Commercial human spaceflight: March 2009 Archives

credit IAASS / Caption: click on this image to see a larger version in the same browser window

Detail's from the Russian Federal Space Agency's request for proposals for its Soyuz TMA replacement, apparently now called Advanced Manned Space Transpotation System (unless this is just a translation issue and it is still called Advanced Crew Transportation System  - ACTS), can be found in the March issue of the Association for the Advancement of Space Safety's (IAASS) newsletter

credit Google / caption: Go look at the Broadmoor Center here

This week Hyperbola is coming from the US of A and in particular two spaceflight conferences. They are, the Space Foundation's National Space Symposium, usually at the beginning of which there are protesters outside so one wonders if that will happen again this year (I might even do a quick audio interview to find out what they think), and then from Thursday evening I'll be in Phoenix to cover the Space Access Society conference

Hopefully this week (if it all goes to plan) expect from Hyperbola and its twitter page, flighthyperbola, breaking news, podcasts of speeches and one-on-one interviews and possibly even video of the same. While Flightglobal.com/spaceflight will run all the full articles

credit: Astrium / caption: the world's financial downturn has grounded Astrium's space jet suborbital  spaceplane

Hyperbola had heard that EADS Astrium had shelved for the time being its aspirations for the suborbital market and now the European space company has confirmed the rumour to this blog with the following statement: "The world economic situation has created a difficult near term environment in which to finalise ongoing discussions with investors. Astrium is to temporarily slow down the technical activities focusing on core risk mitigation for the project. The [space jet] team achieved impressive results in the pre-development phase particularly in the field of propulsion technology. Astrium sees suborbital flight as a promising area because of the emerging space tourism market."

Twelve weeks after the 21 December 2008 first flight of Scaled Composites WhiteKnight Two experimental prototype Virgin MotherShip (VMS) Eve only Hyperbola and flightglobal.com has all the video of the carrier aircraft carrying out taxi trials and test flights; none of which can be found on Virgin Galactic's own website



see more video in the extended portion of this blog post

credit Virgin Galactic / caption: VMS Eve makes its maiden flight on 21 December 2008

Click here to listen to the final fifth part of Hyperbola's series of podcasts that will in total make up the 45min interview with Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn held on 4 March 2009 in the company's London offices. During this 9min 37s interview hear Whitehorn talk about the challenge of the waiver concept's legal status, US rules, European regulation, the selection of Spaceport Sweden, a possible Scottish spaceport and more

credit Spaceport America/Virgin Galactic / caption: flights should fly first from Spaceport America in New Mexico

Click here to listen to part four of Hyperbola's series of podcasts that will in total make up the 45min interview with Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn held on 4 March 2009 in the company's London offices. During this 7min 21s interview hear Whitehorn talk about the importance of the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture event in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the rate of ticket sales, putting travel agents through centrifuges, US regulations and more

credit Virgin Galactic / caption: Virgin Galactic's pilots (L-R): Steve Johnson, chief pilot; David Mackay, chief test pilot; Alex Tai, former Virgin Galactic chief operating officer; and Alistair Hoy, chief training pilot.

click here to listen to Hyperbola's 16min 16s interview with Virgin Galactic's chief test pilot David Mackay (pr.Mack-eye)

David Mackay is Virgin Galactic's chief test pilot on a part time basis while he still works for Virgin Atlantic, which he joined in 1995. He joined the Virgin airline after spending 16 years with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and spent half of that time as a test pilot. He graduated with his test pilot wings from the French test pilot school, École du Personnel Navigant d'Essais et de Réception (EPNER) through an exchange between EPNER and the RAF's Empire Test Pilot School

This audio recording was made during a phone conversation. Noises in the background are my colleagues here in the Flight office

Expect part four of Hyperbola's podcasts with Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn on Monday 16 March

credit Flight / caption Virgin Galactic's experimental prototype VMS Eve takes off for a second time on 5 February

Click here to listen to part three of Hyperbola's series of podcasts that will in total make up the 45min interview with Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn held on 4 March 2009 in the company's London offices. During this 8min 32s interview hear Whitehorn talk about WhiteKnight Two's potential as a demonstrator for large scale all-carbon composite aircraft, whether the credit crunch has impacted Virgin Galactic's development timetable, what industries are at risk during the downturn, who his customers are, if they are recession proof and more

credit Virgin Galactic / caption: will we see SpaceShiptwo fly this year?

Click here to download part two of a series of podcasts that will in total make up the 45min interview Hyperbola had with Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn on 4 March 2009 in the company's London offices. During this 9min 46s interview hear Whitehorn talk about marketing the unmanned LauncherOne rocket proposed by Virgin Galactic and Surrey Satellite Technology, comparing the investment in Virgin Galactic with buying Boeing 747s, creating the business plan and more

credit: Myasishchev Design Bureau/Flight / caption: Myasishchev's concept for air launched suborbital tourism

Sources at Russia's United Aircraft (UA) have informed Hyperbola that the Myasishchev Design Bureau is being absorbed into the state run aviation company, created in 2006, and its headquarters is to be bulldozed so the Russian Federal government can sell the land in central Moscow

credit Virgin Galactic  / caption: Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn  

Click here to download part one of a series of podcasts that will in total make up the 45min interview Hyperbola had with Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn on 4 March 2009 in the company's London offices. During this 8min 50s interview hear Whitehorn talk about how early customers influenced the spaceline's plans, how accurate the 2002 Futron study was, why a commercial SpaceShipOne could have been possible but not preferable, where other space tourism projects went wrong in the past and more