indicate that the market was much larger than they thought; regulatory situation has had much of the risk reduced by learning how to work the process, getting to know the regulators, and Jeff can now say that regulatory risk is no longer (as it was earlier) one of the top three business risks for them. They are getting government contracts that are synergistic with their business, by developing things that both they and the government need, with government money. Capital formation has been tough, but they’re continuing to survive, and prospects are improving.

They have just won their largest government contract to date to develop a liquid oxygen tank using proprietary technology, that solves problems in composite tanks that NASA has been struggling with for years. It’s worth potentially up to seven million dollars over four years. They’ve come up with a composite material that is resistant to microcracking, unlike existing epoxy-based materials. They’re using a flouropolymer matrix with an inorganic fiber that maintains its flexibility at cryogenic temperatures, with high flammability resistance.

After five and a half years in this industry, they’re making progress, though they had no idea how hard it would be when they started. Their business prospects look good now, and certainly better than they’ve ever been. Expect an announcement sometime in the near future about a possible intermediate vehicle between EZ-Rocket and Xerus.

Aleta Jackson announces that there will be a flight of the EZ-Rocket on September 21st of 2005, for a big air show in Mojave.

Question from Jerry Pournelle: Why did you ask for a fixed-price contract, instead of cost-plus?

Answer (paraphrased): If we developed a cost-plus culture, we might be able to be financially successful doing government contracting, but we’d never be competitive in the commercial markets, and we wouldn’t be able to develop as much hardware for the money that we need in order to achieve our strategic business objectives of building affordable suborbital space planes. The cost-plus environment of the aerospace industry has created several decades in which a lot of very smart people have figured out ways to make things cost more, and they’ve been very successful. We want to make things cost less, instead of costing more.

XCOR is hiring for the first time in a while–looking for a structural designer with experience in composite aerostructures. There will be an announcement on the XCOR website in a couple weeks.

In response to a question from Chuck Lauer, he notes that they will retain rights to the technology used in building the tank, for which patents were filed a couple weeks before proposal submittal.

Note that Clark Lindsey is also posting summaries of the talks. Yesterday’s are up now.