Tag: Space Tourism

XCOR Lynx Space Plane Continues to Take Shape

XCOR Lynx Space Plane Continues to Take Shape

Image Credit XCOR Aerospace Press Release XCOR: One Step Closer to Full Assembly Mojave, CA, May 08, 2015 – XCOR Aerospace, Inc. announced today that it has bonded the XCOR Lynx Mark I strakes to the Lynx spacecraft fuselage. Lynx Mark I is currently being assembled at XCOR’s Hangar 61 in Mojave, California. Integrating the […]

Posted in: Space Planes, XCOR
Blue Origin’s New Shepard Makes Inaugural Flight

Blue Origin’s New Shepard Makes Inaugural Flight

Image Credit : Blue Origin After a four year hiatus, Blue Origin to the skies in West Texas yesterday, and it may well have been worth the wait. Here is the announcement from Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos on the company website. Apr 29, 2015 First Developmental Test Flight of New Shepard Today we flew […]

Looking Back, Looking Ahead and Getting the Business of “Rocket Science” Right

Looking Back, Looking Ahead and Getting the Business of “Rocket Science” Right

Still Working…Still Waiting. Image Credit: Virgin Galactic Saturday, October 4th, 2014 was the ten year anniversary of the SpaceShipOne’s winning the Ansari X-Prize, a feat which built on its legacy of becoming the first privately funded, piloted “rocket” to pass the 62.5 mile high Karman line and go into suborbital space. Ten years later, on […]

Posted in: Space Tourism
Will Soyuz Beat Orion Around the Moon?

Will Soyuz Beat Orion Around the Moon?

On June 3rd, the Moscow Times reported on a new development in Space Adventure’s plan to launch two tourists on a voyage around the Moon.  Having scored notable success as the first and only company to arrange tourist, or “space flight participant” trips to the International Space Station, Space Adventures has been promoting the lunar […]

Posted in: Soyuz, Space Tourism
XCOR Receives Capital Investment

XCOR Receives Capital Investment

Following the delivery of its first flight capable, pressurized cockpit earlier this year, XCOR continues to make steady progress in assembling its two seat Lynx sub-orbital space plane. With fellow intended space tourism provider Virgin Galactic announcing a switch in fuels for the hybrid rocket motor powering SpaceShipTwo, a change which may further delay its […]

Posted in: Space Tourism, XCOR
Virgin Galactic Makes Hybrid Motor Switch

Virgin Galactic Makes Hybrid Motor Switch

Based on Virgin Galactic’s marketing arrangement with NBC, it’s a pretty good bet that as the company approaches its first flights, much of the breaking news will come from that source, and hopefully from Alan Boyle. So, along those lines, we learned on Friday that VG is making a switch in the hybrid fuel mixture […]

XCOR Receives Lynx Cockpit, Begins Integrating First Operational Vehicle

XCOR Receives Lynx Cockpit, Begins Integrating First Operational Vehicle

Although Virgin Galactic has a tendency to draw the headlines, no doubt in part due to its very high profile founder, XCOR Aerospace is pressing equally hard to get its Lynx space plane into commercial service. The company announced a major step forward today with the delivery of the pressurized cockpit for its Lynx Mark […]

Posted in: Space Tourism, XCOR
Swiss Space Systems Announces World Tour Dates

Swiss Space Systems Announces World Tour Dates

Swiss Space Systems unveiled its worldwide Zero G flight schedule for 2015 in a March newsletter today. Lifting off from 24 different airfields and every continent except Antarctica, the company’s specially modified Airbus A-300 will span the globe, offering parabolic flights with passengers grouped into three different zones. Beginning at under 2,000 Euros, the “Party […]

Posted in: Space Tourism
Winklevoss plus Bitcoins equals Zero G

Winklevoss plus Bitcoins equals Zero G

It has been a wild week in world of digital currency known as bitcoins, beginning with a high profile theft, and culminating with NewsWeeks’s claim that it has identified its enigmatic creator. Somewhere in the middle comes a new piece of evidence that bitcoins may have a future as interplanetary currency. Virgin Galactic has received another […]

Posted in: Space Tourism
Swiss Space Systems Sign Development Agreement with Thales Alenia

Swiss Space Systems Sign Development Agreement with Thales Alenia

Swiss Space Systems has signed an agreement with Thales Alenia Space to develop the pressurized compartment for its air launched SOAR (Sub-Orbital Aircraft Reusable  space plane announced in March.  SOAR is intended to be primarily employed as reusable  second stage for launching small satellites, but S3 is also seeking to enter the suborbital research and tourism market with a pressurized compartment which can […]

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