Tag Archives: suborbital
NASA plans to use private spacecraft for crewed suborbital flights
SpaceX asks permission to take Starship on a high-altitude test flight
One of the next major steps in SpaceX's plans for true spaceflight will be a 12-mile-high test flight. Sometime between March and September, the company plans to launch its Starship suborbital test vehicle from Boca Chica, Texas. The Starship will tr...
Virgin Galactic is going public to fund its expensive tourist spaceflights
Space tourism company Virgin Galactic has announced that it will go public via a merger with an investment firm. Its new partner, Social Capital Hedosophia (SCH), will invest $800 million in exchange for a 49 percent stake and take Virgin Galactic pu...
Visualized: Telescope aboard suborbital NASA rocket takes clearest ever images of sun (video)
NASA has shown just what it can do with the short window of science allowed by its "sounding" or sensor-equipped suborbital rockets -- having taken the sharpest pictures ever of the sun's corona. A 460-pound telescope called the High Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) was lofted for about 10 minutes into space, ample time for its mirrors to capture over 150 images of the solar fringe at 16-megapixels each, before parachuting back to earth. The scope shot exclusively in a sun-friendly high ultraviolet range and used innovative new optics consisting of an array of mirrors, allowing it to resolve the sun down to 135 miles. That bested the previous champ, NASA's own Solar Dynamics Observatory, with almost five times the magnification. For maximum effect, the space agency took advantage of an unusually high amount of solar activity to focus on a large, active sunspot. To see the results in glorious multihued HD, check the video after the break.
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Visualized: Telescope aboard suborbital NASA rocket takes clearest ever images of sun (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 09:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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NASA | Email this | Comments XCOR Lynx propulsion tech tests well on motorcycle, suborbital trip still pricey
Before parting with $95,000 to secure a spot on the Lynx suborbital flight, you'd want to make sure the spacecraft was safe, right? XCOR doesn't blame you: it recently tested out its piston pump technology on a Triumph Street Triple motorcycle with great results. Sure, it's not the same as flying to the edge of space, but the Triumph has the same cylinder arrangement as the Lynx's liquid oxygen and kerosene fuel pumps and develops a similar amount of horsepower. It's also loads cheaper than testing in the laboratory. The bike took a 20-hour drive (the equivalent of 400 Lynx flights, according to XCOR) along Route 66 without the piston pump suffering any wear and tear. So if propulsion-related safety concerns -- and not the depth of your wallet -- were holding you back from nabbing a seat on the Lynx, you might feel a tad more inclined to whip out the plastic now. Head past the break for the full PR, plus a video of the piston-pumped Triumph in action.
Continue reading XCOR Lynx propulsion tech tests well on motorcycle, suborbital trip still pricey
XCOR Lynx propulsion tech tests well on motorcycle, suborbital trip still pricey originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 May 2012 03:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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