On its final voyage, the Virgin Galactic suborbital rocket SpaceShipTwo ‘Unity’ was launched on the Galactic 07 human rocket flight to the edge of space. The carrier aircraft VMS Eve lifted off from Spaceport America in New Mexico at 1428 GMT on 8 June with Unity...
Partially reusable launches have been performed many times. The Space Shuttle Orbiter was, in fact, the main stage of a partially reusable rocket system. More recently Elon Musk perfected the concept of fully reusable first stage rockets with his successful Falcon...
When I was a teenager I told my teacher I wanted to be an astronomer. As a girl from an economically deprived, and rural, part of Canada where traditional industries, like logging, ranching and mining, reigned, the teacher explained that there was no future in it, and...
After the plethora of orders in April, May’s orders seemed paltry. Nevertheless, there were a few to note: The biggest order for a single mission was a €340 million (US$369 million) one to Airbus DS for the Vigil solar storm warning spacecraft. It is to operate...
An unknown object, suspected of being an inspection subsatellite, was released from a Chinese robotic spaceplane on 24 May at about 1900 GMT. The CSSHQ 1 (Flight 3) reusable mini-shuttle has been in a low Earth orbit (LEO) since its launch in mid-December from the...
