The Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, VSS Unity, has made its third test flight, and the seventh in total for the SpaceShipTwo rocketplane design. The first four were flown by VSS Enterprise but it was destroyed in an accident involving premature feathering...
On 19 June, at 1511 GMT, Blue Origin made a test flight of its New Shepard suborbital passenger vehicle from its Van Horn launch site in Texas. The test flight was in unmanned condition and was primarily for the purpose of testing an emergency escape system. The test...
On 29 May, Virgin Galactic made the second flight of its SpaceShipTwo VSS-Unity rocket plane which ignited its rocket after being dropped by its carrier aircraft VMS Eve. The rocket plane’s rocket engine burned for 31 seconds, with the craft achieving Mach...
On 29 April 2018 at 1707 GMT the New Shepard reusable launch system flew on Mission 8 (M8) of the New Shepard programme from the Van Horn launch site in Texax. This was a reflight of the Mk II capsule and launch vehicle flown on the endo-atmospheric...
While the concept of a space hotel has long held interest amongst science fiction and other writers – even Roald Dahl had a “Space Hotel USA” in his children’s story “Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator” – the planned ending...
The Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, VSS Unity, has restarted test flights two years after the fatal test flight that killed co-pilot Mike Alsbury. A combination of pilot error and poor design were blamed for the premature feathering of the wing. The craft,...
