Latest Single stage to orbit Stories
CANOGA PARK, Calif., May 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The X-51A WaveRider hypersonic vehicle, powered by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's SJY61 scramjet engine, achieved aviation history on May 1 by making the longest-ever supersonic combustion ramjet-powered flight, flying full duration and achieving mission success. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) company. "This test flight brings aviation closer than ever to the reality of regular, sustained...
WASHINGTON, Jan. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Flight Opportunities Program has selected 13 cutting-edge space technology payloads for flights on commercial reusable launch vehicles, balloons and a commercial parabolic aircraft in 2013 and 2014. The flights will allow participants to demonstrate their technologies to the edge of space and back, before committing them to the harsh and unforgiving conditions of spaceflight. (Logo:...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online On August 14, 2012 the US Air Force conducted a scheduled test flight of its experimental X-51A Waverider aircraft. But the test ended in failure, with the plane crashing into the Pacific Ocean. Details of the failed flight were not provided at the time, and it was unclear if experiments would continue. Now, more than 2 months after that failed test, the Air Force has come forward and explained why the experimental hypersonic...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The Air Force's new aircraft of the future crashed during a hypersonic test flight, hitting a speed bump in the future of creating quick flights from New York to London. The X-51A WaveRider was designed to reach Mach 6, or 3,600 mph, after being dropped from a B-52 bomber. The aircraft underwent a test on Tuesday, and was brought out off the Southern California coast to experience a few minutes of flying at hypersonic speeds....
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The next generation of flight is undergoing a test tomorrow over the Pacific Ocean, paving the way for non-stop Paris trips in just a few hours in the future. The X-51A WaveRider is being prepared at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert. This aircraft could take you from New York to London in less than an hour. The experimental aircraft uses a "scramjet" engine that allows it to travel at hypersonic speeds, reaching Mach 4.5...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The U.K. government is embracing the future by working on regulations in order to allow the operation of spaceplanes. The new regulations would enable launch systems like the Skylon concept being developed by Reaction Engines Limited (REL) to take place in the U.K. Currently, these types of vehicles are prohibited from using European airspace, but the government is looking to change that. REL's Skylon vehicle would take off...
NASA'S Space Technology Program has selected 14 technologies for development and demonstration on commercial reusable suborbital launch vehicles. The selected proposals offer innovative cutting-edge ideas and approaches for technology in areas including active thermal management, advanced avionics, pinpoint landing and advanced in-space propulsion. They also address many of the high-priority technology needs identified in the recent National Research Council's Space Technology Roadmaps and...
Testing has begun on an engine that could make it possible for a plane to travel into space, travel at five times the speed of sound, and make it possible to reach any destination on the planet in no more than four hours, Suzannah Hills of the Daily Mail reported on Saturday. The vehicle in question is the Skylon, an unmanned, reusable spaceplane that is currently in development at UK aerospace company Reaction Engines Ltd (REL). According to Hill, the craft can take off and land from any...
An experimental hypersonic glider was forced to abort its 13,000 mph flight over the Pacific Ocean during the summer of 2011 because larger than expected portions of its skin peeled off, officials from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced on Friday. According to the Associated Press (AP), the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-2 (HTV-2) launched atop a rocket from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base last August 11 as part of research into the development of...
The space-travel venture created by Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled a new website over the weekend, complete with short videos of a successful "short hop" flight test conducted in May. According to Joseph Parrish of The Verge, Bezos' Blue Origin released the footage of its New Shepard vehicle making a vertical takeoff and vertical landing approximately six months ago, "and if we're honest, it's pretty impressive… Although the rocket appears to struggle gaining altitude shortly after...
