Two small commercial firms developing unmanned suborbital launch vehicles with NASA seed money staged test flights in June with mixed results. Masten Space Systems of Mo jave, Calif., conducted the first free flight of its Xaero rocket — a ver-tical-takeoff, vertical-landing vehicle being developed in part with NASA money awarded in August. The award was part of the space agency's Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research program. Xaero uses a Masten-built Cyclops-AL-3 engine that bums isopropyl alcohol and liquid oxygen. Xaero flew its first free flight at the Mojave Air and Space Port June 29.
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