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Sub-orbital
A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the atmosphere or surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched, so that it will not complete one orbital revolution (it does not become an artificial satellite) or reach escape velocity. For example, the path of an object launched from Earth that reaches the Kármán line (at ) 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 SpaceShipOne, 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. Exa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Origin NS-18
Blue Origin NS-18 was a sub-orbital spaceflight mission operated by Blue Origin that launched on 13 October 2021. The mission was the eighteenth flight of the company's New Shepard integrated launch vehicle and spacecraft. It was the second crewed New Shepard launch. The flight, carrying four people including actor William Shatner, launched from Blue Origin's sub-orbital launch site in West Texas aboard the fourth flight of New Shepard booster NS4 and the spacecraft RSS ''First Step'', both having previously flown on NS-14, NS-15, and NS-16 earlier in the year. At 90, Shatner became the oldest person to fly into space, surpassing the record of 82 which had been held by Wally Funk for three months since her flight on Blue Origin NS-16. Per Blue Origin, Shatner was a guest of the company on the flight and did not have to pay for the trip. While in space, Shatner experienced the overview effect and articulated it live on camera in a post-flight conversation with Jeff Bezos. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Origin NS-16
Blue Origin NS-16 was a sub-orbital spaceflight mission operated by Blue Origin which flew on 20 July 2021. The mission was the sixteenth flight of the company's New Shepard integrated launch vehicle and spacecraft, and its first crewed flight. It carried into space American billionaire and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, pilot and Mercury 13 member Wally Funk, and Dutch student Oliver Daemen. The flight commenced from Blue Origin's Corn Ranch sub-orbital launch site in West Texas aboard the third flight of New Shepard booster NS4 and the spacecraft RSS ''First Step'', both having previously flown on NS-14 and NS-15 earlier in the year. Blue Origin NS-16 was the first human spaceflight from the U.S. state of Texas. Daemen, aged 18, and Funk, aged 82, became the youngest and oldest people to travel to space, respectively, until William Shatner took the record of oldest in space at age 90. The flight was approximately 10 minutes, and crossed the Karman Line. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
VSS Unity VP-03
VP-03 (also referred to in some sources as PF04) was a sub-orbital spaceflight of the SpaceShipTwo-class VSS ''Unity'' which took place on 13 December 2018, piloted by Mark P. Stucky and co-piloted by Frederick W. "CJ" Sturckow. VSS ''Unity'' was carried aloft by the White Knight Two carrier plane before being released. The spacecraft reached an apogee of ; the flight satisfied the United States definition of spaceflight () but fell short of the Kármán line (), the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale definition. The flight was operated by Virgin Galactic, a private company led by Richard Branson who conducted a space tourism flight on 11 July 2021. It was the first crewed spaceflight from U.S. soil since the Space Shuttle mission STS-135 in 2011. Crew Flights are currently only by U.S Convention. Background During the 20th century, human spaceflight was conducted exclusively by countries and government agencies, such as NASA. This began to change during the ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spaceflight
Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly spacecraft into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in orbit around Earth, but also includes space probes for flights beyond Earth orbit. Such spaceflight operates either by telerobotic or autonomous control. The more complex human spaceflight has been pursued soon after the first orbital satellites and has reached the Moon and permanent human presence in space around Earth, particularly with the use of space stations. Human spaceflight programs include the Soyuz, Shenzhou, the past Apollo Moon landing and the Space Shuttle programs, with currently the International Space Station as the main destination of human spaceflight missions while China's Tiangong Space Station is under construction. Spaceflight is used for placing in Earth's orbit communications satellites, reconnaissance satell ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Origin NS-22
Blue Origin NS-22 was a sub-orbital spaceflight mission, operated by Blue Origin, which launched on 4 August 2022 using the New Shepard rocket. It was Blue Origin's sixth crewed flight and the twenty-second overall to go into space. Crew The NS-22 crew was nicknamed "Titanium Feather". The crew of six included Sara Sabry, who became the first Egyptian person in space, and Mário Ferreira, who became the first Portuguese person in space. Also onboard was Coby Cotton, one of the co-founders of American YouTube channel Dude Perfect. Cotton's flight was sponsored by MoonDAO, a cryptocurrency company. The crew also included American British explorer Vanessa O'Brien, who became the first woman to complete the Explorers' Extreme Trifecta, which involves travelling to the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the summit of Mount Everest, and flying into outer space Outer space, commonly shortened to space, is the expanse that exists beyond Earth and its atmosphere and between c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Origin NS-20
