American billionaire arrives in Moscow for space f

[december]

American billionaire arrives in Moscow for space flight.

Actually he arrived in Moscow in February, and there are less than 24 hours left to the launch.

Live coverage here,
Begins April 7 -

http://www.charlesinspace.com

Charles Simonyi

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http://www.foxnews.com/images/235578/3_62_space_tourist_simonyi_1.jpg

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MOSCOW, February 18 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. billionaire Charles Simonyi who is set to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) as a space tourist April 7 arrived in Moscow Sunday for final training.

Simonyi, an American of Hungarian origin and one of the founders of Microsoft Corporation, said he plans to make experiments in orbit on orders from the European Space Agency, and also to carry out his own scientific program, particularly, a medical experiment to study radiation effects on humans.

Dennis Tito, an American businessman and former NASA scientist, became the first space tourist when he visited the ISS in 2001. He was followed by South African computer millionaire Mark Shuttleworth in 2002 and Gregory Olsen, a U.S. entrepreneur and scientist, in 2005.

Anousheh Ansari, 40, a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin and a telecommunications businesswoman, became the first female space tourist last year.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070218/60911899.html

[december]

Live coverage here,
Begins April 7 -

http://www.charlesinspace.com


http://www.edge.org/images/simonyi.randall300.jpg

Charles Simonyi (Hungarian: Simonyi Kбroly; born September 10, 1948) is a computer software developer who, as head of Microsoft's application software group, oversaw the creation of Microsoft's flagship office applications. He now heads his own company, Intentional Software, with the aim of developing and marketing his concept of Intentional Programming. In 2007, he is scheduled to become the fifth space tourist. His networth is $1 billion.


http://www.folklore.org/projects/Macintosh/images/simonyi.jpg


Simonyi was born in Budapest, Hungary, the son of a professor of electrical engineering. While in high school he worked part-time as a night watchman at a computer laboratory, overseeing a large Soviet tube-based computer called Ural II.
He took an interest in computing and learned to program from one of the laboratory's engineers. By the time he graduated high school he had learned to develop compilers and sold one of these to a government department. He was hired by Denmark's A/S Regnecentralen in 1966 and moved to the United States in 1968 to attend the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his B.S. in Engineering Mathematics, specializing in Mathematics and Statistics, in 1972.

Charles Simonyi

57 , self made
Source: Microsoft

Net Worth: $1 bil -

Country of citizenship: United States
Residence: Medina, WA, United States
Industry: Technology
Marital Status: single
University of California Berkeley, Bachelor of Arts / Science
Stanford University, Doctorate

Lured to Microsoft in 1981 after work at Xerox's famed PARC lab, became chief architect and developer of Word, Excel applications. With small tech outfit Intentional Software, developing new tools to create software: "The biggest damn opportunity in software, and software is still the biggest damn opportunity in the economy." For now, customers not coming as quickly as predicted. Budapest native, came to the U.S. at age 18, earned bachelor's degree from Berkeley, computer science Ph.D. from Stanford. Through $50 million Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences gave to Seattle Public Library and Seattle Symphony.

http://www.forbes.com/static/bill2005/LIRVMOW.html?passListId=10&passYear=2005&passListType=Person&uniqueId=VMOW&datatype=Person

[december]

10 minutes to lift off...

Watch the Live Coverage Of Soyuz TMA-10 Launch - http://www.charlesinspace.com

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YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

[december]

Charles and his crew are now orbiting the Earth aboard the TMA-10 Soyuz...

http://www.skyrocket.de/space/img_sat/soyuz-tma1__1.jpg


Watch the Live Coverage Here -
http://www.charlesinspace.com

http://www.space-travellers.com/images/baikonur.jpg

The modified Soyuz TMA manned spacecraft has been developed on the basis of a Soyuz TM spacecraft in accordance with intergovernmental agreements between Russia and the USA and is an integral part of the International Space Station (ISS) Complex. It is to provide rescue of the main crew of the station in emergency and delivery of visiting crews.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

:)

[december]

The crew of Soyuz TMA-10 -

Charles Simonyi (Hungarian), Oleg Kotov and Fyodor Yurchikhin -

http://www.spacefacts.de/mission/photo2/soyuz-tma-10.jpg


Watch the Live Coverage Here -
http://www.charlesinspace.com

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

[december]

http://collectspace.com/review/iss15patch_kotov.jpg

Oleg Kotov, M.D. (Colonel, Russian Air Force)
Test-cosmonaut of Yu.A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center

PERSONAL DATA: Born October 27, 1965, in Simferopol. His parents, Valeri Efimovich and Elena Ivanovna Kotov, reside in Moscow. Married to Svetlana Nikolayevna Kotova (previously, Bunyakina). They have two children. He enjoys diving, computers, and photography.

