{"id":19553,"date":"2015-11-30T19:26:10","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T11:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/xcor-aerospace-co-founders-launch-new-startup-agile-aero-for-the-next-frontier\/"},"modified":"2015-11-30T19:26:10","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T11:26:10","slug":"xcor-aerospace-co-founders-launch-new-startup-agile-aero-for-the-next-frontier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/xcor-aerospace-co-founders-launch-new-startup-agile-aero-for-the-next-frontier\/","title":{"rendered":"XCOR Aerospace co-founders launch new startup: Agile Aero for the next frontier"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Image:
In a 2013 photo, Jeff Greason inspects XCOR Aerospace\u2019s Lynx rocket engine while Doug Jones (at left) looks on. Greason has left XCOR and is creating a new venture called Agile Aero, while Jones is staying on with XCOR. (Credit: XCOR Aerospace)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

XCOR Aerospace pioneered the rapid development of rocket propulsion systems, and now three of XCOR\u2019s founders are starting up a new venture called Agile Aero to do something similar for advanced aerospace vehicles.<\/p>\n

Agile Aero has surfaced just a week after XCOR announced the departure of chief technologist Jeff Greason and chief engineer Dan DeLong. Greason and DeLong are teaming up with Aleta Jackson, another co-founder and aerospace veteran who left XCOR this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the Three Musketeers again,\u201d Greason told GeekWire. XCOR\u2019s fourth co-founder, Doug Jones, is staying on as the company\u2019s chief test engineer.<\/p>\n

XCOR recently moved its headquarters from Mojave, Calif., to Midland, Texas, and reworked its management structure. Greason, who had served as XCOR\u2019s CEO since its founding in 1999, said the executive shifts left him dissatisfied with his role at the company. Greason left XCOR, and DeLong and Jackson joined him in founding Agile Aero.<\/p>\n

\"Lands'
In 2013, the co-founders of XCOR Aerospace posed for a publicity photo touting Lands\u2019 End business wear. From left are Doug Jones, Aleta Jackson, Jeff Greason and Dan DeLong. (Credit: Lands\u2019 End)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Greason noted that the past few years have seen a dramatic uptick in the pace of development for small satellites and rocket engines, but that \u201cnobody has had much luck with rapid-prototyping [advanced aerospace] vehicles, except for making missile shapes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know exactly how to do it yet, but we have a clear understanding of the challenge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Agile Aero\u2019s founders plan to come up with advanced aerospace designs that could be applied to create next-generation reusable launch vehicles as well as hypersonic planes, supersonic business jets, high-performance drones and other advanced applications, Greason said.<\/p>\n

\"pluto\"
\nScience journalist Alan Boyle<\/strong> is the author of “The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made A Big Difference.”<\/p>\n

The designs would be prototyped for Agile Aero\u2019s clients. Greason said he\u2019s already fielded inquiries from potential partners, even though he\u2019s \u201cstill working out exactly what the business plan is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greason retains his status as an XCOR shareholder and board member, and said he wished the company well. \u201cI would love it if XCOR became a customer when we have a rapid-development capability in place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

During his tenure at XCOR, Greason became a leading advocate for private-sector spaceflight. He was a co-founder of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, and in 2009, he served on an independent White House panel that reviewed the nation\u2019s agenda for human space exploration. This week, he said he was struck by \u201chow far we\u2019ve come, and how far we have to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

At one point, there was talk that XCOR might start putting its Lynx suborbital rocket plane through flight tests as early as 2010. Construction of the Lynx is now under way, but the project has yet to get off the ground. To his credit, Greason has consistently played down the hype over space tourism \u2013 and his comments to GeekWire stayed true to form.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point of no return is when commercial space travel makes enough profit that it can fund the next generation of research and development from the current generation of technology,\u201d Greason said. \u201cWe are not there yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

It may well be that Agile Aero will get Greason and the other members of the Three Rocketeers to that goal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a 2013 photo, Jeff Greason inspects XCOR Aerospace\u2019s Lynx rocket engine while Doug Jones (at left) looks on. Greason has left XCOR and is creating a new venture called Agile Aero, while Jones is staying on with XCOR. (Credit: XCOR Aerospace) XCOR Aerospace pioneered the rapid development of rocket propulsion systems, and now three […]<\/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":[39,5604,291,5378],"class_list":["post-19553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-aerospace","tag-agile-aero","tag-commercial-space","tag-xcor-aerospace"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19553"}],"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=19553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}