Search / 15 posts tagged Burt Rutan

Today, September 28, 2008, a rocket developed by the private startup company SpaceX was launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific, and eight minutes later passed above the International Space Station.

Excellent! I see that the X Prize Foundation are offering a prize of $25,000 for “Your Crazy Green Idea”! From the site: The X PRIZE Foundation and Prize Capital, LLC are offering $25,000 for the best video proposing a new Energy and Environment X PRIZE. Contestants need to submit a 2-minute video via www.youtube.com/xprize.

Astrobiology Magazine posts an intriguing report today: The American Psychological Association is looking seriously at the question of astronauts' mental health. It's an issue that has sometimes been swept under the rug, says the APA's press release: Historically, astronauts have been reluctant to admit to mental or behavioral health problems for fear of being grounded.

Look at this thing.  It looks like something Doc Brown would drive in “Back to the Future,” doesn’t it?  Or that Woody Allen would steal in “Sleeper”? It’s the Aptera Typ-1, a prototype three-wheeled, two seater road vehicle that the company claims can get 300mpg in its hybrid version (there’s also an electric version which can go 120 miles on a charge).

Virgin Galactic's White Knight, Branson, Rutan and Spaceman Buzz Captured on Vid Virgin Galactic's White Knight aircraft is pretty exciting. And here's a video that BoingBoingTV made of the aircraft's launch event, that has some interesting words on the craft and space travel from Sir Richard Branson, Scaled Composite's Burt Rutan and genuine spaceman and moonwalker, Buzz Aldrin himself.

Aerospace engineers have been busy over the last four years, secretly working diligently in a Mojave Desert hanger. Their goal: develop a commercial spaceship to loft rich tourists 62 miles above Earth. This ambitious venture is the work of British billionaire Richard Branson and American aerospace designer Burt Rutan.

The mothership which will launch the first space tourists into the atmosphere was unveiled by Sir Richard Branson in California yesterday. WhiteKnightTwo (WK2), the carrier aircraft which will be used to launch SpaceShipTwo into orbit, "will allow thousands of people to realise their dreams" and "act as a catalyst to transform human access to space", Sir Richard said.

I’m guessing that if you have any interest in commercial space travel, you’ve already had a bit of a swoon over the pictures of WhiteKnightTwo, the Virgin Galactic launch vehicle unveiled yesterday by Richard “Virgin” Branson and Burt “SpaceShipOne” Rutan.

Virgin Galactic Premieres White Knight Two July 29th, 2008 On July 28, Richard Branson rolled out at an airfield in the Mojave Desert the Burt Rutan-designed launch vehicle he expects to help take paying passengers into space. See more photos in the Los Angeles Times photo gallery.

What you are looking at here, my dear friends, is Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo, which was unveiled by Sir Richard Branson and Burt Rutan today in the Mojave dessert. In case you’re getting confused, because I most definitely was, the WhiteKnightTwo is the “workhorse aircraft” that will launch SpaceShipTwo into…wait for it… space! The WhiteKnightTwo will reach heights of 50,000 feet.