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15%  
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Keyword: spaceship2

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  • Virgin Galactic Crash Probe Focuses on Possible Structural Failure

    11/02/2014 8:18:07 PM PST · by BenLurkin · 29 replies
    wsj.com ^ | Nov. 2, 2014 9:04 p.m. ET | Andy Pasztor
    Early analysis suggests that a violent structural failure rather than an engine explosion may have caused the crash of Virgin Galactic LLC’s experimental rocket ship Friday, according to safety experts and one person familiar with details of the investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board’s probe of the accident is just beginning and it could change direction, these people said. But based on video footage and preliminary data analysis, they said, investigators are focusing on aerodynamic forces that could have caused the dramatic in-flight rupture of the craft, which killed one pilot and seriously injured the other. Because some engine malfunctions...
  • Space-tourism firm Virgin Galactic goes supersonic in rocket test

    04/29/2013 11:47:54 AM PDT · by BenLurkin · 10 replies
    LATimes ^ | April 29, 2013 | By W.J. Hennigan and Adolfo Flores
    British billionaire Richard Branson’s commercial space venture Virgin Galactic got one step closer to carrying tourists into space when a test pilot cracked the sound barrier over the Mojave desert. For the first time, the company's SpaceShipTwo, engaged its rocket motor and sped to Mach 1.2 and reached 56,000 feet in altitude. The flight is the latest -- and largest -- milestone in Virgin Galactic's testing of technology it hopes to use to carry scores of paying customers into space multiple times a day. “The first powered flight of Virgin Spaceship Enterprise was without any doubt our single most important...