Video: Virgin Galactic VSS Unity rocketplane reaches 52 km on third powered flight

On Thursday, the Virgin Galactic‘s VSS Unity rocketplane reached Mach 2.47 in speed and 52 kilometers in altitude on the vehicle’s third test flight with the hybrid motor firing. This video shows highlights of the test:

If the program continues to make steady progress, the vehicle should cross the border of space this year,  perhaps within two or three more test flights. (Whether VG will define the 100 km Kármán line as the threshold to space or the USAF’s 80 km, has not been clarified yet.) Then sometime in 2019 they could begin taking six paying passengers at a time to space on a regular basis. Currently about 700 people are holding tickets for flights on Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo vehicles. The current ticket price is $250,000.

Blue Origin is on roughly the same time schedule with the New Shepard vertically launched system. New Shepard vehicles have reached over 100 km eight times on test flights since 2015 but without anyone on board. Unity, on the other hand, always has two pilots and will carry up to six passengers. The six passengers on a New Shepard will ride without pilots and instead rely on autonomous control.

Virgin Galactic posted the following statement about this week’s test:

Into the Mesosphere at Mach 2.4

Virgin Galactic’s Third Powered Flight on July 26th 2018

Virgin Galactic test pilots broke Mach 2 this morning, as VSS Unity took her third rocket-powered supersonic outing in less than four months. After a clean release from carrier aircraft VMS Eve at 46,500 ft, pilots Dave Mackay and Mike “Sooch” Masucci lit the spaceship’s rocket motor, before pulling up into a near vertical climb and powering towards the black sky at 2.47 times the speed of sound.

The planned 42 seconds rocket burn took pilots and spaceship through the Stratosphere and, at an apogee of 170,800 ft [52 km], into the Mesosphere for the first time. This region, often referred to by scientists as the “Ignorosphere”, is an under-studied atmospheric layer because it is above the range of balloon flight, and in the future is an area we can help the research community explore further.

After a safe landing back at Mojave Air and Space Port, Chief Pilot Dave Mackay summed up the experience:

“It was a thrill from start to finish. Unity’s rocket motor performed magnificently again and Sooch pulled off a smooth landing. This was a new altitude record for both of us in the cockpit, not to mention our mannequin in the back, and the views of Earth from the black sky were magnificent.”

Sooch added:

“Having been a U2 pilot and done a lot of high altitude work, or what I thought was high altitude work, the view from 170,000 ft was just totally amazing. The flight was exciting and frankly beautiful. We were able to complete a large number of test points which will give us good insight as we progress to our goal of commercial service.”

Every time VSS Unity is tested on the ground, or in the skies, we gain invaluable experience and fresh data. This continuously improves our modelling and helps us optimise objectives and test points as we progressively expand the flight envelope. Today’s test, among other things, gathered more data on supersonic aerodynamics as well as thermal dynamics.

VSS Unity lands after its third powered flight.

As it has been on previous flights, Unity’s cabin was equipped to gather data vital to the future safety and experience of our astronaut customers. These cabin analysis systems record a host of parameters that are designed to help us further understand the environment inside the cabin during powered flight – temperatures, pressures, humidity, acoustics, thermal response, vibration, acceleration and even radiation.

The carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, was piloted today by Todd Ericson and Kelly Latimer.

Congratulations to everyone at Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company today for achieving another significant step towards commercial service. With VSS Unity, VMS Eve and the pilots safely back on the ground, we will now analyze the post-flight data as we plan and prepare for our next flight.

For downloadable assets from today’s flight please visit our Press FTP.

Video: Planetary Post – Robert Picardo visits the Space Telescope Science Institute

The latest episode of the Planetary Society‘s Planetary Post series with Robert Picardo:

Picardo visits the Space Telescope Science Institute to learn about how Hubble and the OPAL program make images of planets.

Here also is an update on the Planetary Society’s LightSail II project: LightSail 2 team completes key mission review and dress rehearsal | The Planetary Society.

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Videos: SpaceX Falcon 9 and Arianespace Ariane V rockets launch within short time

Two big rockets launched successfully this morning, lifting off within about 15 minutes of each other:

** A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched 10 Iridium NEXT satellites from Vandenberg AFB in California despite fog so heavy the rocket was not visible in ground cameras: Iridium Completes Seventh Successful Iridium® NEXT Launch | Iridium Communications Inc.

The first stage booster landed on a platform floating on the Pacific Ocean despite high winds and rough seas.

A view of the booster on the droneship.

Here are highlights of the satellite deployments:

More about the launch at SpaceX launches seventh Iridium mission and recovers booster – NASASpaceFlight.com.

** Arianespace Ariane V rocket launched from French Guiana with four Galileo navigation satellites, which are to be deployed a few hours after the upper stage reached orbit: : Ariane 5 lifts off from French Guiana with four Galileo spacecraft – Arianespace

More about the mission at Ariane 5 rocket, Galileo satellites on launch pad in French Guiana – Spaceflight Now.

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Rockets: Dutch team aims to break European student rocket alt record + Copenhagen Suborbitals counts down to Nexø II launch

Update 2: The Stratos III lifted off on Wednesday evening but disintegrated after 20 seconds into the flight.: Stratos III Failure | DARE

Last night, we launched our Stratos III rocket attempting to break the European altitude record. The procedures took all night and finally around 3:30 in the morning the rocket lifted off successfully. Then, 20 seconds into the flight the rocket disintegrated. The pieces landed in the ocean within the safety zone. Together with INTA (Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial), the operator of the launch base, we’re now investigating the anomaly and the cause of the failure.

