Virgin Spaceport America and SpaceShipTwo Ready for Launch The race to be the first company to carry commercial passengers into space is certainly hotting up. For many years, it has looked like a three horse race, with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and our own Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic jockeying [...]

Virgin Galactic Reveal Plans for New Supersonic Jet Sir Richard Branson’s ambitious plans to operate a global superfast supersonic airline service are a step closer to reality after his company’s recent announcement. Virgin Galactic revealed their design for the new super jet on August 3rd 2020. Not only have these ambitious plans [...]

SpaceX test flights imminent The big news this month is Elon Musk’s latest announcement on SpaceX’s new rocket and spaceship combination. His Super Heavy Rocket (SHR) and Starship spaceship are almost ready, with a test launch expected before the end of the year. If successful, a launch into orbit is planned for early [...]

NASA announces future projects This month has seen NASA announce details on two major missions it has in the pipeline. The Artemis Programme to send astronauts back to the Moon continues apace. This ambitious project was announced by US Vice President Mike Pence earlier this year, and tasks NASA with landing humans [...]

Virgin Galactic to become the world’s first publicly traded space tourism company It’s not often that the dull, dry world of financial news hits the headlines of a space blog. But Sir Richard Branson’s announcement that he has agreed an $800 million deal to take his Virgin Galactic company public could be [...]

NASA to allow space tourists on ISS In further progress toward space tourism becoming a reality, NASA announced this month that it will soon allow tourists to fly to the International Space Station (ISS). This could happen as soon as 2020. Up to two private astronaut trips per year are planned initially. [...]

SpaceX Crew Capsule engine failure No matter how many precautions are taken and extra safety measures are included, there will always be an element of risk in space travel. This has been brought home to us by the news of a setback for SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon spacecraft.On April 20th, a routine launch [...]

First Ever Photograph of a Black Hole In another great step forward for astronomical science, we now have the first ever image of a black hole. This tremendous feat has been difficult to achieve because one of the crucial characteristics of a black hole is that gravity is so strong that not even [...]

US VP Mike Pence announces another Race to the Moon The United States’ policy has been directed toward further moon landings for some time, as a first step on the way to Mars. The original target was to achieve this before the end of the next decade. Now Vice President Mike Pence has tasked [...]

Virgin Atlantic edge closer to first commercial passenger flight into space The latest Virgin Galactic test flight reached almost 90km in height as its Unity rocket plane completed another successful outing. Dave Mackay became the first Scotsman in space as he and his co-pilot, American Mike Masucci completed a fifth test outing for [...]