{"id":18887,"date":"2017-07-06T18:42:33","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T10:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/xcor-aerospace-lays-off-all-employees-throwing-rocket-projects-into-limbo\/"},"modified":"2017-07-06T18:42:33","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T10:42:33","slug":"xcor-aerospace-lays-off-all-employees-throwing-rocket-projects-into-limbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/xcor-aerospace-lays-off-all-employees-throwing-rocket-projects-into-limbo\/","title":{"rendered":"XCOR Aerospace lays off all employees, throwing rocket projects into limbo"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_347185\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-347185\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-347185 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/20payloads-630x275.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"275\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/20payloads-630x275.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/20payloads-768x335.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/20payloads-1260x549.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/20payloads.jpg 1917w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-347185\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">XCOR Aerospace had to put work on the Lynx suborbital space plane on hold. (XCOR Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After more than a year\u2019s worth of workforce shrinkage, XCOR Aerospace has laid off the remainder of its employees \u2013 putting projects ranging from its Lynx suborbital space plane to its work on rocket propulsion systems into deep limbo.<\/p>\n<p>Word of the layoffs came via&nbsp;Parabolic Arc\u2019s Douglas Messier on Wednesday, and was confirmed by the Midland Reporter-Telegram in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>XCOR is based in Midland, although it also had employees at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.<\/p>\n<p>The job cuts began last year when XCOR let go of 25 employees, about 50 percent of its workforce, and decided to focus on propulsion system development rather than the Lynx rocket plane. XCOR extended the layoffs last week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDue to adverse financial conditions XCOR had to terminate all employees as of 30 June 2017,\u201d the company said in a statement provided to Parabolic Arc as well as Space News.<\/p>\n<p>XCOR said some employees would be brought back on as contractors to maintain the company\u2019s intellectual property and explore other options to get the company up and running again.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"XCOR Aerospace &amp; Boeing - Lynx Spacecraft Space Flight Simulation [1080p]\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4J-7dCZJvF0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The company set up operations in Texas starting in 2012 to capitalize on $10 million in potential incentives from the Midland Development Corp. The Reporter-Telegram quoted Brent Hilliard, board chairman for the development group, as saying the layoffs and its impact on the incentive deal would be the subject of discussions with XCOR\u2019s executives.<\/p>\n<p>Three of XCOR\u2019s co-founders left the company in 2015 to found a new space venture called Agile Aero. The executive who took over as XCOR\u2019s president and CEO, Jay Gibson, left the company last month when the White House nominated him for the post of deputy chief management officer at the Defense Department.<\/p>\n<p>XCOR\u2019s two-seat Lynx rocket plane&nbsp;was once seen as a competitor for Virgin Galactic\u2019s SpaceShipTwo and Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard in the suborbital spaceflight market.<\/p>\n<p>The company suspended work on the Lynx&nbsp;following last year\u2019s round of job cuts, and concentrated instead on its rocket propulsion work for United Launch Alliance.<\/p>\n<p>XCOR\u2019s hydrogen-fueled 8H21 engine was competing with Blue Origin\u2019s BE-3 engine and Aerojet Rocketdyne\u2019s enhanced RL-10 engine for use on United Launch Alliance\u2019s ACES upper stage, which is destined to be added to ULA\u2019s next-generation Vulcan rocket in the 2020s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>XCOR Aerospace had to put work on the Lynx suborbital space plane on hold. (XCOR Illustration) After more than a year\u2019s worth of workforce shrinkage, XCOR Aerospace has laid off the remainder of its employees \u2013 putting projects ranging from its Lynx suborbital space plane to its work on rocket propulsion systems into deep limbo. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[493,750,5378],"class_list":["post-18887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-space-tourism","tag-united-launch-alliance","tag-xcor-aerospace"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}