Air hostess picks up chocolate bar, wins space trip
Reuters
“A French air hostess will become one of Europe’s pioneer space tourists after picking a chocolate wrapper out of the rubbish and finding a winning number in a competition to fly to the upper reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere…
“[Mathilde Epron] will receive four days of astronaut training in Oklahoma City in the United States before boarding the Rocketplane XP aircraft which will reach an altitude of 100 km (60 miles) and allow a five-minute experience of weightlessness.”
When precisely that will be is unclear; Rocketplane XP has yet to even conduct a test flight.
XCOR Begins Lynx Build
Rob Coppinger
Hyperbola Blog
Coppinger has photos of XCOR’s Lynx high-altitude tourism vehicle, now being assembled at the company’s facility in Mojave, Calif.
XCOR Rocket Engine to Continue Flight Testing
Rob Coppinger
Flight Global
XCOR Aerospace is by July to restart flight testing its XR-4K14 1,500lb-thrust (6.67kN) liquid oxygen/kerosene engine and the aircraft it propels, the Rocket Racing League’s X-Racer…The XR-4K14 is the predecessor to Xcor’s single-stage-to-suborbit Lynx vehicle’s 5K18 engine and it will have changes made to its piston driven pump’s drive gas consumption before flight testing resumes.
Virgin Galactic plans to roll out its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft in Mojave, Calif. on July 28, according to published reports. The London-based company has invited 254 would-be space tourists who have plopped down $20,000 to $200,000 for suborbital joyrides to the ceremony.
WhiteKnightTwo is expected to fly in September, Leonard David reports at Space.com. Company president Will Whitehorn tells David that Virgin has planned an “incredibly conservative” test flight program for the mother ship and SpaceShipTwo before flying passengers on suborbital tourism flights.
The roll out will be coordinated with the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2008 air show in Wisconsin, which runs from July 28 to August 3.
Continue reading ‘Virgin Galactic to Roll Out WhiteKnightTwo in July; Team to Visit Oshkosh Air Show’
The Sunday Mirror quotes Richard Branson as saying that Virgin Galactic tourism flights are still about 30 months away. The British billionaire, speaking in Kenya where his company has rebuilt a school, said that he expects to begin flights in November 2010 after a rigorous test flight program for SpaceShipTwo and its White Knight carrier aircraft.
“NASA have [sic] lost three per cent of all their customers so our testing will be intense,” Branson said. “We are planning 50 test flights before we go up so we will be confident of getting it right.”
He plans to take his parents and children on the first tourism flight - but not his wife, Joan. “She’s not terribly keen on the idea of the kids coming up with me although I think she’s not too bothered about what might happen to me!” Branson joked.
The Russian Interfax news agency reports that the Myasishchev Experimental Machine Building Plant will build a space tourism vehicle capable of carrying 14 passengers and two crew members on suborbital flights.
“‘The enterprise is working on documentation and a draft design and is completing the technical feasibility study for the system. A private Russian company is fully financing the project,’ the enterprise’s press service told Interfax-AVN,” the story states.
Myasishchev has a description of the program on its website. The company has not identified the financial backer of the project.
The 27-metric ton M-91 vehicle would be flown atop a Myasishchev VM-T Atlant aircraft to a high altitude. The space plane would then separate and use its on-board propulsion system to fly to an altitude of 100 kilometers, where passengers would enjoy a period of zero gravity.
Continue reading ‘Report: Russian Companies Developing 16-Person Tourism Vehicle’
The Antelope Valley Press has an interesting piece on financier and space enthusiast Esther Dyson, who is one of the angel investors backing XCOR Aerospace’s Lynx space tourism vehicle.
“This is a very real-world company. It’s not out here making wide-eyed promises,” Dyson told the Press.
Dyson, founder of EDventure Holdings, has investments in Space Adventures, Zero-G Corporation, Constellation Services International, Airship Ventures and Icon Aircraft. She also helped to fund Flickr and del.icio.us, which were both sold to Yahoo!
Dyson is organizing the fourth annual Flight School, which will be held in Boulder Colorado, on June 6-8. The website describes the confab as “an executive workshop for entrepreneurs who want to identify and address major challenges facing start-ups in private aviation and commercial space.”
David Livingston of The Space Show recently interviewed Dyson. You can listen to the podcast here.
New Mexico officials were in Washington last week, seeking federal support for the establishment of a new commercial spaceport in their state.
Governor Bill Richardson and Spaceport America executive director Steve Landeene made the rounds, meeting with Congressional leaders and NASA Administrator Mike Griffin. Although federal officials offered no funding, they did express support for New Mexico’s efforts, which could payoff over time.
Rob Coppinger has posted detailed notes of his January 24 conversation with Virgin Galactic commercial director Stephen Attenborough over at his Hyperbola blog on Flight Global. These notes are in addition to an article that Coppinger wrote examining the company’s business plan and SpaceShipTwo’s rising costs (now estimated at nearly $250 million).
Attenborough had some interesting things to say:
- The company plans to roll the White Knight 2 carrier aircraft out of the factory in May;
- Virgin gained 25 new customers in a one-month period from December to January;
- An American has booked an entire flight as a charter (6 passengers);
- Many of the space tourists are in their 40’s and 50’s and were inspired by the Apollo program;
- Six customers have asked for refunds, two for health reasons and the rest due to “changing circumstances.”
FLAGSUIT LLC PRESS RELEASE
Southwest Harbor, ME (PRWEB) March 17, 2008 — Flagsuit LLC, a new startup founded by NASA Astronaut Glove Challenge winner Peter Homer, shipped their first commercially produced space suit gloves to Los Angeles-based Orbital Outfitters last month under a joint development agreement.
The gloves are designed to be used with the Industrial Suborbital Space Suit-Crew (IS3C) which was unveiled by Orbital Outfitters in October 2007. The gloves will be used for integrated suit testing and evaluation, and feature a patent-pending joint design that makes the fingers more flexible under pressure, increasing dexterity while reducing hand fatigue.
Continue reading ‘Flagsuit delivers first astronaut gloves to Orbiter Outfitters’
EADS projects that up to 15,000 people annually will be willing to fork over 200,000 euros ($300,000) to fly suborbital tourism flights, BBC’s Jonathan Amos reports.
EADS’ Astrium division is now working on space vehicle to rocket tourists up to 100 kilometers (62.5 miles). The company anticipates it will need an assembly line cranking out about 10 spacecraft annually.
Astrium anticipates it be will be producing about 10 spaceplanes a year. “To satisfy the market you will need more planes than you think, because once there is regular operation, the price will decrease which means there will be more customers,” CTO Robert Laine told Amos.