A sampling of items related to traveling to and through space: ** Virgin Galactic pilots Mark ‘Forger’ Stucky and CJ Sturckow received Commercial Astronaut Wings from the FAA for flying to space on SpaceShipTwo: The SpaceShipTwo motor from the flight […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Archive for Spaceflight & Parabolic Flight
A sampling of space transportation related news and resource items: ** Ariane 5 launches two comm-sats on first mission of 2019: Arianespace orbits two telecommunications satellites on first Ariane 5 launch of 2019 – Arianespace Ariane 5 launches Hellas-Sat-4/SaudiGeoSat-1 and […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
A sampling of items regarding rockets, spaceships, etc: ** China’s Long March 5, the country’s largest heavy lift rocket, is set to launch again this year : China Plans Return-to-Flight of Long March-5 Booster – LeonardDavid.com An essential launcher for […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Today Blue Origin posted this video compilation of highlights of the test flights of the New Shepard: From the caption: The more we fly the better we get. Safety and reliability are paramount. Our rigorous test program with New Shepard […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The Apollo 8 mission launched on Dec. 21, 1968 with astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell Jr. and William Anders on board. About two and half hours after liftoff, the S-IV third stage fired for a second time and put their […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
In this video, Richard Branson tells his children about his own father and relates his father’s advice on living a good life to the recent SpaceShipTwo flight to the edge of space. The video includes some new footage of the […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Some miscellaneous rocket/space related videos: ** The DIY Rocketeer Building SpaceX Replicas of Self-Landing Rockets: A Motherboard profile of Joe Barnard, who is about developing model rockets with vectored thrust and landing capabilities (see posts here and here): Joe Barnard […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Virgin Galactic: Richard Branson hails first SpaceShipTwo spaceflight
A release from Virgin Galactic about today’s SpaceShipTwo spaceflight: [ Update: A new video from the flight: ] Richard Branson Welcomes Astronauts Home from Virgin Galactic’s Historic First Spaceflight History has been made and a long-anticipated dream realised in Mojave, […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket vehicle makes its first suborbital space flight [Update]
[ Update: Here is a video released by Virgin Galactic with highlights of the flight: ] This morning two pilots for Virgin Galactic successfully flew SpaceShipTwo “Unity” to over 50 miles (82 km) in altitude. SpaceShipTwo reached: 51.4m 271,268ft 82.7km […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Some of the presentations at the most recent International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2018) have been posted on Youtube. Here is a sampling: ** Reusability: The Key to Reliability and Affordability – Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX [ Oct.29.2018: For some reason, this […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Blue Origin video: “Millions of people living and working in space”
I recently posted here about large rotating in-space habitats that could provide earth-like environments for large numbers of residents to live and prosper. In a new video, Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, describes the efforts of his company […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The latest episode of TMRO.tv looked at the SpaceX announcement of a private passenger flight around the Moon: Why send artists to the moon on BFR? #dearMoon – TMRO.tv This week we have an epic panel to talk about the […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
A couple of interesting and informative videos about the SpaceX BFR and the lunar fly-by announced on Monday: ** “Why does SpaceX keep changing the BFR?” – Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut: Elon Musk updated the world with the plans for […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
On Monday evening at the SpaceX HQ in Hawthorne, Calfornia, Elon Musk introduced billionaire entrepreneur and art collector Yusaku Maezawa, as the mystery space tourist who has reserved a BFR (Big Falcon Rocket) for a flyby trip around the Moon. (See previous posting.) […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Tonight Sept. 17, 2018, at 6:00 pm PDT (9:00 pm EDT), SpaceX will hold an event to lay out the company’s plan to fly a private passenger around the Moon on the next-generation, fully-reusable Big “Falcon” Rocket or BFR. According […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Mattel offers Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser spaceplane as Matchbox toy
Sierra Nevada plans to start delivering cargo to the International Space Station with uncrewed Dream Chaser spaceplanes In 2020. A crew version of the Dream Chaser could fly sometime later in the next decade. Here is a new toy Dream […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
** Paul Wooster of SpaceX talked at the recent Mars Society conference about the company’s plans for sending people to Mars by 2024: ** SpaceX’s Spacesuit, up close and personal – Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut, describes SpaceX spacesuits during […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The astronauts who will fly on the first Boeing and SpaceX commercial crew missions to the International Space Station were introduced by NASA to the public earlier this month (see posting here). On Monday, SpaceX held a press event at the […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The non-profit, all-volunteer group Copenhagen Suborbitals today successfully launched their Nexø II rocket from a floating platform in the Baltic Sea. The liquid fueled propulsion system appeared to work well and the rocket returned via parachute for a soft splashdown. […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
NASA is announcing today the selection of astronauts who will fly to the International Space Station on the Boeing Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon transports, which are scheduled to make the first crew launches next year. The event is webcast from […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…