by David Todd | Jul 28, 2015 | Commercial human spaceflight, Personal spaceflight, Space tourism, Suborbital, Technology, Virgin Galactic
The premature in-flight deployment of the feathered tail plane speed braking system was the primary cause of the destruction of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo (VSS Enterprise) on 31 October 2015, the formal investigation into the accident has concluded. The US...
by David Todd | Apr 30, 2015 | Space tourism, Suborbital
On 29 April 2015, Blue Origin has just made a successful unmanned suborbital test flight of its passenger carrying New Shepard spacecraft and launch vehicle. The flight achieved an ultimate altitude of 307,000 feet before the capsule was separated to make a parachute...
by David Todd | Dec 18, 2014 | India, Launches, Suborbital, test
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) conducted the first sub-orbital test launch of the GSLV Mk III launch vehicle carrying its Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment (CARE) at 0400 GMT on the 18th December 2014. The launch took place from the Satish...
by David Todd | Sep 2, 2014 | Suborbital, Technology
On 25 August 2014, a test of the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon ended in failure at Kodiak Island in Alaska when the three stage carrier rocket which was meant to accelerate the test vehicle to hypersonic but suborbital speed was exploded deliberately due to a detected...
by David Todd | Jun 12, 2014 | commercial launch services, ESA, SpaceX, Suborbital, Virgin Galactic, White Knight
At the UK Launch Symposium held at the Roehampton Vale Campus of Kingston University which met in May, which had most of the UK’s space launch engineers and rocket scientists in attendance, there was a real feeling that the nation needs a launch vehicle –...
by David Todd | Jan 28, 2014 | Commercial human spaceflight, Space tourism, Suborbital, Technology, Virgin Galactic
While the space tourism firm, Virgin Galactic, has conceded that US security regulations preclude it accepting bookings from high paying Chinese would-be space tourists, the firm does seem set on finally flying into space later this year. Nevertheless, many...