EDUCATION: In 1982 Dr. Kotov finished high school in Moscow and entered the Kirov Military Medical Academy, from which he graduated in 1988.

EXPERIENCE : After graduation from the Academy in 1988, Dr. Kotov served at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, where he held the positions of Deputy lead test-doctor and Lead test doctor.

During his service he dealt with problems of altitude physiology and space flight effects on a human body. He gained experience in practical training and medical support of EVAs on the Mir station, and was a crew surgeon and instructor for biomedical training and science program training. He is a certified SCUBA diver.

He was selected as a cosmonaut candidate by GCTC in 1996. From June 1996 to March 1998, he completed a course of basic training for spaceflight. In March 1998, he received a test-cosmonaut qualification.

Since July 1998, Dr. Kotov has been a cosmonaut-researcher and test-cosmonaut of the GCTC Cosmonaut Office. From May-August 1998, Dr. Kotov trained for a flight on the Soyuz and the Mir station as a backup crewmember to the Mir-26 mission.

Since October 1998, he has been undergoing advanced training for ISS flights. He served as a flight engineer and Soyuz commander on the ISS-6 and ISS-13 backup crews.

From February-October 1999 he served as a Representative of GCTC (DOH) at JSC. During 2001-2002 he worked as a CAPCOM for Expedition-3 and 4 in MCC-M and Moscow Support Group in MCC-H. In 2004 he became Chief of the CAPCOM Branch in the Cosmonaut Office.

Dr. Kotov is assigned as flight engineer and Soyuz commander on the Expedition-15 mission to the International Space Station, arriving at the complex aboard a Soyuz spacecraft scheduled to launch in April 2007, for a six month tour of duty aboard the Station.



Watch the Live Coverage Here -
http://www.charlesinspace.com



YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

[december]

Fourth day in space aboard Soyuz spacecraft...

Watch the Live Coverage Here -
http://www.charlesinspace.com

http://img.rian.ru/images/3966/95/39669593.jpg


The first Soyuz mission - forty years on

23/ 03/ 2007

MOSCOW. (Yury Zaitsev for RIA Novosti) - April 23, 1967 marks the date when the world-famous Soyuz spacecraft lifted off for the first time with a human aboard.

And March 16 of this year might have been the 80th birthday of Vladimir Komarov, the Soviet cosmonaut who died tragically on board that craft.

Komarov's second space flight proved fatal. Earlier, aboard the multi-seat Voskhod spacecraft, he had joined other cosmonauts - scientist Konstantin Feoktistov and physician Boris Yegorov - to make the first-ever venture into space wearing no spacesuits - an act bordering on recklessness. With the space race on, Yury Gagarin's Vostok had been hastily converted into the multi-seat Voskhod by removing the ejection seat from the descent module. But the "new" model still could not hold three cosmonauts in spacesuits. Fortunately, the mission ended well.

Komarov's second journey into space was on board the Soyuz-1. Today, it is the world's most reliable spacecraft. Its improved version is used as a standby rescue vehicle on the International Space Station. But at that time, it was surprising indeed that a spacecraft that had completed only two (not quite successful) unmanned flights should have been sent aloft with a human aboard.

The idea for the Soyuz-series craft originated with Sergei Korolyov, the founder of the Soviet space program. It was also during his lifetime that its systems began to be tested. But the tests, particularly the parachute drops, ran into difficulties: several full-scale replicas broke down when dropped from aircraft to check their automatic operation and their parachutes.

When Korolyov died, the pace of the tests did not slow down. But Vasily Mishin, who replaced him as general designer of his rocket-building bureau, did not have Korolyov's formidable reputation and often was unable to withstand strong pressure from above. Meanwhile, the country's leadership was impatient: in the previous two years the USSR had made no manned flights, it said.

In the end, the designers, too, gave into temptation and decided that the presence of a cosmonaut aboard would lay to rest most of the questions raised by the previous missions and guarantee a successful docking with another spacecraft, which was to be launched the next day with a three-member crew. Upon docking, two crew members from the second craft were to change over to the Soyuz-1 and return to Earth aboard it.

