Important Innovations

  New Space Plane Wars                                                  Source:  Sierra Space Sierra's Space Plane Dream Chaser Dream Chaser is a supersonic SST space plane being developed and getting ready to go into service by Louisville, Colorado based Sierra Space.  The vehicle is the world's first and only winged commercial space plane, according to Sierra.  It is designed to compete against Elon Musk's SpaceX, Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to carry astronauts, space tourists and supplies into space.  Dream Chaser is aggressively developing its global business footprint and is rolling out a brand-new chapter of space wars in the commercialization of space. Building a Global Business Network Dream Chaser is awesome aviation technology.  It is launched on top of a rocket and then dislodges and flies on its own power into space at supersonic speeds.  The SST flies back to Earth on its own power and wings and lands at specially d

  1 Hour Passenger Flight Beijing to NYC                                             Source:  China Transportation It Is Literally a Blast Chinese aerospace startup company Space Transportation's new space plane is being developed to carry passengers at speeds up to 2,600 mph in suborbital space to go from "point-to-point". That includes space tourism adventures and bullet-fast aircraft flights on Earth. The company says their new technology can fly passengers from Beijing to New York City in one hour. Space Transportation calls the new space plane a "rocket with wings".  They say it will be a fully reusable space plane with large triangular wings with rocket boosters. The concept is a blast into suborbital space and a new form of passenger air travel to space and for travel to destinations here on Earth being developed in China.   How Does It Work? The winged rocket plane takes off vertically and detaches itself from the huge, triangular glider wing.  It hurtle

  Virgin Galactic & Richard Branson Make History                                                   Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson Soaring into Space                                                         SpaceShip Unity Launching from VMS Eve                                        VMS Eve with Unity in Center Branson flying to space with co-workers in Unity                             SpaceShip Unity Flying Back to Earth                                                  View from Unity                                        Unity Detaching from VMS Eve                                             Source:  Virgin Galactic Dawn of Space Tourism Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson has successfully soared into space and returned safely to Earth.  The British billionaire undoubtedly had the greatest adventure of his life.  His SpaceShipTwo Unity took off from New Mexico's Spaceport America attached to the underside of the huge, double fuselage WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircra

  Virgin Galactic & Richard Branson Make History                                                       Richard Branson Soaring into Space onboard Unity SpaceShip Unity Launches from Eve                                        VMS Eve with Unity in Center Branson flying to space with co-workers in Unity                                                       SpaceShip Unity                                                  View from Unity                                        Unity Detaching from VMS Eve                                             Source:  Virgin Galactic Dawn of Space Tourism Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson has successfully soared into space and returned safely to Earth.  The British billionaire undoubtedly had the greatest adventure of his life.  His SpaceShipTwo Unity took off from New Mexico's Spaceport America attached to the underside of the huge, double fuselage WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft VMS Eve.  50 minutes after takeoff, spaceship Unity fired

  Virgin Galactic's High Flying Experiments Source:  Virgin Galactic Research Scientist Kellie Gerardi Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson's New Mexico-based space company, will fly scientific researcher Kellie Gerardi to space to test new health care technologies.  Gerardi is a researcher for the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences. She is an expert in bioastronautics. She will serve as payload specialist on a dedicated research flight.  She will perform experiments on wearable health monitoring sensor systems and syringe designs for use in space.  She will also experiment with free floating liquids.  Gerardi has conducted experiments onboard reduced gravity flights at lower altitudes in conjunction with the Canadian Space Agency. Successful Manned Space Flight Virgin Galactic successfully tested its mothership VMS Eve and the VMS Unity space plane with two pilots onboard in May 2021.  This successful manned space flight will be followed by more test flights in

  Virgin Galactic's High Flying Scientific Experiments Source:  Virgin Galactic Research Scientist Kellie Gerardi Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson's New Mexico-based space company, will fly scientific researcher Kellie Gerardi to space to test new health care technologies.  Gerardi is a researcher for the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences. She is an expert in bioastronautics. She will serve as payload specialist on a dedicated research flight.  She will perform experiments on wearable health monitoring sensor systems and syringe designs for use in space.  She will also experiment with free floating liquids.  Gerardi has conducted experiments onboard reduced gravity flights at lower altitudes in conjunction with the Canadian Space Agency. Successful Manned Space Flight Virgin Galactic successfully tested its mothership VMS Eve and the VMS Unity space plane with two pilots onboard in May 2021.  This successful manned space flight will be followed by more test

Supersonic Flights Across the Earth Source:  Virgin Galactic Flying Public at Supersonic Speeds NASA is teaming up with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space company to develop high speed technologies for supersonic air travel.  The purpose is to make high Mach speed vehicles for the travelling public here on Earth to get from "Point-to-Point" in vastly reduced times.  NASA and Branson have finalized their collaboration by signing a Space Act Agreement.  Vision and Goal Branson's vision for transporting the public at Mach speeds is a "global network of spaceports, transcontinental supersonic space flights and delivering passengers anywhere in the world in a couple of hours".  To achieve this, the aircraft will actually be a spacecraft. Technological First The envisioned SST would be a spacecraft that would launch into space from its departure point, then re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and arrive at the destination point for landing

