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VSS Unity Unity21
Virgin Galactic Unity 21 was a sub-orbital spaceflight of the SpaceShipTwo-class VSS ''Unity'' which took place on 22 May 2021, piloted by David Mackay and co-piloted by Frederick Sturckow. It was the first human spaceflight from the state of New Mexico. It was operated by Virgin Galactic, a private company led by Richard Branson which intends to conduct space tourism flights in the future. Unity 21 was the first human spaceflight to be launched from Spaceport America. Reaching an apogee of , the flight satisfied the United States definition of spaceflight (), but fell short of the Kármán line (), the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale definition. Crew Flights are currently only by U.S Convention. Flight On 22 May 2021, ''Unity's'' mother ship VMS ''Eve'' carried it into flight in a parasite configuration. At 15:26 UTC, ''Unity'' was drop launched. Pilots MacKay and Sturckow flew ''Unity'' at a maximum speed of Mach 3 to a maximum altitude of over . This ...
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Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. is a British-American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and the Virgin Group conglomerate, which retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and operates from New Mexico. The company develops commercial spacecraft and provides suborbital spaceflights to Space tourism, space tourists. Virgin Galactic's suborbital spacecraft are air launched from beneath a carrier airplane known as White Knight Two. Virgin Galactic's maiden spaceflight occurred in 2018 with its VSS Unity, VSS ''Unity'' spaceship. Branson had originally hoped to see a maiden spaceflight by 2010, but the date was delayed, primarily due to the VSS Enterprise crash, October 2014 crash of VSS Enterprise, VSS ''Enterprise''. The company did the early work on the satellite launch development of LauncherOne before this was hive-off, hived off to a separate company, Virgin Orbit, in 2017. The company also has aspirations for subor ...
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Kármán Line
The Kármán line (or von Kármán line ) is a conventional definition of the Outer space#Boundary, edge of space; it is widely but not universally accepted. The international record-keeping body Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, FAI (Fédération aéronautique internationale) defines the Kármán line at an altitude of above above mean sea level, mean sea level. While named after Theodore von Kármán, who calculated a theoretical limit of altitude for aeroplane flight at above Earth, the later established Kármán line is more general and has no distinct physical significance, in that there is a rather gradual difference between the characteristics of the atmosphere at the line, and experts disagree on defining a distinct boundary where the atmosphere ends and space begins. It lies well above the altitude reachable by conventional airplanes or high-altitude balloons, and is approximately where satellites, even on very eccentric trajectories, will Orbital decay, dec ...
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2021 In New Mexico
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sports, where it commonly denotes the first, leading, or top thing in a group. 1 is the unit of counting or measurement, a determiner for singular nouns, and a gender-neutral pronoun. Historically, the representation of 1 evolved from ancient Sumerian and Babylonian symbols to the modern Arabic numeral. In mathematics, 1 is the multiplicative identity, meaning that any number multiplied by 1 equals the same number. 1 is by convention not considered a prime number. In digital technology, 1 represents the "on" state in binary code, the foundation of computing. Philosophically, 1 symbolizes the ultimate reality or source of existence in various traditions. In mathematics The number 1 is the first natural number after 0. Each natural number, ...
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Suborbital Human Spaceflights
A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched. Hence, it will not complete one orbital revolution, will not become an artificial satellite nor will it reach escape velocity. For example, the path of an object launched from Earth that reaches the Kármán line (about – above sea level), and then falls back to Earth, is considered a sub-orbital spaceflight. Some sub-orbital flights have been undertaken to test spacecraft and launch vehicles later intended for orbital spaceflight. Other vehicles are specifically designed only for sub-orbital flight; examples include crewed vehicles, such as the X-15 and SpaceShipTwo, and uncrewed ones, such as ICBMs and sounding rockets. Flights which attain sufficient velocity to go into low Earth orbit, and then de-orbit before completing their first full orbit, are not considered sub-orbital. Examples o ...
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Aviation History Of The United States
Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include Airplane, fixed-wing and Helicopter, rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as Aerostat, lighter-than-air aircraft such as Balloon (aeronautics), hot air balloons and airships. Aviation began in the 18th century with the development of the hot air balloon, an apparatus capable of atmospheric displacement through buoyancy. Clément Ader built the "Ader Éole" in France and made an uncontrolled, powered hop in 1890. This was the first powered aircraft, although it did not achieve controlled flight. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal in 1896. A major leap followed with the construction of the ''Wright Flyer'', the first powered airplane by the Wright brothers in the early 1900s. Since that time, aviation has been technologically revolutionized by the ...
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Private Space Missions
Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded by Ringo Sheena * "Private" (Vera Blue song), from the 2017 album ''Perennial'' Literature * ''Private'' (novel), 2010 novel by James Patterson * ''Private'' (novel series), young-adult book series launched in 2006 Film and television * ''Private'' (film), 2004 Italian film * ''Private'' (web series), 2009 web series based on the novel series * ''Privates'' (TV series), 2013 BBC One TV series * Private, a penguin character in ''Madagascar'' Other uses * Private (rank), a military rank * ''Privates'' (video game), 2010 video game * Private (rocket), American multistage rocket * Private Media Group, Swedish adult entertainment production and distribution company * ''Private (magazine)'', flagship magazine of the Private Media Group ...