Speedy preparations were made to meet the May 1 deadline. The lift-off took place on April 23, 1967. Trouble began when the spacecraft entered orbit. One of the solar battery panels failed to unfold. It emerged that the "lame" Soyuz-1 could not approach and link up with the other craft, because its center of gravity had shifted and its power system had become unbalanced.

Then the controls developed some glitches. The solar-stellar sensor became covered in mist and was unable to ensure the descent orientation by using lift-to-drag ratio. The new ionic attitude-control system was also faulty. The malfunction was caused by so-called "ion pits" in the atmosphere which were not known to exist previously. The cosmonaut had to orient the craft manually, by means of an optical sight.

Komarov made a professional, competent and comprehensive review of all problems encountered during the flight and began preparations for a return to Earth. The descent could have been only ballistic, i.e. with high G-loads, because the ionic attitude-controls were out of order. His last words picked up on the ground were: "This is Rubin calling. Separation beginning..." The reference was to the separation of the compartments. Then the cosmonaut's voice got lost in background noise. Next, disaster struck: the main parachute failed to open, and the descent capsule hit the ground at tremendous speed, crumpling up and catching fire.

Following the separation and braking in the upper atmosphere, events had developed as follows: a brake parachute was released and unfolded. But it failed to pull out the main parachute canopy. As dictated by the logic of the system, a spare parachute was released, but it did not fill out because it found itself in the "aerodynamic shade" of the brake parachute.

The causes of the disaster were not immediately identified, and so the TASS news agency wrongly reported that "when the main canopy billowed out at an altitude of seven kilometers...the shroud lines got tangled up, failing to check the headlong descent which resulted in Vladimir Komarov's death."

The descent module hit the ground at a speed of more than 50 meters/second. When the flames on the site of the crash were put out, only congealed pools of the molten aluminum that had made up the module's body, along with the upper titanium frame, were found.

A state commission that looked into the causes of the disaster said they were due to the very compact design of the parachute container and its deformation as pressure built up when the container lid was jettisoned. But it emerged that the parachute just could not get out of the container. And not only because of the deformation. The brake parachute needed a force of not more than 1,500 kilograms to pull out the main one, while the actual figure, as later experiments showed, was nearly 2,800 kilograms, corresponding to the weight of the descent module.

When the parachute was stowed in the container, wooden beetles were used to pound it in, so high was the friction against the container walls. Also, in violation of the rules, the container lid was not on when the descent module was tested in an autoclave. At high temperatures, its thermal protection cover gets polymerized and produces colorless resins, which are deposited on the metal and, having adhesive qualities, can greatly increase the friction coefficient.

As for the tangling of the shroud line, there was none - although in later models (just to be on the safe side), swivel shackles were installed to prevent it.

Komarov's remains were brought to Moscow and interred in the Kremlin wall. He had turned 40 shortly before his death.

Yury Zaitsev is an academic adviser at the Russian Academy of Engineering.

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20070323/62497948.html



YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

[december]

The Fifth Day Aboard Soyuz Spacecraft.

Watch the Live Coverage Here -
http://www.charlesinspace.com


Fyodor Nikolayevich Yurchikhin (Russian: Фёдор Николаевич Юрчихин), Ph.D., RSC Energia Test-Cosmonaut, was born January 3, 1959, in Batumi, Autonomous Republic of Ajara in Georgia. Married to Larisa Anatolievna Yurshikina, born in Shyolkovo, Moscow region, he is of Greek Pontian descent.

http://www.spacefacts.de/more/cosmonauts/photo/yurchikhin_fyodor_1.jpg



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Fyodor Nikolayevich Yurchikhin (Ph.D.)
RSC Energia Test-Cosmonaut

PERSONAL DATA: Born January 3, 1959, in Batumi, Autonomous Republic of Ajara in Georgia. Married to Larisa Anatolievna Yurshikina, born in Shyolkovo, Moscow region. They have two daughters. His father, Nikolai Fyodorovich Yurchikhin, and mother, Mikrula Sofoklevna Yurchikhina, reside in Sindos, Greece. He also has a brother, 2 years younger. Hobbies include collecting stamps and space logos, sports, history of cosmonautics, and promotion of space. He also enjoys reading history, science fiction and the classics.

