The first rocket powered flight of SpaceShipTwo!Monday 4/29/13, time 7:58 PM Finally it did happen! In the morning April 29h, 2013, WhiteKnightTwo went for a flight and this time SpaceShipTwo's rocket motor was fired. The motor did ran 16 seconds, and in that time the rocket achieved 1.2 Mach speed. The maximum hight was about 20 km in this flight. The flight went well and there will be more flights coming! More information: |
Rocket Uno has some new colorsMonday 4/22/13, time 7:38 PM My Rocket Uno got some new colors during winter. Now it looks better than ever:)
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SpaceShipTwo: The first "Cold Flow" test flightSunday 4/14/13, time 7:53 PM SpacShipTwo made new test flight at April 12, 2013. The first time oxidizer was flown through the rocket motor. The picture looks great:) Now it is possible to start to rocket motor for real. The flight took place above the Mojave Desert, New Mexico. More information: http://www.virgingalactic.com/news/item/spaceshiptwo-advances-towards-powered-flight-with-spectacular-cold-flow-test/
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Test flight number 24 for SpaceShipTwoFriday 4/5/13, time 9:00 PM At Wednesay, April 03, 2013, SpaceShipTwo flew first time for almost 4 months. Previous test flight was at December 2013. The first test flight to the space will happen soon!
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Chris Hadfield is tweeting from spaceWednesday 3/27/13 Modern technology makes wonderful things possible: Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has tweeted from space. He send his pictures from International Space Station daily. The pictures are really amazing! |
When Virgin Galactic will get customer no 600?Wednesday 3/20/13 Virgin Galactic has been selling space tickets since 2005. When I booked my ticket in January 2010 we were about 300 persons going to space. Ashton Kutcher became 500th ticket buyer 20.03.2012. I expect ticket buyer number 600 to come soon. |
Rocket motor test at MojaveFriday 3/15/13, time 5:23 PM There was the last rocket motor test at Mojave March 08, 2013. Some more tests are needed before rocket can make the first flight to space.
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Rocket motor testing at nightThursday 3/7/13 Virgin Galactic is testing. In the picture there is a rocket motor test at night.
Image by Bob Morgan, Scaled Composites More info: https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/blog/this-isnt-sci-fi |
To Mars 2018?Saturday 2/23/13, time 1:08 PM The first ever space tourist, Dennis Tito, has announced its intention to launch a mission to Mars in 2018. Trip to Mars and back would take 501 days. In 2018 Mars is close to Earth, so that is good time to go. Tito does not say much details now, so we will so what will happen. http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2013/02/tito-mars-announcement.html |
Latest Branson interview in WIRED magazineSunday 2/17/13, time 3:47 PM WIRED magazine has published a long story about Virgin Galactic, it's history and future plans in March number. In the story Branson says that he will fly to space in early 2014. The story is really interesting, and if someone wants it I can send a copy of it as PDF file. http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2013/03 
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Daily life in spaceSaturday 2/9/13, time 1:04 PM To live in space gives many challenges for daily life. To get washed might be diffucult when being in weightless environment. This video gives some examples of living in the space: |
Do you want to buy spaceships models?Tuesday 1/29/13, time 6:53 AM You buy your own SpaceShipTwo and MotherShipTwo models from these pages: http://www.virgingalactic.com/news/item/limited-edition/ The smaller model costs 45$ and the bigger costs 75$. I have the bigger one and it looks nice. SpaceShipOne and MotherShipOne models you can find from ebay.com. |
Virgin Galactic medical questionnaireFriday 1/11/13, time 9:06 PM Flights are coming closer. Today I did fill in medical questionnaire. There were quite many questions about medical history and how much you do sports at the moment. To sport part I mentioned, that I can do more than 10 pull-ups and my target is do 20 pull-ups before flight:) |
What happened 2012 and what I expect from 2013?Monday 12/31/12, time 1:26 PM This is year is ending soon and now it is time to look what has happened. The most interesting event for me was visit to Farnborough airshow in England in July. The annual Virgin Galactic meeting was held there and it was nice to meet frieds again. In the summer I did buy The Finnish Astronaut car, which was in Apu -magazine in July. Virgin Galactc has done more tests and the most significant test was the last glide flight in 19.12.2012. The rocketmotor was the first time installed to the SpaceShipTwo -rocket. WhiteKnightTwo flew 30 times and now it has made totally 109 flights. SpaceShipTwo made 7 glideflights and now it has made totally 23 glideflights. Some glideflights more are needed before the first testflight to the space. That will be a big news! About 9-12 months after that Branson will go to the space with his children. My turn is within a year after Branson's flight. In the beginning of the 2012 there was 500 reservations made and now there are more than 550 reservations. We Finns are four now. Two has given their names to the media and two are unknown. My English pages had 13 000 visitors and my Finnish pages had 28 000 visitors this year. I will keep writing blog to my pages. In the next year I will propably visit the rocket factory in California. There are 5 more rockets beeing built. That might be the last Virgin Galactic meeting before the flights starts. |
Logo of the monthSaturday 12/29/12, time 5:16 PM My rocket -logo was selected for the logo of the month by Kasper Stromman desing blog: http://kasperstromman.tumblr.com/post/31379734581/logo-of-the-month-suomalainen-astronautti |
Rocket motor is installed to the rocket!Thursday 12/20/12, time 6:36 AM SpaceShipTwo made yesterday the first glide flight with the rocket motor installed. Virgin Galactic will make two more glide flights before the put fire in the rocket! This is a big milestone in the project. More information: http://www.virgingalactic.com/news/item/spaceshiptwo-completes-first-glide-in-powered-flight-configuration/
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Go to the moon in 2020 for 750 000 000 USDSunday 12/9/12, time 7:12 PM Now Golden Spike has started to sell trips to the moon. It is now business for private companies, no longer business only for governments. Price is set for $750 million and I guess you can make your reservation already. There are two seats available for 2020 flight. More information: Golden Spike: http://goldenspikecompany.com/ |
Virgin Galactic netmeetingWednesday 11/21/12, time 9:58 PM Virgin Galactic organized the first netmeeting for the future astronauts. In the meeting the project status was updated and we could ask some questions. George Whitesides, CEO for Virgin Galactic and Stephen Attenborough, the Commercial Director for Virgin Galactic answered to our questions. The timetable was revised: the first powered rocket flight should happen in December 2012 or in January 2013. The first commercial flight will take place 9-12 months after this. So timetable is the same as Mr Branson told us in July. There will be a lot of cameras in the rocket and we can take a little camera too. The training before the flight will take three days. There will be good places to watch the training and the flight for friends and family. Our meeting in 2013 will propably take place in California, where we can watch how SpaceShipTwo -rockets are being built. Virgin Galactic recommends two things before the flight: take care of your health and make Zero-G flight. When we go to space, we will have 3.5 G-force and when we are coming down, we will have at the highest point 5.5 G-force. |
A fleet of rockets are being built in CaliforniaThursday 11/15/12 Richard Branson visited Mojave to see how building of rockets is going on. There are 175 persons making SpaceShipTwo and MotherShipTwo ships. |
My rocket car went to winter sleepWednesday 11/7/12 The Finnish Astronaut Car went to winter sleep. I did drive 4000 km with it this summer. In winter I will do some tuning for it.
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