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Test Spaceflights
Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), a Russian film * ''Test'' (2025 film), an Indian sports drama * Test (group), a jazz collective * ''Tests'' (album), a 1998 album by The Microphones * ''Testing'' (album), an album by ASAP Rocky Computing * .test, a reserved top-level domain * Software testing * test (Unix), a Unix command for evaluating conditional expressions * TEST (x86 instruction), an x86 assembly language instruction People * Test (wrestler), ring name for Andrew Martin (1975–2009), Canadian professional wrestler * John Test (1771–1849), American politician * Zack Test (born 1989), American rugby union player Science and technology * Experiment, a procedure carried out in order to test a hypothesis * Statistical hypothesis test, techniques to reach ...
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2021 In Spaceflight
The year 2021 broke the record for the most orbital launch attempts till then (146) and most humans in space concurrently (19) despite the effects of COVID-19 pandemic. Overview Astronomy and astrophysics The IXPE telescope was launched on a Falcon 9 on 9 December 2021. The long-delayed James Webb Space Telescope, the largest optical space telescope ever built, was launched to the Sun–Earth point by a European Ariane 5 rocket on 25 December 2021. Planetary science Spacecraft from three Mars exploration programs from the United Arab Emirates, China, and the United States (Hope, Tianwen-1, and Mars 2020) arrived at Mars in February. The '' Perseverance'' rover landed on 18 February. As part of the Mars 2020 mission, the '' Ingenuity'' solar-powered drone performed the first powered aircraft flight on another planet in human history. It has a communications link with the ''Perseverance'' rover and used autonomous control during its short scripted flights. The ' ...
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Mach Number
The Mach number (M or Ma), often only Mach, (; ) is a dimensionless quantity in fluid dynamics representing the ratio of flow velocity past a boundary to the local speed of sound. It is named after the Austrian physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach. \mathrm = \frac, where: * is the local Mach number, * is the local flow velocity with respect to the boundaries (either internal, such as an object immersed in the flow, or external, like a channel), and * is the speed of sound in the medium, which in air varies with the square root of the thermodynamic temperature. By definition, at Mach1, the local flow velocity is equal to the speed of sound. At Mach0.65, is 65% of the speed of sound (subsonic), and, at Mach1.35, is 35% faster than the speed of sound (supersonic). The local speed of sound, and hence the Mach number, depends on the temperature of the surrounding gas. The Mach number is primarily used to determine the approximation with which a flow can be treated as an i ...
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Drop Launch
A drop test is a method of testing the in-flight characteristics of prototype or experimental aircraft and spacecraft by raising the test vehicle to a specific altitude and then releasing it. Test flights involving powered aircraft, particularly rocket-powered aircraft, may be referred to as drop launches due to the launch of the aircraft's rockets after release from its carrier aircraft. In the case of unpowered aircraft, the test vehicle falls or glides after its release in an unpowered descent to a landing site. Drop tests may be used to verify the aerodynamic performance and flight dynamics of the test vehicle, to test its landing systems, or to evaluate survivability of a planned or crash landing. This allows the vehicle's designers to validate computer flight models, wind tunnel testing, or other theoretical design characteristics of an aircraft or spacecraft's design. High-altitude drop tests may be conducted by carrying the test vehicle aboard a mothership to a t ...
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Parasite Aircraft
A parasite aircraft is a component of a composite aircraft which is carried aloft and air launched by a larger carrier aircraft or mother ship to support the primary mission of the carrier. The carrier craft may or may not be able to later recover the parasite during flight. The first parasite aircraft flew in 1916, when the United Kingdom, British launched a Bristol Scout from a Felixstowe Porte Baby flying boat. The idea eventually developed into jet bombers carrying fully capable parasite fighters. With the advent of long-range fighters equipped with Air-to-air missile, air-to-air missiles, and aerial refueling, parasite fighters fell out of use. Parasite fighters Until the middle of the 20th century there was military interest in parasite fighters – fighter aircraft intended to be carried into a combat zone by a larger aircraft, such as a bomber aircraft, bomber. If the bomber were threatened, the parasite would be released to defend it. Parasite fighters have never bee ...
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Mother Ship
A mother ship, mothership or mother-ship is a large vehicle that leads, serves, or carries other smaller vehicles. A mother ship may be a maritime ship, aircraft, or spacecraft. Examples include bomber aircraft, bombers converted to carry experimental aircraft to altitudes where they can conduct their research (such as the B-52 carrying the X-15), or ships that carry small submarines to an area of ocean to be explored (such as the R/V Atlantis (AGOR-25), Atlantis II carrying the DSV Alvin, ''Alvin''). A mother ship may also be used to recover smaller craft, or go its own way after releasing them. A smaller vessel serving or caring for ''larger'' craft is usually called a tender ship, tender. Maritime craft During World War II, the German Type XIV submarine or ''Milchkuh'' (Milk cow) was a type of large submarine used to resupply the U-boats. Mother ships can carry small submersibles and submarines to an area of ocean to be explored (such as the R/V Atlantis (AGOR-25), Atla ...
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