EDUCATION: After graduation from high school in Batumi in 1976, he entered the Moscow Aviation Institute named after Sergey Ordzhonikidze. He finished studying in 1983, and is qualified as a mechanical engineer, specializing in airspace vehicles. In 2001, he graduated from the Moscow Service State University with a Ph.D. in economics.

EXPERIENCE: Since graduating from the S. Ordzhonikidze Moscow Aviation Institute in 1983, Yurchikhin has worked at the Russian Space Corporation Energia. He began working as a controller in the Russian Mission Control Center, and held the positions of engineer, senior engineer, and lead engineer, eventually becoming a lead engineer for Shuttle-Mir and NASA-Mir Programs.

In August 1997, he was enrolled in the RSC Energia cosmonaut detachment as a cosmonaut-candidate.

From January 1998 to November 1999, he completed his basic training course. In November 1999, he was qualified as a test cosmonaut. In January 2000, he started training in the test-cosmonaut group for the ISS program.

In October 2002, Fyodor Yurchikhin flew aboard STS-112. In completing his first space flight he has logged a total of 10 days, 19 hours, and 58 minutes in space.

Fyodor Yurchikhin is assigned to command the Expedition-15 mission to the International Space Station, arriving at the complex aboard a Soyuz spacecraft scheduled to launch in April 2007, for a six month tour of duty aboard the Station.

SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: STS-112 Atlantis (October 7-18, 2002) launched from and returned to land at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. STS-112 was an International Space Station assembly mission during which the crew conducted joint operations with the Expedition-5 by delivering and installing the S-One Truss (the third piece of the station's 11-piece Integrated Truss Structure). Three spacewalks were required to outfit and activate the new component. The crew also transferred cargo between the two vehicles and used the shuttle's thruster jets during two maneuvers to raise the station's orbit. STS-112 was the first shuttle mission to use a camera on the External Tank, providing a live view of the launch to flight controllers and NASA TV viewers. The STS-112 mission was accomplished in 170 orbits, traveling 4.5 million miles in 10 days, 19 hours, and 58 minutes.

[truthsayer]

We can only hope they don't use Windows on their computers, otherwise they'll soon need that emergency area :rolleyes:

[december]

We can only hope they don't use Windows on their computers, otherwise they'll soon need that emergency area :rolleyes:

Address your concern to Charles Simonyi -
to http://www.charlesinspace.com

:)

[december]

Dr.Simonyi shows you around his new home in space...

Video.

http://www.charlesinspace.com

http://www.digitaljournal.com/images/photo/CharlesSimonyiMicrosoft.jpg

[december]

250 miles above the Earth....
Watch the Live Coverage Here -
http://www.charlesinspace.com

Russia-Brazil: a space partnership
16/ 04/ 2007

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MOSCOW. (Yury Zaitsev for RIA Novosti)

Russia and Brazil have always seen eye-to-eye on such issues as the importance of a multipolar world and the UN's role in modern society, and this mutual understanding is a key factor in relations between the two countries in other areas, too. Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that "we can cooperate in many fields, and one of them is high technologies, above all the peaceful uses of outer space."

Russia has signed an intergovernmental agreement with Brazil on space cooperation, and this has given the South American country a kind of political boost in space studies and joint commercial projects. The agreement is also important for the observance of the non-proliferation regime because it covers all aspects of the transfer of intellectual property and rocket technology. Lastly, cooperation with such a leading space power as Russia lends credibility to Brazil's rocket and space efforts in the eyes of the international community.

When, in August 2003, a Brazilian VLS-1 rocket exploded on its launch pad, Russia was the first to send a team of experts to investigate. Their findings proved very helpful in pinpointing the causes of the blast and planning measures to help prevent a repeat.

Currently, Russian specialists are helping the country to "go over to a new format" for launch safety and rocket technology. Brazil is converting from solid-fueled engines, by way of mixed fuels, to liquid-propelled rockets, while at the same time gradually building up the power of its rockets to ensure delivery of payloads to geostationary orbits.

Russia's liquid rocket engines are the best in the world. The Americans buy them for installation on their heavy Atlas launch vehicles. Japan, too, uses Russian engines. Now Russian specialists are taking part in the modernization of the VLS-1. The upgraded Brazilian rocket is expected to orbit three communications satellites in 2010.

Russia is active in developing Brazil's Alcantara space center. In their day, Russian specialists developed the world's first system of launch preparations - from transporting the rocket to the pad to launching it - that made the presence of personnel on site unnecessary. This makes Russian launching facilities the safest in the world.

