3r3197. 3r3-31. Last week there were two rather important events for private astronautics. First of all, the two pilots of the Virgin Galactic can drill holes in their suits under the icons of astronauts - having risen to Dec. 82 to 82.7 km, SpaceShipTwo was above the 50-mile line, which determines astronauts by American criteria. And Rocket Lab managed to send Electron into the flight just a month after the previous launch, which confirms the feasibility of their plans to launch their missiles often. 3r3184.  3r3197. 3r3184.  3r3197. 3r3184.  3r3197. Crashed 3r3139. In 2014). Four flights were conducted in 2016 without disconnecting the SS2 from the carrier aircraft. Then 7 tests were planned without the inclusion of a rocket engine. And in 2018 we conducted 4 flights with the engine turned on and a gradual increase in the maximum height reached: 25.7 km in April, 34.9 in May, 52 km in July and 82.7 now. Now only one step is left before the Virgin Galactic - a flight for the full duration of the engine and rise above 100 km. The device will not go into orbit, but it will give the passengers a few minutes of true weightlessness with the ability to take selfies against the background of approximately this kind from the porthole. 3r3184.  3r3197. 3r3184.  3r3197. 3r3184.  3r3197. 3r3-33160. Image of Virgin Galactic [/i] 3r3184.  3r3197. 3r3184.  3r3197. The joy is so great that Richard Branson, in his speech, preferred to “forget” SpaceShipOne and called this flight “the first ever case when a manned ship built for the commercial transport of passengers reached space”. This, alas, is incorrect - SpaceShipOne could lift one pilot and two passengers into space, and, if not for
desire billionaire Paul Allen pass it to the museum, the first space tourists could go on a suborbital flight back in 2004. 3r3184.  3r3197. 3r3184.  3r3197. 3r3184.  3r3197. 3r3184.  3r3197. Curiously, SpaceShipTwo began to take on scientific cargo. At New Shepard, the associated loads have been carried for a long time, but for SpaceShipTwo this experience was the first. Unfortunately, the specific task of the cargo is not disclosed, but, judging by the general description, this is an engineering test bench. 3r3184.  3r3197. 3r3184.  3r3197. Shortly before landing, the SS2 performed a barrel, a symbolic gesture similar to the circle of honor among athletes. 3r3184.  3r3197. 3r3184.  3r3197. 3r3174.
Victory roll for SpaceShipTwo. Planned test point and mission accomplished pic.twitter.com/3dI1fipoCW
- Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) December 1? 201 3r376. 3r3197.
3r3191. 3r3197. 3r3193. 3r3184.  3r3197. 3r3184.  3r3197. According to the head of the Virgin Galactic Richard Branson, the next flight could take place somewhere in a month. Ideally, before the start of commercial operation, only three more tests will be required. SpaceShipTwo so far took the lead in the suborbital race - Blue Origin planned to start manned flights in 201? but according to the latest news, the plans moved to 2019. It is interesting that very different technical systems are competing. SpaceShipTwo is a winged vehicle, which rises into the air on a carrier aircraft, accelerates on a hybrid rocket engine (solid fuel, liquid oxidizer), is controlled by a person throughout the flight, returning, it brakes by turning tail beams, which turn the device into a kind of badminton shuttlecock, and landing on an airplane. New Shepard, on the other hand, is a combination of a rocket stage and a habitable capsule, starts from a ground launch structure, uses a liquid-propellant rocket engine on oxygen and hydrogen, is controlled by automatic equipment and lands separately - a rocket on engines, a capsule on parachutes with soft landing engines. 3r3184.  3r3197. 3r3184.  3r3197. On the official channel of Virgin Galactic, the videos have not yet been uploaded, so we are watching a compilation from Twitter. 3r3184.  3r3197. 3r3184.  3r3197. 3r3174. 3r? 3175. 3r3176.