space flight

Virgin Galactic Completes Successful Maiden Voyage

Filed under: Wings

Public space travel took another leap forward last week when Virgin Galactic made its maiden voyage in the skies over the Mojave Desert in California. The test flight consisted of carrier plane WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) taking flight for the first time while carrying SpaceShipTwo (SS2), the vessel that will eventually be the one to take passengers out to space. The plan is for WK2 to carry SS2 up to a high altitude before dropping it, at which point the hybrid rocket motor will fire and SS2 will carry passengers the rest of the way out to space on its own.

During this first test flight WK2 flew with SS2 for about 3 hours, without incident or hiccup. There are many more test flights to be completed (test hops, drop flights, and actual trips to space) before passengers will be allowed to take tourism flights out of Spaceport America in New Mexico. The project is running longer and is costing more than originally anticipated, but the hope is that SS2 will undergo its first powered test by the end of this year and that the project could be opened to passengers as soon as late 2011 or early 2012.

Via Dvice

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Tags: space, space flight, space tourism, space travel, SpaceFlight, spaceshiptwo, SpaceTourism, SpaceTravel, virgin galactic, VirginGalactic

XCOR Aerospace Offers Space Flight At A Discount

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

The first entrant into any marketplace has the benefit of being able to set the price for the service and those that follow often need to offer a lower price. That's the case in the space tourism game, now that XCOR Aerospace is offering tickets for suborbital rides at less than half the price of main competitor Virgin Galactic. XCOR Aerospace is partnering with tour developer and operator Jules Klar, co-creator of the 1960s-era "Europe on $5 a Day" guides, to sell rides aboard its Lynx spaceship for $95,000. The two-seat Lynx craft is under development at XCOR's Mojave Desert base. Lynx passengers fly in the cockpit next to Richard Searfoss, who made three spaceflights for NASA. The company plans to be able to make up to four flights a day. Test flights are set to begin in 2010 with first paid flights as soon as early 2011.

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Tags: space flight, space tourism, SpaceFlight, SpaceTourism, xcor aerospace, xcor lynx, XcorAerospace, XcorLynx

Elegant Resorts Offers Space Flights

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

With the plans for Virgin Galactic proceeding full steam, tourists are lining up for commercial sub-orbital spaceflights. Elegant Resorts has announced that they are the official "space agent" in Russia, CIS and the UK. Some of the staff from Elegant Resorts went to the International Space University in Strasbourg this summer to learn about spaceflight technology, G-forces, weightlessness and all of the details of the three-day Virgin Galactic Experience. The first commercial flight is expected to take place in 2009 and already 70,000 people have registered their interest on the Virgin Galactic website. So far 200 people around the world have signed up to pay the $200,000 fee for a short suborbital space ride.

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Tags: space flight, suborbital space flight, virgin galactic, VirginGalactic

Plans For Spaceport America Revealed

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

We first heard about the plans for Virgin Galactic and Spaceport America back in December 2005. The home base for space travel promises to bring space tourism to the New Mexico desert. Now the team of US and British architects and designers working on the project have released design renderings of Spaceport America. The design is from a US-British consortium of URS Corporation and Foster + Partners and shows a low-slung design which is tucked into the earth and uses passive energy for heating and cooling with photovoltaic panels for electricity and water recycling. Massive windows open out to the runway. People enter through a deep channel cut in the landscape. The terminal and hanger are expected to cost around $31 million and construction will begin in 2008 with late 2009 or early 2010 projected as a completion date. Big pics of the design drawings in the gallery.

[via Aero-News Network]

Gallery: Spaceport America