In an impressive display of engineering and flight, Virgin Galactic managed to break their own company altitude record when they launched their SpaceShipTwo for the third time earlier this year.
“The rocket-powered commercial spaceliner...attained a maximum altitude of 71,000 feet (21,641 meters) and a top speed of Mach 1.4 — 1.4 times the speed of sound, which is 761 mph (1,224 km/h) at sea level — in the skies above California's Mojave Air and Space Port. The successful flight keeps Virgin Galactic on course to start commercial service later this year, company officials said.”
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Virgin Galactic isn’t the only one making headlines in the world of private space travel, though. Space X, the brainchild of Elon Musk, who co-founded Pay Pal, also promises to make waves and marvel us with their feats of engineering in 2014.
In fact, Musk and Co. have already made headlines multiple times this year. For instance, on January 6, SpaceX successfully launched the Thaicom 6 communications satellite into space. As Space News said while reporting on the incident...
“For Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX, the Thaicom 6 launch demonstrated the company’s ability to return to flight in short order following the successful Dec. 3 launch of Luxembourg-based SES’s SES-8 telecommunications satellite.”
This just seems to prove that these type of launches are no longer the jobs of governments to pull off and between this and the other exciting things Space X has planned, which includes their Falcon 9 rocket, Dragon spacecraft, and the reusable Grasshopper rocket, 2013 promises to be an exciting leap forward in the arena of private and commercial space travel.
Take a look at SpaceX’s Grasshopper rocket in action...
Interested in engineering jobs at either Virgin Galactic or SpaceX? Certainly doesn’t hurt to take a look at their job listings...