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  Virgin Galactic unveils new spaceship, prepares for delayed test flight A new modular design will “lay the foundation for the design and manufacture of future vehicles” Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc ( NYSE:SPCE ), the space tourism company founded by Richard Branson, has unveiled its third generation of spaceship and said it is gearing up for its next test flight in May after postponing plans due to engine troubles. The VSS Imagine, a new modular design of spaceship, is beginning ground testing ahead of glide flights planned for this summer from the company's New Mexico base. Virgin Galatic said the modular design will “lay the foundation for the design and manufacture of future vehicles”, enabling improved performance in terms of maintenance access and flight rate as the company targets flying 400 flights per year per space-port once it gets fully up and running. Last month, a crucial flight test was delayed, meaning the company is unlikely to begin accep...

  What To Expect When Virgin Galactic Unveils SpaceShipThree Melanie Schaffer  , Benzinga Staff Writer      FOLLOW  March 24, 2021 4:59pm      2 min read       Comments If you are looking to learn how to properly analyze stocks before trading them in order to consistently find winners,  then click here to see how you can earn while you learn. Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc   SPCE 0.07%  is expected to unveil SpaceShipThree, the newest expansion to its fleet. What Happened:  Virgin Galactic plans to roll out the first of its SpaceShipThree fleet vehicles on March 30, according to details released in its fourth-quarter and full-year  conference call  on Feb. 25. SpaceShipThree is built using a modular design, meaning that parts of it can be switched out or reconfigured, and it will act as a base for the spaceships the company plans to add to its fleet in the future. What We Know About Timing: ...

The Space Tourism Market Is Heating Up... But When Will It Happen? Valerie Stimac Contributor Science I cover space and astrotourism where travel and science intersect. Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity launches for a suborbital test flight on December 13, 2018, in Mojave,  ... [+]   AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES It’s a moment I’ve been waiting years for: at least weekly – if not almost every day – there’s a new headline about space tourism. Virgin Galactic is shifting their executive team around to get ready for paid passengers. Blue Origin keeps quietly testing in the stratosphere above West Texas. Two new contests – Inspiration4 and #dearMoon – both promise the chance to win your spot on an out-of-this-worth adventure. A new space hotel is announced at least once per year. Oh, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX team keep drawing hundreds of thousands of eyeballs to livestreams documenting the steady march of progress for Starship – the craft that will eventually carry humans to Mars. S...

SpaceX has received a second National Security Space Launch Phase 2 contract. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. will receive $160 million to launch two more missions for the Space Force. The award follows recent news that  SpaceX has raised another $850 million  in equity funding, bringing its valuation to around $74 billion. United Launch Services was also  awarded two missions  for $224 million. The Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) at Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo, in partnership with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), is administering the contracts for the National Security Space missions. “Today, we are making it possible for our National Security Space team to accomplish our mission of providing on-orbit space capability to the warfighter,” said Col.  Robert Bongiovi , director of SMC’s Launch Enterprise, in a  statement . “The National Security Space Launch Phase 2 Launch Service Procurement contracts provide our customers a...

  SpaceX: Mars ship prototype explodes after first intact landing Elon Musk’s last two prototypes reached similarly high altitude, but crash-landed in fireballs 02:00 SpaceX's Starship SN10 rocket launches, lands, sits there, blows up – video Agencies Thu 4 Mar 2021 02.27 GMT 87 SpaceX’s futuristic Starship looked like it aced a touchdown Wednesday, but then exploded on the landing pad with so much force that it was hurled into the air. The failure occurred just minutes after SpaceX declared success. Two previous test flights crash-landed in fireballs. The full-scale prototype of Elon Musk’s envisioned Mars ship soared more than six miles (10 kilometers) after lifting off from the southern tip of Texas on Wednesday. It descended horizontally over the Gulf of Mexico and then flipped upright just in time to land. Bone cancer survivor to participate in first SpaceX private flight Read more The shiny bullet-shaped rocketship remained intact this time at touchdown, prompting the SpaceX ...

  EMERGING TECH Axiom Space raises $130M to advance its commercial space station plans BY  MARIA DEUTSCHER SHARE Axiom Space Inc., a Houston startup building a commercial space station, today  said  it has raised $130 million in fresh funding from a group of investors led by C5 Capital. The Series B round  reportedly  values the startup at well over $1 billion.  Axiom Space launched in 2016 with the goal of deploying the world’s first privately funded commercial space station into orbit. Under the first phase of the undertaking, the startup will work with NASA to attach custom modules to the International Space Station. Those modules will expand the amount of usable space available to astronauts and, a few years after deployment, will detach and form the basis of Axiom’s planned commercial station. Axiom received approval from NASA for the project last year. The first of the modules is set to launch as early as 2024 and could be ready to begin operatin...