SpaceShipTwo makes its first solo flight and landing
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo made its first solo flight and landing today.
Tag: engineering
An engineer’s guide to cats
An evening pause:
Chile miners should be reached ‘within hours’
The shaft to rescue the trapped Chilean miners should reach them ‘within hours’, according to this BBC report.
Soyuz launches with three astronauts, headed to ISS
A Soyuz rocket launched a new crew of three astronauts to ISS today. Fun quote:
The six [astronauts on ISS] on Nov. 1 will celebrate the 10th anniversary of continuous human presence on the station.
ESA struggles to fund returnable module
Government space faces budget realities: The European Space Agency is struggling to find the funds to both extend ISS as well as upgrade their cargo carrier so that it can also return cargo from ISS.
Bigelow about to announce big news
Private space moves forward, without NASA: Clark Lindsey at www.rlvnews.com notes that Robert Bigelow — the man behind the first private space station’s — seems poised to announce the first six nations who’ve agreed to rent space on his stations.
Engineer spice
An evening pause: Engineer spice.
Four Chinese lunar landers?
Muppets: “I don’t want to live on the Moon”
An evening pause:The Muppets (1978). Jim Henson singing, “I don’t want to live on the Moon.”
Soyuz capsule shipping container damaged
The container used to ship a Soyuz capsule to Baikonur was damaged in transport. No word yet on the condition of the capsule, which was scheduled for a December launch to ISS.
Space tourism from the island of Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles
The space tourism company Xcor today signed a deal to fly suborbital flights as soon as 2014 from the island of Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles.
NASA technology chief: We’ll decide what rocket we want to build
NASA’s technology chief said today that despite the specific demands Congress included in its authorization bill, NASA will make its own decision on the kind of heavy-lift rocket it wants to build.