Latest Spaceplane Stories

For a second year, NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate is seeking proposals for suborbital technology payloads and spacecraft capability enhancements that could help revolutionize future space missions. Selected technologies will travel to the edge of space and back on U.S. commercial suborbital vehicles and platforms, providing opportunities for testing before they are sent to work in the unforgiving environment of space. The Game Changing Opportunities in Technology...

Lynx Cub Payload Carrier Being Developed at Texas A&M COLLEGE STATION, Texas, March 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- A new payload carrier promises to dramatically reduce the cost of access to space for small scientific and education payloads. The Lynx Cub Payload Carrier was announced today by the United States Rocket Academy. The Lynx Cub Carrier will fly on the XCOR Lynx space plane, now under construction at the Mojave Air and Space Port, and carry up to 12 experiments on each...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The super secret Air Force space plane that looks like a mini-space shuttle is set to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in less than 24 hours. The X-37B unmanned space plane will be undergoing its third launch, set upon a top secret mission by the Air Force. The spacecraft has a payload capacity about the size of a small truck bed, the contents of which are unknown. X-37B will be hitching a ride aboard United Launch...

SAGINAW, Mich., Oct. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Wineman Technology, Inc., the leader in providing the right technical solution for solving a wide range of test applications, today announced it delivered a successful flight control simulation system to Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC). SNC needed a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) flight surface actuation simulator to verify design and performance of the flight control system for the Dream Chaser commercial transport spacecraft. Wineman...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Russia's NPO Molniya design bureau is designing a space tourist aircraft along with the Myasischev Experimental Factory (EMZ), according to a report by RIA Novosti. The companies are designing a space plane for sub-orbital "space tourism" and small satellite launches. The space plane will be launched from a subsonic carrier aircraft capable of getting to high altitudes. The spacecraft will take off from the launch aircraft and...