Tag: Rick Sturckow
-
Virgin Galactic flies to edge of space for first time from New Mexico
Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity spaceplane fires its rocket motor to begin an ascent to the edge of space Saturday. Credit: Virgin Galactic Two pilots flew Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocketplane to the edge of space Saturday over New Mexico on the first human spaceflight from the company’s new home base at Spaceport America. Commercial astronauts Rick…
-
Virgin Galactic pilots land safely after aborting suborbital flight
Two pilots aboard Virgin Galactic’s commercial SpaceShipTwo suborbital rocketplane safely landed back in New Mexico Saturday after a “computer communications loss” triggered an abort of the craft’s engine ignition sequence. Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company founder by billionaire Richard Branson, was attempting its first suborbital spaceflight from the company’s new home base at Spaceport…
-
Video and photo highlights of Virgin Galactic’s historic SpaceShipTwo test flight
Check out video highlights released by Virgin Galactic of Thursday’s test flight by the company’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane to an altitude of 271,000 feet (82.7 kilometers), above a boundary recognized by the U.S. government as the edge of space. The air-dropped rocket plane took off from Mojave Air and Space Port in California under a…
-
Virgin Galactic accomplishes milestone test flight to the edge of space
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT) after confirmation of a successful test flight. Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane fires toward space Thursday. Credit: MarsScientific.com & Trumbull Studios / Virgin Galactic With two veteran test pilots at the controls, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane climbed to the edge of space for the first time…