Space Planes

Swiss Space Systems Conducts First Tests, Looks at Russian Engine

Swiss Space Systems Conducts First Tests, Looks at Russian Engine

SOAR Space Plane / Credit Swiss Space Systems One of Europe’s leading NewSpace companies, Swiss Space Systems recently completed a first milestone, conducting an initial round of “flight testing” key components at its Canadian test facility. From its press release: “These first test flights were done with the purpose of testing and validating avionics systems, […]

NTSB: Pilot Error a Major Factor in the Loss of SpaceShipTwo

NTSB: Pilot Error a Major Factor in the Loss of SpaceShipTwo

Only two days in to an investigation which was expected to take up to a year,  the National Safety Transportation Board team looking in to Friday’s Virgin Galactic crash at the Mojave spaceport has made a surprising discovery, one which overturns almost all of the early assumptions about what led to the disaster. Speaking at […]

Disaster in the Desert: Tragedy Strikes Virgin Galactic

Disaster in the Desert: Tragedy Strikes Virgin Galactic

Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground In the second major disaster to strike commercial space in the same week, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo broke up in the air above the Mojave desert shortly after igniting its new plastic compound based hybrid motor in what would have been its first powered test flight. […]

X-37B Lands at Vandenberg

X-37B Lands at Vandenberg

Image Credit USAF Concluding its longest mission to date, the U.S. Air Force X-37B space plane returned to Earth on Friday, Here is the full Air Force Press Release: Release Number: 041014 10/17/2014 – VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle mission 3 (OTV-3), the Air Force’s unmanned, reusable space plane, […]

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