Tag: space tourism
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Privately-developed rocket aces abort test
Blue Origin, the space company founded by Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos, launched a dramatic flight test over West Texas on Wednesday to verify the performance of an escape system on its reusable suborbital launcher designed to loft space tourists, researchers and commercial astronauts on short rides to the edge of space. The stubby, single-stage New Shepard…
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Virgin Galactic receives FAA license to fly SpaceShipTwo – and it’s taxiing on runway
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, known as VSS Unity, is pulled behind a Range Rover Autobiography vehicle during its first taxi test at California’s Mojave Air and Space Port. (Credit: Virgin Galactic) Virgin Galactic says it’s received an operator license from the Federal Aviation Administration for flying its SpaceShipTwo rocket plane into outer space with commercial…
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Jeff Bezos plans to live-stream Blue Origin’s next suborbital spaceflight
Blue Origin’s New Shepard spaceship lifts off for a test in January. (Credit: Blue Origin) For his next trick, Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos plans to have his Blue Origin space venture send its New Shepard rocket ship into outer space and back with one bum parachute on Friday – and live-stream the whole thing. Allowing live video…
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VSS Unity: Virgin Galactic christens a reborn SpaceShipTwo, with assist from Stephen Hawking
Virgin Galactic’s second SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, dubbed the VSS Unity, rolls out under the spotlights at the company’s hangar in Mojave, Calif. (GeekWire photo by Alan Boyle) MOJAVE, Calif. – Sixteen months after Virgin Galactic’s first SpaceShipTwo rocket plane was lost amid tragedy, the second SpaceShipTwo was christened Virgin Spaceship Unity today with a smashed bottle…
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Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard booster flies again
Two months after it flew into space and landed smoothly, Blue Origin’s suborbital New Shepard booster made the trip again Friday, proving it can be reused for future space tourism jaunts and laying the groundwork for a future commercial satellite launcher, the company said. The hydrogen-fueled single stage rocket took off and landed at a…
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Ride a balloon to space? $15M deal gives a lift to World View spaceport in Tucson
World View’s Voyager capsule would rise into the stratosphere at the end of a high-altitude balloon, with a parafoil used to aid in its descent. (World View Enterprises illustration) World View Enterprises’ plan to send tourists from Spaceport Tucson into the stratosphere in a balloon-borne capsule won a $15 million vote of support today from…
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Wow! Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin sends New Shepard rocket ship to space – and gets it back safely
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket ship rises from its West Texas launch pad on Monday. (Credit: Blue Origin) Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, successfully sent its New Shepard rocket ship to outer space for the first time on Monday – and even more amazingly, brought every piece back down to…
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Brightman steps down from station flight
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Sarah Brightman is pictured during training for a planned flight to the International Space Station in September. Brightman announced Wednesday she is postponing her mission. Credit: Sarah Brightman’s Facebook page Soprano and would-be space tourist Sarah Brightman, who was in training for a flight to the International Space…
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Virgin Galactic planning SpaceShipTwo’s return to flight
A second SpaceShipTwo rocket plane is under construction in Mojave, Calif. Credit: Virgin Galactic Less than 10 weeks after a fatal crash that destroyed a suborbital rocket plane and raised questions about the future Virgin Galactic, the company’s chief executive says engineers are developing a test program for a replacement spaceship expected to fly later…