XCOR Advances Business Development Team

MOJAVE, Calif., Feb. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- A trio of new senior appointments in the Business Development Team were announced today at XCOR Aerospace, signaling the continued progress and confidence in the Lynx^® suborbital spacecraft program. Greg Claxton joins XCOR where he will lead the Retail Sales Channel, Khaki Rodway has been promoted to lead the Payloads Sales Channel, and Lisa Rigano has been hired to lead Product and Customer Experience Development.

Explorers Wanted.^® is the XCOR call to action for everyone whose dream and ambition is to fly to space. Greg Claxton joins XCOR Aerospace as Director of Retail Sales to ensure this call to action reaches as many explorers as possible across the globe. Formerly of Incredible Adventures (IA),­ Greg spent 17 years helping to establish the high end aviation and space focused adventure travel industry, which included flying MIGs in Russia, other high performance aircraft all over the world, numerous zero gravity experiences for a global audience, and managing an extended enterprise of suppliers, affiliated agents and clientele. Greg will be responsible for overseeing XCOR's "Explorers Wanted." campaign and facilitating the success of the personal spaceflight sales efforts led by general sales agent Space Expedition Corporation and the growing network of high adventure and high end travel agents who are bringing the  pinnacle life event of spaceflight to their customers. Greg will also be responsible globally for spaceflight promotional programs which corporations, non-profits and other entities are implementing that use the Lynx suborbital reusable spacecraft. "At IA we were on the leading edge of opening up new high performance experiences on a global basis as the Cold War ended. The world is now at a seminal point in history, the opening up of the commercial space frontier and XCOR has The Right Stuff when it comes to spaceflight. I could not be happier to join the XCOR Team!"

Your Mission. Our Ship.^® represents XCOR's philosophy for customizable, unique and ground breaking opportunities for scientific and educational payload flights that will be performed on Lynx.  Khaki Rodway has been living this mantra years at XCOR and as a result of her success has been appointed Director of Payload Sales and Operations. Khaki joined XCOR in 2005 as a government program manager and technical writer, and has since taken on ever increasing responsibilities for working with scientists, engineers and educators who wish to fly projects on the Lynx.  Most recently Khaki has been instrumental in the development of XCOR's "Your Mission. Our Ship."  program for customized research and education payload flights in the fields of planetary science, earth observation, microgravity, atmospheric science, medical/biotech, and many other applications. Khaki will also oversee XCOR's contract with NASA's Flight Opportunities Program and XCOR's commercial-focused Payload Sales Channel, which includes global payload integration specialists such as Southwest Research Institute, Spaceflight Services, Planetary Sciences Institute, Space Expedition Corporation of the Netherlands, and Cosmica Spacelines of Toulouse, France, to name a few. "When you have a vehicle like Lynx that enables customizable research missions multiple times a day for costs that are an order of magnitude less than existing systems and with more benign conditions, you're talking about true innovation and the potential for world changing scientific results." Ms Rodway added, "Lynx research capabilities will have immediate and measurable impact on our clients and broadly on STEM education."

Lisa Rigano comes to XCOR as the Director of Product Development and Customer Experience. Formerly a senior manager at car sharing innovator Zipcar, she distinguished herself as a leader on the team responsible for developing the product and customer experience that powered Zipcar's notable growth and eventual IPO in 2011. Prior to this, Lisa held product marketing roles at global branding agency Digitas, where she focused on Fortune^® 500 clients in the transportation and telematics industries. Lisa is currently leading XCOR's human-centered approach to designing, developing and scaling commercial offerings in personal spaceflight and research payloads. In this role, she will be working closely with Ms. Rodway, Mr. Claxton, Space Expedition Corporation, and an expanding channel of payload integration partners. "Taking a human-centered approach to our offerings and operations means that we keep the needs, goals, and circumstances of real people in mind in all that we do," said Lisa. "We will regularly observe, interact with, and solicit feedback from current and prospective customers in order to better understand them and use that knowledge to design and deliver a consistently great experience for them."

"These are critical new hires who will drive our business into 2013 as we transform XCOR from a small R&D company to the world's most active operator and manufacturer of manned commercial spacecraft," said Andrew Nelson, XCOR Chief Operating Officer.  "We continue to round out our world class technical excellence with similarly capable business talents and look forward to more announcements in the near future. Stay tuned."

You can follow XCOR's progress on Twitter @XCOR and Facebook /XCORaerospace.

About XCOR Aerospace:  XCOR Aerospace is based in Mojave, California.  In 2013 XCOR is creating a new Research and Development Center in Midland, Texas and will eventually establish operational bases in Mojave, California; Brevard County, Florida; Curacao and around the world. XCOR builds safer, more reliable and fully reusable rocket-powered vehicles, propulsion systems, advanced non-flammable composites and rocket piston pumps. XCOR works with aerospace prime contractors and government customers on major propulsion systems while also building Lynx, a piloted, two-seat, fully reusable liquid rocket-powered suborbital spacecraft that takes-off and lands horizontally up to four times per day. The Lynx-family of vehicles serves three primary missions including: research & scientific missions, private spaceflight, and micro satellite launch. For those wishing to operate a spaceline or a national manned spaceflight capability for less cost than a high end business jet, Lynx vehicles are available in the free world on a wet lease basis.  Scientific, educational and promotional flights may be booked by contacting www.xcor.com. Personal spaceflights on Lynx may be booked through www.spacexc.com.

XCOR^®, Lynx^®, Your Mission. Our Ship.^® and Explorers Wanted^® are Registered Trademarks of XCOR Aerospace, Inc.

SOURCE XCOR Aerospace