Several views of the launch:

Update: The DARE launch was scrubbed due to high winds. They will try again tomorrow – Cancelled Launch Attempt July 24 | DARE:

Unfortunately, we have cancelled the launch window for today. Although the weather was suitable for launch in the early afternoon, the weather balloon data obtained in the evening showed winds at higher altitudes are much stronger than predicted. This led to margins on wind becoming smaller than expected, making a launch today not possible.

As we abort the launch relatively early in the evening (T-2:50 hours), the crew still has sufficient time for a good sleep. This way we can ensure Stratos III is fully ready for the new attempt scheduled tomorrow, the 25th of July. Thanks a lot for all the enthusiastic and inspiring comments on social media. Lets all take a good night sleep and prepare for breaking boundaries tomorrow!

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The Dutch university student rocket team DARE today is streaming video of their preparations in southern Spain for an attempt to launch today the Stratos III. They hope the rocket will reach over 30 kilometers in altitude and break the European student altitude record.

The Stratos III rocket, built by students from Delft University of Technology, will fly this week. On Tuesday 24th July starting at 15:00, the student rocketry team called DARE will have their first attempt to launch their rocket into the upper layers of the atmosphere. In addition to that, they want to break the European altitude record for a student built rocket, which currently stands at 32.3km. All parts, including the motor of the rocket, were developed by the students. This launch will bring the students one step closer to their ultimate goal: to be the first student team, worldwide, to reach space.

The rocket uses a hybrid motor with a liquid oxidizer and solid fuel. More from the press release:

Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering, or DARE, is the student rocketry team who has designed, built and will launch the rocket. This society of students was created in 2001 and in the past 17 years, DARE has had multiple big launch attempts; the Stratos I in 2009, reaching an altitude of 12.5km and the Stratos II in 2015, reaching an altitude of 21.5km. Both broke the then-current European altitude record. The record was lost to a German student team in 2016. “There is a new space-race between our team and other student teams from Europe and the United States”, says team member Martin Olde.

Launching from SpainThe launch is planned for 24 July 2018 with back up launch attempts on 25, 26 and 27 July. The launch attempt will take place in the evening, however, delays due to wind, fishing boats or technical problems could delay the attempt.

“In order to safely launch the rocket, an area the size of the province of Friesland needs to be kept free from boats and other forms of traffic. Safety is of utmost importance, but it does make it very exciting”, says team manager Jesse Hummel.

Once Again – Candle Wax and Coffee SweetenerStratos III is comparable to its predecessor – the Stratos II from 2015. It is 8 metres long with the largest component being the propulsion system, which was designed by the students themselves. The propellant is the interesting mixture of laughing gas with candle wax, coffee sweetener and aluminum powder. This “rocket fuel” is also self-made by the students and will eventually deliver 2500 kg of force, resulting in the rocket reaching a speed of 3 times the speed of sound, or more than 3600 km/hr. Above the propulsion system, in the nosecone of the rocket, sits a scientific experiment, four cameras and the flight computer. After a flight of just over 10 minutes, the nosecone attached to a parachute will splash down in the sea.

Stratos III will be carrying a payload from the Dutch Aeronautical and Aerospace Centre (NLR). NLR has made a prototype flight computer for the SMILE project, which will be tested during the flight. SMILE is a European project to develop and make a small satellite launcher for Europe. With a great increase in the launching of small satellites, the EU would like to become a big player in this market. The payload will take measurements during the flight with the aim to develop a better flight computer in the future.

Stratos III on the launch rail at the El Arenosillo launch site in the south of Spain.  July 24, 2018.

Updates are available on the DARE Blog.

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[ Update July.26.2018: The launch is postponed to no earlier than August 4th: Nexø II – Copenhagen Suborbitals.]

Meanwhile, the non-profit volunteer Danish organization Copenhagen Suborbitals is preparing for a launch attempt this Saturday of the liquid bi-propellant Nexø II rocket. The rocket will launch from a platform towed out into the Baltic Sea near the coast of the Danish island Bornholm.

All systems are GO – we are currently aiming for launch on July 28th between 8AM and 11AM UTC. Next GO/NOGO is Monday July 23th where we evaluate the weather forecast. 

Here is the latest video update:

The organization is following a step-by-step development process towards eventually launching a person on a suborbital rocket across the 100 km border to space.

The Nexø II rocket will be  the most advanced rocket build and launched by CS so far. The Nexø rocket class is a technology demonstrator in advance of building the significantly bigger Spica rocket that will take our astronaut to space. Thus, Nexø is an important part of the Spica roadmap and the technology developed and used in the Nexø class will be used in the Spica rocket.

The rocket is their most sophisticated yet:

Just as Nexø I the Nexø II rocket is powered by our own BPM5 engine providing a nominal thrust of 5000 N running on ethanol and liquid oxygen. It has a body diameter of 300 mm, a total length of 6.7 m and a dry weight of about 178 kg. With a target filling ratio of 85% propellants it will carry 114 kg propellants for a Gross Lift-Off Weight (GLOW) of 292 kg.

Here is a diagram of the rocket:

Inside look of Nexø II. Click for larger image.

Updates on the launch preparations can be found on the Copenhagen Suborbitals Blog.

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