Tag Archives: Human Spaceflight

Virgin Galactic has announced that it will be revealing the interior design of SpaceShipTwo’s cabin. The virtual event will be streamed live on 28 July, 2020. To celebrate this milestone, Virgin Galactic will also be announcing plans to bring immersive experiences of Virgin Galactic’s spaceflight and cabin interior to aspiring astronauts around the world.

Space Perspective announced its plans to fly passengers and research payloads to the edge of space with its Spaceship Neptune, a high-performance balloon and pressurized capsule.

The heads of the space agencies from the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, and the European Space Agency (ESA) are scheduled to meet on 9 June 2020 via video conference in order to discuss cooperation on lunar exploration and the International Space Station (ISS).

Chinese officials have unveiled details of, and launch timeline for, its Tiangong space station now that the Long March 5B launch vehicle has been successfully launched and China’s crewed capsule has been tested.

SpaceX has become the first private company to launch a crewed mission into low-Earth orbit. At 3:22pm Eastern Standard Time (EST), 30 May 2020, a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle launched two NASA astronauts – Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley – on board the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

The European Space Agency (ESA) announced on 26 May 2020 that it has signed a contract with Airbus for the construction of the third European Service Module (ESM) for Orion, the American crewed spacecraft. The contract is worth around €250 million.

The Indian finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, announced on 16 May 2020 that the Indian government will enact all necessary measures to create a level playing field for the private sector to take part in all Indian space activities.

Yevgeny Mikrin, the head of Russia's human spaceflight program, has died, the country's space agency Roscosmos announced on 5 May 2020. The statement did not specify a cause of death, but a report in Space.com indicates Mikrin had tested positive for Covid-19 last month.

China scored a space double whammy on 5 May 2020 when its successfully launched its heavy Long March 5B launch vehicle carrying a new capsule designed for crewed missions.

Virgin Galactic  and The Spaceship Company have announced the successful completion of its first SpaceShipTwo test flight from Spaceport America. This glide flight marks the inaugural solo flight of VSS Unity in New Mexico and as such is an important flight test milestone in preparation for commercial service. On SpaceShipTwo’s …