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An illustration of Northrop Grumman’s XS-1 concept. (credit: Northrop Grumman) More than a month after DARPA formally announced the winners of Phase 1 contracts for its Experimental Spaceplane 1 (XS-1) program, the last of the three companies that received those contracts unveiled the design of the concept. In a press release Tuesday, Northrop Grumman […] 
An illustration by Masten Space Systems of its Xephyr design that was funded by DARPA for Phase 1 of the XS-1 program. (credit: Masten Space Systems) Masten Space Systems, one of three companies to receive awards from DARPA for the Experimental Spaceplane 1 (XS-1) program, has revealed the design it proposes to develop for […] A little over two months ago a new company backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, Stratolaunch Systems, shook up the space industry with plans to develop the world’s largest airplane to perform air launches of a medium-sized rocket. After that initial burst of publicity the company faded from view, but it has remained busy laying […] The latest Armadillo Aerospace project update has the usual detailed technical descriptions of engine and other vehicle work. At the end, though, John Carmack includes some illustrations of a proposed single-person suborbital vehicle, using a “six pack” of modules. Carmack talked about this concept last year at Space Access ’07, including the transparent bubble where […] Here’s an artist’s impression of the new design of SpaceShipTwo and White Knight Two: Perhaps the biggest change not previously hinted at is the dual cabin design of WK2; the number of engines on the aircraft as well as the changed wing location had been previously reported. Skimming through the press release (available, along with […] Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites will be formally unveiling the design of SpaceShipTwo and its carrier aircraft, White Knight Two, at an event in New York today. Interesting, there hasn’t been much buzz leading up to this event: a preview in the UK newspaper The Telegraph yesterday is one of the few advance stories about […] Ad Astra/SPACE.com reports that Benson Space Company and SpaceDev plan to release a new design for their Dream Chaser suborbital spacecraft during the ISDC this weekend here in Dallas. The design drops the HL-20-based lifting body approach for the vehicle in favor of a more conventional rocketplane approach that bears similarities to the X-15, albeit […] Flight International magazine has an extensive article on the state of space tourism in its latest issue. It covers a lot of ground, ranging from vehicle development to regulatory, treaty, and insurance issues; I suspect much of it is based on the Royal Aeronautical Society’s space tourism conference held last month in London. One interesting […] The New Mexico Economic Development Department’s occasionally-updated Pulsar blog reports that “basic infrastructure” is being installed at the Southwest Regional Spaceport site in southern New Mexico. Proposals for the overall architecture of the spaceport design are due next week, with a final design to be announced this summer. The design, the post notes, should be […] One of the celebrities who have reportedly signed on customers of Virgin Galactic is William Shatner. Problem is, Shatner thinks otherwise, according to an interview with the Calgary Herald (via the Ottawa Citizen): “No, no, that’s not true,” the actor, a month away from 75, says from the TV set of Boston Legal. “Well, they’re […] |
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