On May 5, 1961, Commander Alan Shepard steered his Mercury Freedom 7 spacecraft 116 miles above the surface of the planet to become the first American to enter Earth orbit. Last Sunday, Sir Richard Branson was escorted aboard the SpaceShipTwo Unity by Virgin Galactic to an altitude of 80 kilometers. Somehow these men are both … Read more
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, VSS Unity, launches its hybrid rocket engine to fly into space. (Virgin Galactic via YouTube) Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson took his company’s SpaceShipTwo rocket to the skies over New Mexico today and did something no billionaire has done before. Accompanied by five crew members, Branson became the first billionaire … Read more
Sir Richard Branson could visit space before Jeff Bezos. Virgin Galactic has announced that it will open the flight window for SpaceShipTwo Unity’s next rocket-powered test flight on July 11th, more than a week before Blue Origin’s first tourist flight is scheduled to take off on July 20th with Bezos on board. The Unity 22 … Read more
The 21st century has promised us flying cars, but when we get personal missile packages, who should we complain about? In Take on Gravity, pilot Richard Browning talks about the development of his unique jet suit, from a fantastic idea to an actual invention. In the following excerpt, Browning recalls the record flight in 2017 … Read more
Urbanist, writer and professor Richard Florida. (Photo: Daria Malysheva) Reports of coastal city deaths are grossly exaggerated. At least that’s the view of renowned urbanist and author Richard Florida, who spoke to GeekWire editor Monica Nickelsburg earlier this week about the future of cities as part of the annual Crosscut Festival. “I’m just amazed at … Read more