14 December 2018
VSS Unity reaches edge of space in landmark test flight
... to an altitude of 82 kilometres (51 miles) before cruising back to ground in a gliding descent. The trip marked the plane's fourth test flight after earlier attempts had succumbed to setbacks. On its return, the ship and its pilots Mark...
08 May 2019
Tests start on first design of 'wafer scale' spacecraft
... by students at UC Santa Barbara under the guidance of physics professor and experimental cosmologist Philip Lubin. The test, which was to evaluate the wafercrafts functionality and performance, performed ‘an excellent first flight’ according to Nic...
21 August 2019
InVADER robot to test technology for ocean world exploration
... full name In-situ Vent Analysis Divebot for Exobiology Research and it has also been funded by NASA to test technology suitable for ocean world exploration. The InVADER project is a public/private partnership involving scientists and...
15 November 2019
First public test of Mars lander for China ahead of 2020 launch
... to launch next year. The demonstration took place in Huailai, Hebei Province, Asia's largest extraterrestrial celestial landing test site, which allows engineers to simulate conditions on the red planet, where the pull of gravity is about one...
12 December 2019
Blue Origin's New Shepard makes 12th test flight
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launched the 12th crewless test of its New Shepard rocket on Wednesday on a successful up-and-down flight to the edge of space. The capsule reached a ...
August 2018
America’s ‘dream machine’
... atmosphere, not in space. For those familiar with the Space Shuttle programme, this is our ‘Enterprise’ - we needed to test controllability of the vehicle, see how it flew in the atmosphere and how it landed. An artist’s impression of Dream Chaser...
