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SpaceShipTwo Pilots Faced Extremely High Work Loads
Pre-sunrise checks on WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo on the runway at the Mojave Air and Spaceport before powered flight 3. (Credit: Virgin Galactic) Part 2 in a Series By Douglas Messier Managing...
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Pete Siebold’s Harrowing Descent
SpaceShipTwo breaks up in flight. At the upper left, the main fuselage without its tail booms continues to vent nitrous oxide while in an inverted flat spin. The crew cabin is tumbling in the lower...
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Character, Candor & Competence: Lessons From the SpaceShipTwo Crash
SpaceShipTwo right boom wreckage. (Credit: NTSB) By Douglas Messier Managing Editor One of the most interesting aspects of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation into the...
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SpaceShipTwo Drop Test Set for Tuesday
SpaceShipTwo glides toward a landing with its chase plane close behind at lower right. (Credit: Douglas Messier) Virgin Galactic plans to conduct the first glide test of the second SpaceShipTwo on...
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The Adventures of SpaceShipTwo: Inverted Flight, Wonky Gyros & an Impatient...
SpaceShipTwo glides to a landing at Mojave Air and Space Port. (Credit: Virgin Galactic) Nicholas Schmidle has an interesting profile of Virgin Galactic test pilot Mark Stucky in the New Yorker that...
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Former NASA Astronaut No Fan of Richard Branson’s “Dangerous”&“Dead-end”...
SpaceShipTwo breaks up in flight on Oct. 31, 2014. (Crredit: NTSB) Four-time space shuttle astronaut Andy Thomas is no fan of Sir Richard Branson’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital tourism vehicle, the...
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Suborbital Flights Stopped Being So Humdrum in 2018
Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo’s first flight above 50 miles on Dec. 13, 2018. (Credit: Virgin Galactic) Part 1 of 2 by Douglas Messier Managing Editor Throughout the Space Age, suborbital flight has...
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2018 Was Busy Year for Suborbital Flight Tests
SpaceShipTwo fires its hybrid engine. (Credit: Kenneth Brown) Part 2 of 2 by Douglas Messier Managing Editor There were 15 flight tests of eight suborbital boosters in 2018, including six flights of...
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Virgin Galactic Pilots Awarded Commercial Astronaut Wings
Richard Branson with the pilots of SpaceShipTwo. (Credit: Virgin Galactic) Washington D.C., USA (7 Feb 2019) — In another historical moment for the commercial spaceflight industry, Virgin Galactic was...
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Virgin Galactic Pilots Join 80.46-Kilometer (50-Mile) Club
Richard Branson with the pilots of SpaceShipTwo. (Credit: Virgin Galactic) by Douglas Messier Managing Editor Virgin Galactic pilots Mark “Forger” Stucky and Frederick “C.J.” Sturckow, who were awarded...
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Bezos: No Asterisks Next to the Names of Blue Origin’s Astronauts
Blue Origin’s New Shepard reusable, suborbital rocket. (Credits: Blue Origin) Two days before Virgin Galactic completed the ninth powered flight of its SpaceShipTwo suborbital program, rocket...
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Three Virgin Galactic Crew Presented with Commercial Astronaut Wings at 35th...
The curvature of the Earth from SpaceShipTwo. (Credit: Virgin Galactic) COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., April 9, 2019 (Virgin Galactic PR) — The three-person crew from Virgin Galactic’s second space flight...
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A Short Review of Virgin Galactic’s Long History
SpaceShipTwo fires its hybrid engine. (Credit: Kenneth Brown) by Douglas MessierManaging Editor Today, Sept. 27, marks the 15th anniversary of Richard Branson announcing the launch of Virgin Galactic...
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Virgin Galactic Looks on the Bright Side After Launch Abort
WhiteKnightTwo takes off with SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity from Spaceport America in New Mexico. (Credit: Virgin Galactic) by Douglas MessierManaging Editor It was a flight 22 months in the making. But,...
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As Virgin Galactic Crew Celebrated Second Suborbital Flight, Problems Loomed...
Chief Pilot David Mackay celebrates a successful flight with champagne as Chief Astronaut Beth Moses looks on. (Credit: Virgin Galactic) by Douglas MessierManaging Editor Newly arrived back on Earth...
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2020 a Busy Year for Suborbital Launches
New Shepard landing on the pad in West Texas on October 13, 2020, with the NASA Lunar Landing Sensor Demo onboard. (Credit: Blue Origin) by Douglas MessierManaging Editor Suborbital launch used to be...
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Virgin Galactic Stock Plunges as Company Delays Space Tourism Flights to 2022
SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity arrives at Spaceport America aboard WhiteKnightTwo VMS Eve. (Credit: Virgin Galactic) by Douglas MessierManaging Editor Shares of Virgin Galactic plunged sharply on Thursday as...
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Virgin Galactic Completes First Human Spaceflight from Spaceport America, New...
VSS Unity during its first suborbital flight from Spaceport America in New Mexico. (Credit: Virgin Galactic) LAS CRUCES, N.M. May 22, 2021 (Virgin Galactic PR) — Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:...
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Breaking Down Virgin Galactic’s Latest Flight Test
Take me out to the black,Tell them I ain’t comin’ back.Burn the land and boil the sea,You can’t take the sky from me…. — “The Ballad of Serenity,” Sonny Rhodes “After so many years and so much hard...
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To Briefly Go: Billionaires Branson & Bezos Battle for Bragging Rights Where...
Richard Branson wears the SpaceShipTwo flight suit. (Credit: Virgin Galactic) Fewer than 25 suborbital spaceflights have ever been conductedMost suborbital launches were conducted with vehicles...
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