Business Growth Through Space Tourism & Commercial Flights Source:  Virgin Galactic LA to Tokyo in 2 Hours Billionaire entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson is a brilliant innovator.  And he has beyond supersonic plans for his space travel company Virgin Galactic.  By the end of 2020, he expects to have flown the first commercial tourism flight into space.  Nearly 8,000 tourists have signed up for a space flight at a cost of $250,000 each.  But Branson business plans go way beyond space tourism.  He wants to revolutionize commercial air travel by using his space vehicles for greatly accelerated air travel here on Earth. Beyond Supersonic Speed - Spaceline Flying Virgin Galactic says it is the only company that can deliver flying at greater than supersonic speed in a winged aircraft.  It calls the high speed flying "Spaceline" flying.  The company says its spaceship Unity and two other space vehicles under construction can be used to vastly accelerate long

Takes off Like a Rocket Monday But Hits a Little Choppy Air Tuesday Source:  NYSE Listed on the NYSE Virgin Galactic is the first space tourism company to land on Wall Street.  It's listed on the NYSE as SPCE.  It began trading on Monday and right out of the launch pad it soared up 5% at its debut.  It has a market cap of $1 billion. This underscores the interest of investors and the public in space tourism.   On Tuesday, the stock hit a little choppy air and as of 3PM Eastern Time is trading in the day range of $12.51 - $10.50.  Founder Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic CEO George Whiteside were on hand to ring the First Trade Bell on Monday to commemorate the occasion.  Sir Richard commented:  "Now anyone can invest in the future of space". Space Tourism Plans Virgin Galactic has intergalactic plans. It first wants to offer space flights to six passengers at a time for $250,000 each for trips to the weightless outskirts of space.  Trips begin in the sum

Virgin Galactic Going Public on the NYSE Source:  Virgin Galactic Space Plane World's 1st Space Tourism Company to be Publicly Listed  Sir Richard  Branson announced today that he is taking Virgin Galactic public on the New York Stock Exchange.  It will be the world's first space tourism company to be listed and publicly traded.  He's doing it by merging the company with Social Capital Hedosophia, which is listed on the NYSE. Social Capital will get a 49% stake in Virgin Galactic for $1.3 billion.  For more details, go to my fellow journalist Ed Kane's news post, at Important Innovations Collection: Virgin Galactic Going Public on NYSE : Space Tourism Headed to NYSE Source:  Virgin Galactic Space Plane World's First Listed Space Tourism Company Richard Branson is ...

Billionaires Race to Space Source:  Blue Origin  -  Jeff Bezos & his space vehicle Blue Origin Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is in a race to win the highly competitive drive to commercialize space.  His company Blue Origin has a mission:  to provide low cost travel to space.  He's in a battle for space with two other billionaires - Elon Musk of SpaceX and Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic. Take-Off 2019 Bezos finances Blue Origin with $1 billion in Amazon stock yearly.  His system consists of a pressurized crew capsule on top of a reusable  "New Shepherd" rocket.  The system has been successfully tested several times. Experts expect the first crewed flight in the first half of 2019. Blue Origin has yet to leave the Earth's atmosphere.  SpaceX Falcon Heavy has soared into space.  Virgin Galactic's Unity spaceship recently crossed into the outer edges of space. New, Blue Origin Rocket Bezos is developing the new BE-4 rocket engines.  NASA astron

Global Race to the Moon and Beyond Source:  Virgin Galactic Space Vacations Start This Year 2019 is shaping up to be a banner year in space.  Sir Richard Branson's space tourism company Virgin Galactic says it will start carrying tourists to the outer edges of space sometime in 2019, NASA's New Horizons just reached the farthest distance into outer space and performed a flyby of the cosmic rock Ultima Thule.  China's spacecraft The Chang'e 4 is making the first soft landing on the far side of the moon.  SpaceX is readying for space flights to the moon, the International Space Station and Mars.  These are very exciting space exploration times of breakthrough technology and scientific innovation.  For a news blog on the top missions planned, go to my journalist colleague Ed Kane's blog at https://importantinnovationscollection.blogspot.com/2019/01/2019-year-of-space-renaissance.html

Space Tourism on the Horizon Source:  Virgin Galactic - Unity Launch Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin Galactic space tourism company just successfully launched their spaceship Unity into space and it has successfully landed back in California.  Can tourist trips be far behind? For details on this amazing accomplishment by innovator Sir Richard Branson, go to  https://importantinnovationscollection.blogspot.com/2018/12/virgin-galactic-reaches-space.html

Virgin Galactic Spaceplane Readies for Takeoffs Tech in Sub-orbit with Tourists Onboard Just last night, Virgin Galactic's spaceplane climbed 32 miles over California's Mojave Desert in its latest test flight.  That crushed all of its previous records.  This is the 3rd rocket powered test flight of VSS Unity spaceplane.  It brings Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space tourism company very close to taking its first tourism customers into space. Amazing Flight The spaceplane was released from under the wing of its carrier plane at 46,500 feet.  VSS Unity fired its rocket motors for 42 seconds to propel itself and the 2 pilots at Mach 2.47 or 2&1/2times the speed of sound.  The spaceplane reached an altitude of 170,800 feet or essentially halfway to outer-space before safely descending to its spaceport in the Mojave Desert.  Mission accomplished. Get Ready for Tourist Takeoffs Branson is indicating that Virgin Galactic could start commercial flights for spa