Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity and its mothership (left) are modeled after the SpaceShipOne launch system (right) built with the help of Seattle billionaire Paul Allen. (Photos by Virgin Galactic and Michael Pereckas) The suborbital spaceships built by Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Spaceline may look completely different, but financially … 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
RR Auction’s Steve Little yells “Sold!” and completes the tender for a seat on Blue Origin’s suborbital spacecraft for $ 28 million. (Blue Origin via YouTube) A vacant seat on the very first crew to fly Blue Origin’s suborbital New Shepard was auctioned today for $ 28 million, millions more than the International Space Station’s … Read more
New Shepard’s booster descends to Blue Origin’s landing pad. (Blue origin via YouTube) The Blue Origin space project by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos flew a mannequin into space today during the 15th test flight for its reusable suborbital spaceship New Shepard – but for the first time living, breathing people practiced every step before takeoff … Read more