XCOR’s Greason: Things Going Well, Lynx Test Flights Likely Next Year

XCOR's Lynx suborbital vehicle

The San Fernando Valley Business Journal has a lengthy Q&A with XCOR CEO Jeff Greason. He discusses the status of Lynx test flights, marketing his company’s technology to others, and the difference between being a wholesaler and retailer in the space business. Key excerpts after the break.

Q: How far away are you from getting your craft into space?

A: Wouldn’t I like to know. It’s something we are always cagey about. XCOR has very much always been a company characterized by always managing to make a little progress regardless of what the conditions of the market are but that doesn’t mean we are decoupled from the conditions of the market. We do a little more when investing is moving quickly and more slowly when it’s moving slowly. Right now things are looking pretty good. If things continue to look as they look now I’d expect the first test flights to begin in the latter part of next year.

Q: You are still reliant on outside investors?

A: We are. We have built up a fair amount of revenue streams over the years and that is an enormous help in managing the business. But the revenue is mostly from sub-system pieces. We have developed technologies and competencies over the years. We had to develop our own engines because there was nothing on the market that met our requirements. We’ve now gotten a fair revenue stream from providing our services as an engine supplier or engine developer to other companies. We had to develop our own pump technology because there was nothing on the market that met our requirements. That’s turned into a quite nice line of business. We have some work outstanding with the United Launch Alliance, which is a very large aerospace company that launches most of the satellites for NASA and the Department of Defense. We developed our own composite material, which is definitely more than I wished to do. There was nothing on the market to serve our requirements for making composite liquid oxygen tanks. That material doesn’t burn even in a pure oxygen environment.

We get revenue from these things either because there are private companies that want the kind of products we’re talking about or the government sometimes has different applications than what we might have for a technology and they are interested in seeing where the technology can be stretched to. Our core business is in the complete vehicle that relies on all those pieces and that is harder to get customer financing for although we have gotten a little bit of that over time.

Q: Once you get the space vehicle flying then it will make its own money?

A: We will operate the first one or two. Our long term vision is there will be other independent owner-operators but that is going to take some time to develop. Our core business is what we call wet leasing of the vehicles to the other operators but again you have to operate the first one or two before you can teach someone else how to do it. But even there when we are operating the vehicles ourselves we are not in the retail business. We wholesale the services of those vehicles to other companies that provide the end customer experience.