Burt Rutan's Rase to Space -bookWednesday 10/31/12 Burt Rutan is designer for over 40 planes and for some rockets. He is the main designer for SpaceShipOne, SpaceShipTwo, WhiteKnightOne and WhiteKnightTwo. They are not his first space vehicles. Rutan designed X-38, which was to be the crew return vehicle for the International Space Station. It flew in 1999, but the whole project was cancelled because of NASA's budget cuts in 2002. As a designer he is a legend. One can compare Rutan to Sergei Korolev, who sent Gagarin to orbit and to von Braun, who sent men to the Moon with Apollo -rocket. The book is a tight description of all the planes Rutan has desgined. The most intersting part part for me was of course SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo. More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_X-38 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Korolyov http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun
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Tank installation to the rocketSaturday 10/20/12, time 11:44 AM Virgin Galactic is preparing SpaceShipTwo -rocket for spaceflight. At the moment they are installing the fuel tank to the rocket. The first spaceflight will happen this year. |
Lecture at Aalto-university, EspooThursday 10/18/12 I will give a lecture about my experience with Virgin Galactic and I show my Spaceport America video. The students have participated a game about space tourism. The game idea is to create business in space tourism area. It will be exciting to hear what ideas the students have! I will declare the winner of the game. |
Italian astronaut Paolo NespoliSunday 10/7/12, time 8:47 PM Paolo gave today at Heureka almost 2 hours presentation of his half year stay at the International Space Station. The crew at the station is 6 persons all time. Three persons are changed every 3 months. Paolo is a great presenter, like Timothy Korpa. Paolo took 26 000 pictures of his trip and some of them are published at internet. He travelled to the station with a Russian rocket, which is simply technolodgy compared to American space shutle. The Russian rockets are reliable and quite cheap to operate. In the principle the rocket is the same as the Yuri Gagarin rocket in 1961 and even the launch pad is the same. The landing was much rougher than with the shuttles, it was a big hit to the Earth. Paolo wrote to card for me: "See you in space."
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Astronaut Paolo Nespoli: 6 months at spaceTuesday 10/2/12 Italian astronaut Paolo Nespolo comes to Heureka this Sunday 07.10.2012. He has spent more then 6 months at space. He took a lot of amazing pictures. When Timothy Kopra visited Heureka at 2010, it was fully booked. Let's see what happens now. |
Destination Space bookSaturday 9/29/12 There are some books written about space tourism. I red Kenny Kemp's book Destination Space. It is written in 2007 and it tells about to the first steps of Virgin Galactic. It is a very interesting book. I recommend it! The next book that I will reed is Burt Rutan's Rase to Space. |
Four Finns are going to spaceSaturday 9/22/12, time 12:26 PM Richard Branson told yesterday in Finland that four Finns are going to space. I met this fourth person last October at Spaceport America. He has reserved his trip straight from Virgin Galactic and he does not want to come public. Three other Finns have reserved the trip from Area. |
Welcome to Finland Mr BransonFriday 9/21/12 Sir Richard Branson comes today to Finland. He is the main speaker at Nordic Business Forum which is held in Jyväskylä. Branson will get a lot of media attention. Something funny he might do, what about Suomi -shirt on? A couple of words he will say about Virgin Galactic, which is one of his favorit companies. Virgin consist of over 300 different companies. Mr Branson got a lot of attention: Sir Richard Branson: Voimme miehittää Marsin Miljardööri Richard Branson Suomessa: "Olen melko hyvin tunnetukin |
International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight 17-18.10.2012 Las CrucesThursday 9/6/12 International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight will be held 17-18.10.2012 at Las Cruces, New Mexico. So symposium is close to Spaceport America. If I would have more time and money, I would go to the symposium. Virgin Galactic has their own a private tour of Spaceport America on 16th October. Spaceport is now ready. More information: http://www.ispcs.com/ |
Neil ArmstrongSunday 8/26/12, time 7:24 PM The first man in the Moon died yesterday. Neil Armstrong and Yuri Gagarin have made permanent mark on history books. The next significant person is the first man in the Mars. The historical moonlight you can watch from YouTube: it happened 43- years ago! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCp2jTtay0w&feature=youtube_gdata_player The second man in the moon, Buzz Aldrin, hoped that he will meet Neil when there will be the 50th Anniversary for the moonflight. http://buzzaldrin.com/buzz-aldrins-official-statement-on-the-passing-of-neil-armstrong/ I saw Buzz at Spaceport America last October. Possible he will come again to Spaceport America and I will have chance to talk to him. |
Three testflights done in AugustFriday 8/17/12 Virgin Galactic is now active with testflights. In August there are already three rocket glideflighs done. Now the total number of glideflighs is 22. More information: http://www.scaled.com/projects/spaceshiptwo_test_summaries http://www.scaled.com/projects/whiteknighttwo_flight_test_summaries |
The Finnish Astronaut CarFriday 8/10/12, time 10:35 PM While I am waiting for my trip to space, I made The Finnish Astronaut Car. This picture was taken for Apu- magazine, picture by Petri Mulari. One day I hope to race 400 metres against American Astronaut Car, Corvette.