Blue Origin NS-20 was a sub-orbital spaceflight mission operated by Blue Origin, which launched on 31 March 2022 using the New Shepard rocket. With six people onboard, it was Blue Origin's fourth crewed flight, and twentieth flight overall to reach space. The flight was originally scheduled to launch on 23 March, but was later postponed to 29 March, and then again to 31 March. American comedian Pete Davidson Peter Michael Davidson (born November 16, 1993) is an American comedian and actor. He was a cast member of the NBC late-night sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' (SNL) for eight seasons, running from 2014 to 2022. Davidson's ... was expected to fly onboard, but was unable to due to the launch date change. It was later announced that Blue Origin employee Gary Lai, chief architect of Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle, would replace Davidson. Apart from Lai, the five other participants of the flight were paying passengers. Crew The NS-20 crew was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Origin NS-19
Blue Origin NS-19 was a crewed New Shepard sub-orbital spaceflight mission operated by Blue Origin that launched on 11 December 2021. The flight was scheduled to launch on 9 December 2021, later delayed to 11 December 2021. The mission patch of the flight also featured the initials of Glen de Vries who died in a plane crash a month after flying on Blue Origin's previous crewed flight NS-18. Crew The NS-19 crew was nicknamed the "Original Six". The crew of six included Laura Shepard Churchley, daughter of the first U.S. astronaut in space, as well the namesake for the New Shepard spaceflight program, Alan Shepard, and Michael Strahan, a Hall of Fame former New York Giants defensive end, as well as a co-anchor of ''Good Morning America'' and analyst for ''Fox NFL Sunday''; both as guests of Blue Origin. Paying passengers included executive Dylan Taylor, investor Evan Dick, Bess Ventures founder Lane Bess and his child, Cameron. The latter became the first parent and child ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Origin NS-21
Blue Origin NS-21 was a sub-orbital spaceflight mission, operated by Blue Origin, which launched on 4 June 2022 using the New Shepard rocket. It was Blue Origin's fifth crewed flight, and twenty-first overall to reach space. The mission was originally scheduled to launch on 20 May 2022. However, the flight was delayed due to a back-up system not meeting the "expectations for performance," and the new 4 June launch date was announced on 31 May 2022. Apollo 16 astronaut Charles Duke was a guest of Blue Origin attending the launch. Crew The NS-21 crew was nicknamed the "Crew of Natural Selection". The crew of six included Evan Dick, who previously flew onboard Blue Origin NS-19, making him the first person to fly on New Shepard twice. Also onboard was Katya Echazarreta, who became the first Mexican-born woman and youngest American woman to fly to space, and Victor Vescovo, a notable undersea explorer. The flight made Vescovo the first person to complete the Explorers' Extre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
X-15 Flight 91
X-15 Flight 91 was an August 22, 1963 American crewed sub-orbital spaceflight, and the second and final flight in the program to fly above the Kármán line, which was previously achieved during Flight 90 a month earlier by the same pilot, Joseph A. Walker. It was the highest flight of the X-15 program. Flight 91 was the first internationally recognized spaceflight of a reused spacecraft, as Walker had also flown plane number three on the previous sub-orbital spaceflight over the Kármán line on July 19. The flight was air-launched from a modified Boeing B-52 Stratofortress support plane over Smith Ranch Dry Lake, Nevada, United States. Walker piloted the X-15 to an altitude of 107.96 km and remained weightless for approximately five minutes. The altitude was the highest crewed flight by a spaceplane to that time, and remained the record until the 1981 flight of Space Shuttle ''Columbia''. Walker landed the X-15 about 12 minutes after it was launched, at Rogers Dry La ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virgin Galactic Unity 22
Virgin Galactic Unity 22 was a sub-orbital spaceflight of the SpaceShipTwo-class VSS ''Unity'' which launched on 11 July 2021. The crew consisted of pilots David Mackay and Michael Masucci as well as passengers Sirisha Bandla, Colin Bennett, Beth Moses, and Richard Branson. Background On 7 June 2021, Jeff Bezos announced that he planned to be on the first crewed flight of his company Blue Origin, which meant being aboard the first crewed flight to space (suborbital) of a private enterprise fully funded by private money with (2 possible different "record firsts" depending on whether one uses the international standard limit of space as 100 km altitude or the USA 50 mile altitude limit): * A) in case of using the Karman line as the boundary of space, passengers (non-pilots) onboard, or * B) in case of using thee USAF/NASA 50 mile altitude limit for space, more than 1 passenger (i.e. non-pilot) aboard. These two different "record firsts" are due to the fact that A) SpaceShi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soyuz 18a
Soyuz 7K-T No.39, (also named Soyuz 18a or Soyuz 18-1 by some sources and also known as the April 5 Anomaly) was an unsuccessful launch of a crewed Soyuz spacecraft by the Soviet Union in 1975. The mission was expected to dock with the orbiting Salyut 4 space station, but due to a failure of the Soyuz launch vehicle the crew failed to make orbit. The crew consisted of commander Vasily Lazarev, and flight engineer Oleg Makarov, a civilian. Although the mission was aborted and did not accomplish its objective, the craft exceeded common space boundaries and therefore is recognized as a sub-orbital spaceflight, which the crew survived. The crew, who initially feared they had landed in China, were successfully recovered. The accident was partly disclosed by the normally secretive Soviets as it occurred during preparations for their joint Apollo-Soyuz Test Project with the United States which flew three months later. Lazarev never flew to space again and never fully recovered from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 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 bombers co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
