KIRUNA, Sweden (Spaceport Sweden PR) — The Spaceport Sweden and QinetiQ spaceflight preparation program at the Flight Physiological Centre (FPC) in Linköping is soon ready for launch. Earlier in the week we went through a dry-run together with QinetiQ trying out the unique G profiles generated by future commercial space vehicles in the Dynamic Flight Simulator (DFS). Spaceport Sweden is establishing commercial human spaceflights and Europe’s gateway to space and […]
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
Commercial Spaceflight Federation President Michael Lopez-Alegria Statement on NASA Contract Extension with Roscosmos “It is disheartening that we must continue to rely on increasingly expensive Russian vehicles to take our astronauts to the International Space Station. NASA’s commercial cargo program, undertaken in partnership with Orbital Sciences and SpaceX, has been highly successful in creating reliable, cost-effective American cargo delivery to the ISS, and we support NASA’s continued and vigorous work […]
ESA PR — The revolutionary SpaceLiner concept offers a unique vision for a high-speed passenger transportation system of the future by seamlessly spanning the boundaries between aviation and spaceflight. Currently under design at the German Aerospace Center, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), the ultra-fast hypersonic spaceplane is designed to transport 50 passengers from Australia to Europe in an unprecedented 90 minutes. The concept is based on a two-stage, […]
Aviation Week has a report on a hypersonic test flight that took place on Wednesday: The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Boeing X-51A Waverider demonstrator successfully achieved sustained, scramjet-powered, air-breathing hypersonic flight above Mach 5 in its final test flight on May 1. Although the Air Force is not yet commenting on details of the flight, the X-51A is thought to have experienced positive acceleration to speeds in excess […]
Petrified wood (Credit: Jon Sullivan)
By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor
On Sunday, I dropped by Bob’s Army Navy Store in Mojave, hoping to pick up a pair of good binoculars for the SpaceShipTwo flight scheduled for the next day. Although my search was in vain, I did visit the area on the west side of the building where there are a variety of rocks for sale.
There were rocks of every kind: large rocks and small rocks, crystals, rocks with scaly lizards scurrying underneath to escape from someone who was equally afraid of them. I was fascinated. I had no idea there were that many types of rocks. Or that people would want to buy such things in large numbers. What would they use them for? I was stumped.
What really caught my interest, though, was the petrified wood.
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has selected 14 proposals from small business and research institution teams to continue development of innovative technologies that are needed for future NASA missions and could become viable commercial products and services.
The Phase II selectees in NASA’s Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program may enter negotiations for possible contract awards, worth a combined total of approximately $9.8 million. High-tech firms in seven states submitted proposals in partnership with research institutions in nine states.
A couple of brief notes on Monday’s SpaceShipTwo flight. There was a public and press viewing site set up along the Mojave Air and Space Port’s flight line that a provided a great view of the flights of WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo. The airport did a good job in situating the viewing area and guiding visitors there so they could get a view of the test flight. From what I have […]
WhiteKnightTwo/SpaceShipTwo Flight Test Summary Via Scaled Composites Flight: 115/PF01 Date: 29 Apr 13 SS 2 Flight Time: 13 min SS2 Pilot: Stucky SS2 Co-pilot: Alsbury WK2 Pilot: Mackay WK2 Co-pilot: Nichols WK2 FTE: Maisler WK2 Flight Time: 1.5 hours GS Crew: Tighe, Shane, Bourgeois, Reid, Knupp, Bassett, Jaster, Bozarth, Gould, Colby, Zeeb, Morgan, Verderame, Keller, Cassebeer, Kalogiannis, Withrow, Kroese, Flynn Objectives: First powered flight Launch weight expansion Supersonic aero expansion […]
Largely lost among all the hoopla and excitement over SpaceShipTwo’s first powered flight, Virgin Galactic’s educational initiative, Virgin Unite, announced the release lesson plans and resources “pitched” at impressionable students ages 5-18: Virgin Galactic and Galactic Unite announce the first of their lesson plans and resources! These aim to engage and inspire educators and students around Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo test flight milestones. You can now download free lesson plans, activities […]
SpaceShipTwo in its first powered flight over Mojave.
Sparks, NV, April 29, 2013 (SNC PR) – Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Space Systems is proud to announce that its Hybrid Rocket Motor propelled Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) sub-orbital vehicle on its first ever powered flight. SNC’s hybrid propulsion system is the largest hybrid ever used for space vehicle propulsion.
SNC manufactures two major subsystems on the SpaceShipTwo vehicle including the main oxidizer valve and the hybrid rocket motor, plus nitrous oxide dump system and nitrous oxide pressurization system control valves.