Museum of Science Fiction to Curate "The Future of Travel" Exhibition at Ronald Reagan National Airport

Washington, D.C. (Sept. 30, 2014) — The Museum of Science Fiction, the world’s first comprehensive science fiction museum will curate a four-month exhibition at Reagan National Airport in 2015. The exhibition, titled "The Future of Travel," will be comprised of several compelling exhibits and displays that will tell airport visitors a story about aerospace technology and the future of air and space travel.

"The near future of travel is science fiction becoming reality," said Greg Viggiano, the Museum of Science Fiction’s executive director. "We want travelers to see how visions laid out by science fiction artists really are shaping the world." Many of the Museum’s supporters are creating the new cutting edge of travel. "We are rapidly approaching an era in which travelers will pass through spaceports just as easily as airports," said Aleta Jackson, cofounder of XCOR Aerospace.

Regan Samul, the Curator for the Museum of Science Fiction said, "We are designing a playful and informative experience that will give travelers a taste of what it might be like to check in for a trip to Mars and an idea of the logistics involved with actually getting there."

The exhibits will connect the present to the future through the innovators of spaceflight such as XCOR and their accomplishments. Mini displays within the exhibition will contain examples of past, present, and future rocket propulsion technologies—models and hardware. The visitor's experience of these displays can take them along an evolutionary path including a mock-up of NASA's plans for a high-power, solar-electric propulsion system that will take astronauts to an asteroid in the next decade.

Mason Peck, former NASA Chief Technologist , Cornell University Professor at the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Member of the Museum's Board of Advisors commented, "We're present at the dawn of commercial space travel, where companies are building vehicles to transport passengers to nearby destinations beyond Earth orbit. In the next quarter century or so, a flight to the moon may seem like the grand transoceanic voyages of our grandparents' generation."

About the Museum of Science Fiction

The nonprofit Museum of Science Fiction (MOSF) will be the world’s first comprehensive science fiction museum, covering the history of the genre across the arts and providing a narrative on its relationship to the real world. The Museum will show how science fiction continually inspires individuals, influences cultures and impacts societies. Also serving as an educational opportunity to expand interest in the science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) areas, MOSF uses tools such as mobile applications and wi-fi-enabled display objects to engage and entertain. For a full press packet on the Museum of Science Fiction’s vision and other information, visit www.museumofsciencefiction.org/presspacket.

About XCOR

XCOR Aerospace: XCOR Aerospace® is based in Mojave, California. It is currently creating a Research and Development Center in Midland, Texas, and will be establishing an operational and manufacturing site at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with the assistance of Space Florida. XCOR® builds safer, more reliable and 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 the XCOR Lynx®. Lynx is a piloted, two-seat, fully reusable liquid rocket-powered spaceplane that takes off and lands horizontally. The Lynx family of vehicles serves three primary missions: research and scientific missions and private spaceflight in the Lynx Mark I and Lynx Mark II, and micro satellite launch on the Lynx Mark III. Lynx production models (designated Lynx Mark II) are designed to be robust, multi-mission (research/scientific or private spaceflight) commercial vehicles capable of flying to 100+ km in altitude, up to four times per day. Lynx production models are available to customers in the free world on a wet-lease basis for their own manned space flight programs. Learn more at: www.xcor.com.

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