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Stories filed under: "spaceport"
DailyDirt: Space Tourism vs Working In Space
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Even though there are less than a handful of ways for people to get into space right now, there may be a few more options in the near future to get close to space or into low earth orbit. If you have the resources, you could just book a seat on a Soyuz for $20-70 million. But for a bit less, you can book a trip on various vehicles without a decades-long track record. Or… you could be paid to be an astronaut if you have the skills, but the odds of getting selected are pretty slim.
- Virgin Galactic has built a replacement for its SpaceShipTwo vehicle that was destroyed in a fatal accident. The new VSS Unity incorporates a few more automated safety features and uses a different rocket fuel — and may someday take dozens (hundreds?) of passengers to the edge of space as tourists. [url]
- Over 18,000 people have applied to become an astronaut for NASA — in order to be named one of the 8 to 14 new astronauts in 2017. It’s never been easy to be selected as an astronaut, but this is apparently the highest number of applications that NASA has received (even when NASA still operated a vehicle that could take people into space). [url]
- World View Enterprises is another step closer to building its own “spaceport” in Arizona. Spaceport Tuscon would launch World View’s high altitude balloons to about 100,000 feet up in pressurized cabins. FYI, World View owns the tech that helped ex-Google VP Alan Eustace make a record-breaking skydive from an altitude of 135,908 feet. [url]
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Filed Under: astronauts, leo, manned missions, soyuz, space, space exploration, space tourism, spaceport, spaceport tuscon, spaceshiptwo, vss unity
Companies: nasa, virgin galactic, world view enterprises
DailyDirt: Space Is Cool Again! Yay!
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Maybe you haven’t seen the latest Star Wars film yet, but it’s pretty hard to avoid hearing about it. Recently, there have been some more “realistic” space movies out (eg. Gravity, Interstellar, The Martian), but there’s also plenty of actual space stories to watch, too. In the past year or so, we’ve seen some spectacular rocket failures, but thankfully, we’re closing out 2015 with some successful accomplishments — and plans for more sequels.
- SpaceX just landed its reusable 1st stage rocket — which is a remarkable come-back from losing a payload only a few months ago. However, this particular rocket will be studied and tested for its integrity, and it probably won’t ever fly again. [url]
- New Zealand is getting its first rocket launch site, and it will start launches in mid-2016 on the Mahia Peninsula. This spaceport will be able to launch once a month, and it already has a booked schedule through 2018. (Hat-tip to Lawrence D’Oliveiro) [url]
- China’s lunar rover, Yutu, was operational for well beyond its original 3-month mission, and it has provided geological data from the moon that show the moon’s composition is much more diverse than previous samples suggested. The lunar surface may soon get some additional company from a private lunar lander sometime in 2017, sent by SpaceIL on a Falcon 9 rocket. [url]
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Filed Under: falcon 9, lunar rover, re-usable rockets, rocket, space, space exploration, spaceport, yutu
Companies: spaceil, spacex