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Blue Origin to launch youngest woman across the Kármán Line

Blue Origin announced Wednesday its crew for the NS-26 missions. On board will be several high achieving and and lucky individuals that will get the chance to fly and feel weightlessness above the Karman Line. One of the crew members, a daughter of a previous participant, will become the youngest woman to reach 100 km.

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What’s the future of Virgin Galactic?

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About three weeks ago, Virgin Galactic flew its final SpaceShipTwo mission with Galactic 07. Last week, the company completed a reverse stock split to keep its stock price above the $1 exchange limit, however its price continues to drop. So what is the future of the company that has been repeatedly the butt of jokes by financial experts?

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This company wants to help more people experience the ‘overview effect’

If you have ever been interested in seeing Earth from the upper reaches of our atmosphere but can’t afford it, then you should be keeping Halo Space on your radar. The company, similar to other new space tourism companies, have been working on a high altitude balloon system to ferry customers up to the jar dropping views of “almost space.”

The catch is, on each flight they will send someone up there for free!

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This Week in Launch: Super Thursday? Rocket Lab, SpaceX, Russia, and China prepare for launches on the same day

On Thursday of this week we have a total of four planned launches from around the world from the biggest players in the space launch market. They include Rocket Lab’s first LC-2 mission in 2024, a crew rotation to the ISS by Russia, and a cargo resupply mission to the ISS by SpaceX.

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Navigating the future of commercial spaceflight regulation

As the deadline looms for Congress to decide on the future of commercial human spaceflight regulation, most space related insiders agree the industry is at a pivotal crossroad. The current restrictions encapsulating the “learning period” that limits the Federal Aviation Administration’s ability to regulate the safety of spaceflight participants are under scrutiny. These provisions are set to expire March 8 and United States House of Representatives and Senate negotiators are in the throes of finalizing a new long term FAA reauthorization bill. 

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List of all SpaceX crewed flights to space

Since 2020, SpaceX has been the leader in launching crews to space for NASA. However, NASA’s bet on turning its Commercial Crew Program winners into commercial options has paid off with several missions in the books or planned that are for entirely private customers. Here’s a list of every crewed flight from SpaceX and who flew on it.

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Virgin Galactic lays off 18% of its workforce and pausing flights to focus on next-gen vehicle

Virgin Galactic announced this week it laid off about 185 employees, 18% of its workforce, to better streamline the development of its Delta-class spaceplane. The company also announced during its earnings call that it will begin to slow its flights down before pausing them all together.

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How many flights has Virgin Galactic flown in 2023?

In June of 2023 Virgin Galactic began commercial flights of its VSS Unity spaceplane for paying customers. Its ticket holders wait list to fly is over 800 long, with only four available seats, that’s a lot of flying just to get through existing customers and more are on the way. So how many flights has Virgin Galactic performed? Here’s a list of every flight from Virgin Galactic in the year 2023.

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Who will win the space tourist sector: Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic?

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Last Thursday, Virgin Galactic successfully launched its first group of commercial customers into space aboard its SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane, named VSS Unity. This achievement occurred approximately one month after its previous flight. With Virgin Galactic now a significant player in the field, the question arises: Can they outpace Blue Origin in the realm of space tourism?

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This Week Ahead in Launches: Virgin Galactic returns to flight and more from SpaceX and Rocket Lab

This week is pretty exciting, with lots of activity from multiple companies and nations preparing to launch. However, the bigger story of the week will be Virgin Galactic’s return to powered flight with its VSS Unity spaceplane, its first powered flight since 2021.

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