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London meetingFriday 7/13/12, time 3:42 PM Our London meeting went well, althought London was quite rainy. At the Farnborought international airhow we got the latest news. Everything is ready that Virgin Galactic can start test flights to space. The first commecial flight will happen 2013 so my turn might ne in 2014. Mr Branon will take his two chidren to the first flight. At the meeting I sold some "Finnish Astronaut" winter hats to other astronauts. Some of them got interested, and in the next meeting we might also see "Swedish Astronaut" and "Icelandic Astronaut" hats as well. This time we were 120 astronauts at the meeting, more than 10 were from Skandinavia. The biggest news from Virgin Galactic was, that they go into small satellite lauch business in 2016. They use the same technique as sending us to the space. http://www.virgingalactic.com/news/item/xxx/ Picture from the meeting can be found in here: |
Virgin Galactic meeting in LondonFriday 7/6/12 We have a Virgin Galactic meeting in London next week. There are program for us from Tuesday till Thursday. Wednesday will be very interesting day. We will go to Farnborough International Airshow where we have VIP lunch with Sir Richard Branson. Before lunch there is 45 minutes Virgin Galactic press conference. Then I will know to latest information about flights. In the evening we have Virgin Galactic style party at OXO Tower. |
Current situationThursday 6/21/12 Stephen Attenborough, Virgin Galatic's commercial director, was interviewed by the Guardian June 17th. At the moment there are 520 persons who have reserved the spaceticket. The first commercial flight will happen 2013, so my turn will be 2014. Virgin Galactic's competitars are also planning to go to the space within few years. Attenborough says that everything is going extreme well and Virgin Galactic will be the first in the space. |
Virgin Galactic got permit to fly to spaceFriday 6/1/12, time 9:05 PM The Federal Avitation Administration (FAA) granted permission to Scaled Composites to fly to space. There are enouhg test flights done and it is exciting to wait, when SpaceShipTwo set fire on the rocketmotor and goes to space. |
London callingTuesday 4/24/12 Virgin Galactic meeting for this year will be held in London 10-12.7. On Tuesday we have first Galactic Unite (charity organization) meeting and after it we will have tea and champagne reception. On Wednesday we will go to Farnborough International Airshow where we have VIP lunch with Sir Richard Branson. In the evening we have Virgin Galactic style party. On Thursday we have three choices: we can go to Olympic tour or we can do shopping at Harrods or we can drive Aston Martin at their proving ground. I would like to go driving with Aston Martin. There are more willing than there are places for driving. Virgin Galactic will perform a random draw to get drivers. I hope to be lucky. I have never tested Aston Martin. The Spaceport America meeting at November was nice. Now I expect to meet again other future astronauts. Gisli Gislason is coming from Iceland, and he is a very good fellow.
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Rocket motor testing goes onWednesday 4/18/12, time 9:32 PM Virgin Galactic prepares to start test flights to the space. Tests for the rocket motor will end soon. After it it the rocket motor will be installed to SpaceShipTwo -rocket and test flights towards space can be started. The latest test for rocket motor was yesterday. http://www.scaled.com/projects/rocketmotortwo_hot-fire_test_summaries |
Virgin Galactic meeting in LondonMonday 4/2/12 This year we will have our meeting in London 10-12.7. One day we will spend at Farnborouhg International Airshow as VIP- guests, other program is still at planning face. Virgin Galactic personnel and it's customers are invited. More information: http://www.farnborough.com/ |
500th astronaut is Ashton KurcherTuesday 3/20/12, time 10:37 AM Now Virgin Galactic has sold 500 tickets to space. http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/blog/our-500th-astronaut--ashton-kutcher |
