Excalibur Almaz Limited (EA), a commercial aerospace company based on the Isle of Man, British Isles, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with California-based XCOR Aerospace for suborbital flight services.

The agreement signed in conjunction with the Royal Aeronautical Society's 3rd European Space Tourism Conference calls for XCOR to provide suborbital flight familiarization and training using its Lynx vehicle for Excalibur Almaz crews traveling on Earth orbit, circumlunar, and deep space missions.

"Suborbital flight experience will serve as an integral preparatory step for the safety, education and enjoyment of our customers traveling on crew expedition missions," said Art Dula, Excalibur Almaz Founder and Chairman.

"The XCOR flights will enhance the overall spaceflight experience of our program and will help ensure that our passengers are both mission and medically qualified to fly in space."

"The Lynx is uniquely suited for the orbital manned space flight training market," said Andrew Nelson, Chief Operating Officer of XCOR Aerospace.

"Being able to tailor each Lynx flight to the needs of the participant, scientist and/or orbital astronaut trainee, and then flying those missions up to four times per day for a price that is less than one sixth the main competitor, now that is a significant benefit to the customer."

XCOR Aerospace is developing the world's first reliable, fully reusable, high performance winged piloted launch vehicle called Lynx for suborbital flights.

The company's schedule calls for a first Lynx flight later this year or in early 2013, expanding to several missions per day by 2015.

XCOR's suborbital flights will be included as a requirement in pre-mission training for Excalibur Almaz expeditions, also scheduled to begin as early as 2015.