Tag: SpaceShipTwo
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Preparing for “Earth to Earth” space travel and a competition with supersonic airliners
Commercial spaceflight companies are preparing to enter a new market: suborbital flights from one place to another on Earth. Aiming for fast transportation for passengers and cargo, these systems are being developed by a combination of established companies, such as SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, and new ones like Astra. Technical and business challenges lie ahead…
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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…
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Virgin Galactic offers a peek inside SpaceShipTwo in VR, making its case in the space tourism race
A computer rendering shows the seat configuration for the SpaceShipTwo passenger cabin, looking toward a mirror wall at the back of the cabin. (Virgin Galactic Illustration) More than a decade after Virgin Galactic unveiled a swoopy, spacey look for the passenger cabin of its SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, the company took the wraps off a more…
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NASA lays out a plan to qualify suborbital spacecraft for its astronauts and scientists
Blue Origin employees test procedures for getting spacefliers into the New Shepard suborbital spaceship at the company’s launch facility in West Texas. (Blue Origin via YouTube) NASA says it’ll formulate a plan to assess the safety of suborbital spacecraft — such as Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket ship or Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane —…
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NASA gets set to put astronauts on Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic suborbital flights
Virgin Galactic’s chief astronaut trainer, Beth Moses, exults over the view out the window of the company’s VSS Unity SpaceShipTwo rocket plane during a suborbital spaceflight in February 2019. (Virgin Galactic Photo) NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine signaled today that astronauts would soon be cleared to take suborbital spaceflights aboard the commercial rocket ships being tested…
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Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo makes its first gliding test flight over New Mexico
SpaceshipTwo Unity flies free in New Mexico airspace for the first time. (Virgin Galactic Photo) For the first time, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane flew free in the skies over New Mexico’s Spaceport America, its new base of operations. The SpaceShipTwo plane, known as VSS Unity, has made rocket-powered flights beyond the 50-mile space milestone…
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Virgin Galactic resumes taking deposits for SpaceShipTwo suborbital trips
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane and its WhiteKnightTwo mothership arrive at Spaceport America in New Mexico. (Virgin Galactic via YouTube) Virgin Galactic says it’s letting customers pay $1,000 refundable deposits toward suborbital trips on its SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, resuming spaceflight sales after a hiatus of more than a year. In a news release, Virgin Galactic…
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WOW! Virgin Galactic’s next SpaceShipTwo rocket plane reaches ‘Weight on Wheels’ milestone
The rocket plane that’s due to become Virgin Galactic’s second commercial suborbital spaceship can now stand on its own two feet — or to be more precise, on its own landing gear. Virgin Galactic Holdings’ manufacturing subsidiary, known as The SpaceShip Company, reached the “Weight on Wheels” milestone when it assembled all of the SpaceShipTwo…
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Suborbital spacefliers will get pinned by the Association of Space Explorers
Virgin Galactic’s chief astronaut trainer, Beth Moses, gets her suborbital spaceflier pin from Michael Lopez-Alegria of the Association of Space Explorers. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) WASHINGTON, D.C. — Will the customers who fly on the suborbital spaceships operated by British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin get astronaut…
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Virgin Galactic and Under Armour reveal spacewear clothing line for suborbital trips
Virgin Galactic’s billionaire founder, Richard Branson, joins the younger set in modeling the line of spacewear created in partnership with Under Armour. (Virgin Galactic Photo / Stephen Counts) It’s a bit of a stretch to call them spacesuits, but the “spacewear” clothing line unveiled today by Virgin Galactic and Under Armour looks comfortable enough to…