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SpaceShip III
SpaceShip III (SS3, also with Roman numeral: SSIII; formerly SpaceShipThree) was a planned class of spaceplanes by Virgin Galactic to follow SpaceShipTwo. It was first teased on the Virgin Galactic Twitter account on 25 February 2021 announcing the rollout of the first SpaceShip III plane on 30 March 2021. By June 2024, development of the two SpaceShip III vehicles, VSS ''Imagine'' and VSS ''Inspire'' was canceled, with the intention of using the vehicles for ground testing and development for the successor ''Delta''-class spacecraft. Ultimately, no example of a SpaceShip III vehicle was ever completed or flown in any way (i.e. no captive carry flight, no glide flight, no powered flight nor any other type of flight). Concept evolution The purpose originally proposed for SpaceShipThree in 2005 was for commercial orbital spaceflight, as part of a program called "Tier 2" by Burt Rutan founder of Scaled Composites. By 2008, Scaled Composites had reduced those plans and articulated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spaceplane
A spaceplane is a vehicle that can flight, fly and gliding flight, glide as an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and function as a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbital spaceflight, Orbital spaceplanes tend to be more similar to conventional spacecraft, while sub-orbital spaceplanes tend to be more similar to fixed-wing aircraft. All spaceplanes as of 2024 have been rocket engine, rocket-powered for takeoff and climb, but have then landed as unpowered glider (aircraft), gliders. Four examples of spaceplanes have successfully launched to orbit, Atmospheric entry, reentered Earth's atmosphere, and Landing#Aircraft, landed: the U.S. Space Shuttle, Russian Buran (spacecraft), Buran, U.S. Boeing X-37, X-37, and the Chinese Shenlong (spacecraft), Shenlong. Another, Dream Chaser, is under development in the U.S. As of 2024 all past and current orbital spaceplanes VTHL, launch vertically; some are carried as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Allen
Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American businessman, computer programmer, and investor. He co-founded Microsoft, Microsoft Corporation with his childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which was followed by the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. Allen was ranked as the The World's Billionaires, 44th-wealthiest person in the world by ''Forbes'' with an estimated net worth of $20.3 billion at the time of his death in October 2018. Allen quit from day-to-day work at Microsoft in early 1983 after a Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis, remaining on its board as vice-chairman. He and his sister, Jody Allen, founded Vulcan Inc. in 1986, a privately held company that managed his business and philanthropic efforts. At the time of his death, he had a multi-billion dollar investment portfolio, including technology and media companies, scientific research, real estate holdings, private space flight ventures, and stakes in other sectors. He owned the Se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reusable Launch Systems
Reusability is a term in computer science. Reusability may also refer to: *The quality of being fit for reuse *Reusable packaging Reusable packaging is manufactured of durable materials and is specifically designed for multiple trips and extended life. A ''reusable package'' or container is "designed for reuse without impairment of its protective function." The term returnabl ... See also * * {{disambiguation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crewed Spacecraft
This is a list of all crewed spacecraft types that have flown into space, including sub-orbital flights above 80 km, space stations that have been visited by at least one crew member, and spacecraft currently planned to operate with crews in the future. It does not contain spacecraft that have only flown uncrewed and have retired from service, even if they were designed for crewed flight, such as Buran, or crewed flights by spacecraft below 80 km. There is some debate concerning the height at which space is reached (the Karman Line): the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) recognizes 100 km, while NASA and the USAF recognize this as 50 miles (approx 80 km). Since the first crewed spaceflight of Vostok 1 in 1961 there have been 13 types of spacecraft that have made crewed flights into space – nine American, three Russian, and one Chinese. There are currently five operational crewed spacecraft, which form the first part of the list below; the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Access
Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless four-dimensional continuum known as ''spacetime''. The concept of space is considered to be of fundamental importance to an understanding of the physical universe. However, disagreement continues between philosophers over whether it is itself an entity, a relationship between entities, or part of a conceptual framework. In the 19th and 20th centuries mathematicians began to examine geometries that are non-Euclidean, in which space is conceived as '' curved'', rather than '' flat'', as in the Euclidean space. According to Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, space around gravitational fields deviates from Euclidean space. Experimental tests of general relativity have confirmed that non-Euclidean geometries provide a better model ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Air Launch To Orbit
Air-launch-to-orbit (ALTO) is the method of launching smaller rockets at altitude from a heavier conventional horizontal-takeoff aircraft, to carry satellites to low Earth orbit. It is a follow-on development of air launches of experimental aircraft that began in the late 1940s. This method, when employed for orbital payload insertion, presents significant advantages over conventional vertical rocket launches, particularly because of the reduced mass, thrust, cost of the rocket, geographical factors, and natural disasters. Air launching has also been developed for sub-orbital spaceflight. In 2004 the Ansari X Prize $10 Million purse was won by a team led by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites, launching the SpaceShipOne from the purpose-built White Knight carrier aircraft. The first air-launch-to-orbit was a test launch of the ASM-135 ASAT antisatellite rocket, the first commercial air-launch-to-orbit took place on 5 April 1990 with a Northrop Grumman Pegasus. Advantages The pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Tourism
Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. Tourists are motivated by the possibility of viewing Earth from space, feeling weightlessness, experiencing extremely high speed and something unusual, and contributing to science. Space tourism started in April 2001, when American businessman and engineer Dennis Tito became the first ever space tourist to travel to space aboard a Soyuz-TM32 spacecraft. During the period from 2001 to 2009, seven space tourists made eight space flights aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station, brokered by American company Space Adventures in conjunction with Roscosmos and RSC Energia. Iranian-American businesswoman Anousheh Ansari became the first ever female space tourist in September 2006. The publicized price was in the range of US$20–25 million per trip. Some space tourists have signed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spaceplanes
A spaceplane is a vehicle that can fly and glide as an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and function as a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbital spaceplanes tend to be more similar to conventional spacecraft, while sub-orbital spaceplanes tend to be more similar to fixed-wing aircraft. All spaceplanes as of 2024 have been rocket-powered for takeoff and climb, but have then landed as unpowered gliders. Four examples of spaceplanes have successfully launched to orbit, reentered Earth's atmosphere, and landed: the U.S. Space Shuttle, Russian Buran, U.S. X-37, and the Chinese Shenlong. Another, Dream Chaser, is under development in the U.S. As of 2024 all past and current orbital spaceplanes launch vertically; some are carried as a payload in a conventional fairing, while the Space Shuttle used its own engines with the assistance of boosters and an external tank. Orbital spaceflight takes place ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supersonic Transport
The ogive.html" ;"title="Concorde supersonic transport had an ogive">ogival delta wing, a slender fuselage and four underslung Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 engines. file:Tu-144.jpg, The Tupolev Tu-144 was the first SST to enter service and the first to leave it. Only 55 passenger flights were carried out before service ended due to safety concerns. A small number of cargo and test flights were also carried out after its retirement. A supersonic transport (SST) or a supersonic airliner is a Civil aviation, civilian supersonic aircraft designed to transport passengers at speeds greater than the speed of sound in terms of air speed. To date, the only SSTs to see regular service have been Concorde and the Tupolev Tu-144. The last passenger flight of the Tu-144 was in June 1978 and it was last flown in 1999 by NASA. Concorde's last commercial flight was in October 2003, with a November 26, 2003 ferry flight being its last flight. Following the termination of flying by Concorde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stratolaunch Systems
Stratolaunch LLC is a private American aerospace company providing high-speed flight test services. It was founded in 2011 to develop a new air-launched space transportation system, with its corporate headquarters in Seattle. The company and development project were announced in December 2011 by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan, who had previously collaborated on SpaceShipOne. After ten years, the company was acquired in 2019 by Cerberus Capital Management and has continued privately funded, operating as a non-traditional defense contractor. The project began with three components: a carrier aircraft being built by Scaled Composites (model ''Stratolaunch'', called "Roc"), a multi-stage payload launch vehicle launched at high altitude into space from under the carrier aircraft, plus a mating and integration system by Dynetics. However, only the carrier aircraft was fully developed by the time of Paul Allen's death in late 2018. The car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
VSS Inspire
VSS may refer to: Organizations * Vegetarian Society (Singapore) * Vernon Secondary School, a high school in Vernon, B.C. * Veronis Suhler Stevenson, media company * Victims and Survivors Service, Northern Ireland public body * Voluntary Sports Societies of the Soviet Union * FC VSS Košice, a Slovak football club Science and technology * Variable structure system, a class of discontinuous nonlinear systems * Vehicle speed sensor, in automobiles * Verifiable secret sharing, a cryptographic primitive * Video surveillance system, cameras and other systems combined together to allow remote video monitoring * Visual SourceSafe, a source control software system produced by Microsoft * Vital signs stable, in List of medical abbreviations: V * Volatile suspended solids, a water quality measure * Voltage symmetrization system in power engineering * Volume Snapshot Service, or Shadow Copy, in Microsoft Windows * Visual Surround Sound / Visual Surround System : when surround sound ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
VSS Imagine
VSS ''Imagine'' (Virgin Space Ship ''Imagine'') is an unflown ''SpaceShip III''-class suborbital rocket-powered crewed spaceplane. It was the first SpaceShip III to be ordered and built, and was intended to be used as part of the Virgin Galactic fleet. The spacecraft was rolled out 30 March 2021 and was planned to undergo ground and glide testing during summer 2021. As of January 2024, it had not yet flown (in any form: not a captive carry flight, glide flight, powered flight or any other type of flight). By June 2024, development of ''Imagine'' and VSS ''Inspire'' was canceled, with the intention of using the vehicles for ground testing and development for the successor ''Delta''-class spacecraft. Overview VSS ''Imagine'', the first SpaceShip III suborbital spaceplane for Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. is a British-American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and the Virgin Group conglomerate, which retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
