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SpaceShipTwo during its first powered test flight on April 29, 2013. (credit: Virgin Galactic/MarsScientific.com) The rumors were true this time. Early Monday morning, WhiteKnightTwo took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port with SpaceShipTwo slung between its twin fuselages. About 45 minutes after its 7:02 am PDT (1402 GMT) takeoff, WhiteKnightTwo released SpaceShipTwo, [...] SpaceShipTwo and its contrail, created by a “cold flow” of nitrous oxide through its engine during an unpowered test flight on April 12. (credit: MarsScientific.com) A successful glide flight Friday by SpaceShipTwo could be the final step before Virgin Galactic attempts what it calls “the most significant milestone” yet for the suborbital vehicle: powered [...] SpaceShipTwo, the suborbital vehicle under development by Virgin Galactic and its partner Scaled Composites, has been on the verge of beginning powered flights for a few months now, after performing a glide flight in a “powered flight configuration” in December. There’s been little news from Virgin since then, until a blog post today by Sir [...] XCOR Aerospace announced yesterday that it has issued a contract to ATK for the manufacturing of the wings and control surfaces of XCOR’s Lynx Mark 1 suborbital spaceplane. ATK is best known (in the space industry, at least) for its solid propellant motors, including the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) used to launch the Space Shuttle. [...] An image from Virgin Galactic of the liquid oxidizer tank being installed in SpaceShipTwo. (credit: Virgin Galactic) The two companies in the lead to fly crewed suborbital spacecraft announced milestones earlier this week towards the beginning of powered flight tests of their vehicles. On Friday, Virgin Galactic released images of an oxidizer tank being [...] Falcon 9 and the CRS-1 Dragon spacecraft on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral about seven and a half hours before its scheduled launch Sunday. (credit: J. Foust) SpaceX is less than five hours from launching the first of twelve cargo missions to the ISS—technology and weather permitting. SpaceX erected the Falcon 9 rocket, [...] Neil Milburn (left) of Armadillo Aerospace speaks at the NewSpace 2012 Conference on Thursday after receiving a launch license from George Nield (right), associate administrator for commercial space transportation at the FAA. (credit: J. Foust) Armadillo Aerospace is one step closer to flying a rocket into space after receiving a launch license from the [...] Most of Wednesday’s announcement by Virgin Galactic focused on its rejuvenated smallsat launch system, LauncherOne. The company, though, did offer a brief update on its suborbital spaceflight plans. According to the release, the company now has “confirmation that all major components of SpaceShipTwo’s rocket system have been qualified for powered flight, on track to begin [...] Thursday night SpaceUp Houston hosted a Commercial Spaceflight Panel featuring representatives of a number of orbital and suborbital spaceflight companies. The four companies working on orbital systems—ATK, Boeing, Sierra Nevada, and SpaceX—largely provided reviews of their recent work under funded or unfunded Commercial Crew Development agreements with NASA that have generally been reported elsewhere. The [...] Mike Melville raises his arms after exiting SpaceShipOne following his suborbital flight on June 21, 2004. To the left, in the yellow shirt, is Burt Rutan; in the blue shirt and cap is Paul Allen. (credit: J. Foust) On June 21, 2004, Scaled Composites made history in the skies above the just-renamed Mojave Air [...] |
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