{"id":19888,"date":"2019-10-08T20:08:29","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T00:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=19888"},"modified":"2019-10-08T20:16:45","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T00:16:45","slug":"space-transport-roundup-oct-8-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=19888","title":{"rendered":"Space transport roundup – Oct.8.2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

A sampling of recent articles, videos, and images dealing with space transport (find previous roundups here<\/a>):<\/p>\n

** Boeing buys into Virgin Galactic<\/strong>: Boeing To Invest In Human Spaceflight Pioneer Virgin Galactic<\/a><\/p>\n

Boeing will invest $20 million in Virgin Galactic, a vertically integrated human spaceflight company. The companies will work together to broaden commercial space access and transform global travel technologies.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBoeing\u2019s strategic investment facilitates our effort to drive the commercialization of space and broaden consumer access to safe, efficient, and environmentally responsible new forms of transportation,\u201d said Brian Schettler, senior managing director of Boeing HorizonX Ventures. \u201cOur work with Virgin Galactic and others will help unlock the future of space travel and high-speed mobility.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

To date, Virgin Galactic has invested more than $1 billion of capital to build reusable, human spaceflight systems designed to enable significantly more people to experience and utilize space. In July, the company announced its intent to become a publicly-listed entity via a business combination with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. The Boeing investment will be in return for new shares in Virgin Galactic and is therefore contingent on the closing of that transaction, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2019, and any such investment will be in the post-business combination company.<\/em><\/p>\n

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“VSS Unity Rockets to Space on Historic First Spaceflight.” Credits Virgin Galactic<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

** Italian Air Force buys a Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo flight<\/strong> for microgravity research: Virgin Galactic and Italian Air Force Announce World First Government Contract for Human Tended Research Flight<\/a><\/p>\n

Virgin Galactic has announced a new contract with the Italian Air Force for a research flight on the company\u2019s SpaceShipTwo system during which Italian researchers will actively conduct experiments while they are in space.<\/em><\/p>\n

The contract marks the first time a government department has funded a human-tended research flight on a commercial space vehicle. The mission, set to take place as early as 2020, will fly three Italian payload specialists and a rack of research payloads. The Italian Air Force payload specialists and Virgin Galactic\u2019s payload team are working with the Italian National Research Centre (CNR) on the design of the experimental payloads.
\n<\/em>…
\nHuman-tended research onboard SpaceShipTwo allows a dynamic approach to space-based science with researchers able to engage actively with their experiments, responding to developments in real time, optimizing the effectiveness of the research. Experimentation with humans-in-the-loop may also improve reliability by removing the unneeded complexity of building automation in. Virgin Galactic will be able to provide these benefits to the research community at levels of repeatability, affordability and quality of microgravity which have been historically unavailable in human spaceflight.<\/em><\/p>\n

** Virgin Galactic ticket prices will rise above $250k and Blue Origin’s will start at a few hundred thousand <\/strong>until flight rates rise significantly:\u00a0 Blue Origin\u2019s CEO says first space trips on New Shepard will cost \u2018hundreds of thousands of dollars\u2019 \u2013 GeekWire<\/a><\/p>\n

This week, the Australian Financial Review quoted Virgin Galactic\u2019s commercial director<\/a>, Stephen Attenborough, as saying that customer flights would begin in 2020, and that the price tag would rise once the company starts flying the more than 600 people currently on its reservation list.<\/em><\/p>\n

Attenborough said he hoped the price would eventually come down, as the frequency of flights goes from once or twice a month to a few times a week.<\/em><\/p>\n

Blue Origin<\/a> CEO Bob Smith wouldn’t give the exact ticket price but just gave a range:<\/p>\n

\u201cAny new technology is never cheap, whether you\u2019re talking about the first IBM computers or what we actually see today,\u201d Smith said. \u201cBut it\u2019ll be actually in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for people to go, initially.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Smith added that over time, \u201cwe\u2019re going to get this down to the point where middle-class people\u201d can afford a ticket to space.<\/em><\/p>\n

** China maintains a high mission rate with the launch of a Long March 4C<\/strong> with a remote sensing satellite:<\/p>\n