Brazil is very much interested in commercial launches from Alcantara, using both home- and foreign-built vehicles and promising good business for the parties involved, Russia included. The center's geographic location is better than those of other countries in higher latitudes. Alcantara's proximity to the equator, where the Earth rotates more quickly, allows the weight of payloads sent aloft to be increased by 30% to 40%.

A wide choice of launch azimuths (directions) allows Alcantara to send satellites into any inclination, including very interesting near-polar orbits, without the need for the launch vehicle to fly over densely populated regions.

For a time, the plans to modernize the Alcantara hinged on using a Ukrainian Tsiklon-4 light-class vehicle. True, the "nationality" of the rocket is largely in name only: its basic components, or first- and second-stage engines, are made in Russia and account for half the rocket's cost. Russia was also supposed to develop the launch facility. The Tsiklon-4's launch from Alcantara was scheduled for 2005, but, with the rocket being assembled in Ukraine, the Orange Revolution in that country upset all plans. Russia had to suspend its participation in the project, and work had barely resumed when another cabinet crisis hit Ukraine, so the project now faces an uncertain future.

The Kourou space center in French Guiana, which will soon launch a Russian Soyuz-2 vehicle, could become Alcantara's rival in near-equatorial regions in the next few years. Meanwhile, an advanced Russian Angara launch vehicle, burning environmentally clean fuel, could well blast off from the Brazilian space center. This option is currently being considered by Russian and Brazilian experts. One advantage of Alcantara, apart from good weather, is the possibility of bringing launch vehicles, spacecraft and all the necessary equipment there not only by air, but also by sea. The Angara is of modular construction, and its modules can be assembled to produce a rocket of practically any weight class, including the heavy Russian Proton.

In recent years, Russia has cornered much of the launch-services market thanks to the successful modernization of its launch vehicles. Their power has been increased, orbiting accuracy improved, and environmental standards enhanced. In cost-benefit terms, they are considered the best in the world. Russia can offer Brazil a great deal to help advance its national space and rocket industry and implement space programs oriented toward conducting research and bringing socio-economic benefits. At the same time, Russia stands to gain massively from commercial launches at Alcantara, with its excellent location - a mere two degrees from the equator.

Space cooperation between Russia and Brazil pursues no military aims, and both countries are equally interested in developing it because it is a key aspect of their current bilateral relations.

Yury Zaitsev is an expert with the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

[december]

Change of Command Ceremony

Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin takes charge of the International Space Station.

Video -

http://www.charlesinspace.com/

http://iss.sfo.jaxa.jp/iss/9a/pict/yurchikhin.jpg

[december]

Soyuz undocks from ISS, heading toward Earth

http://www.charlesinspace.com

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/070320/070320_simonyi_vmed_3p.widec.jpg

15:02 | 21/ 04/ 2007


MISSION CONTROL (Moscow Region), April 21 (RIA Novosti) - A Soyuz spacecraft carrying the 14th international mission has undocked from the world's sole orbital station and is heading toward the Earth.

The crew is flying home after seven months onboard the International Space Station (ISS). Apart from Russian Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria from the United States, the 14th crew also includes Hungarian-born space tourist and software billionaire, Charles Simonyi.

Simonyi, who is a trained pilot in multi-engine aircraft with current licenses in jets and helicopters and more than 2,000 hours of flying time under his belt, arrived at the ISS April 10 together with the 15th ISS crew.

The crew is in good health and high spirits. "Now the most important thing is that they all go through the descent and the landing," Valery Lyndin, a spokesman for the Mission Control, said.

The landing capsule Soyuz TMA-9 was originally expected to land April 20 at the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan but the descent was postponed due to spring floods in the Kazakh steppes.

The new crew consists of Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov, both from Russia, who will spend 189 days at the station and will conduct three spacewalks, one in U.S.-made spacesuits and the other two in Russian-made outfits.

The third crew member, U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams, who replaced the European Space Agency's German astronaut Thomas Reiter in December 2006, will stay on board the ISS for a further several months.

They will later be joined by astronaut Clayton Anderson, who will arrive on board the space shuttle Endeavor June 28, and Daniel Tani, who will be carried to the ISS by the space shuttle Discovery, scheduled for lift off September 7.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20070421/64108748.html

http://www.charlesinspace.com

[december]

http://images.usatoday.com/tech/_photos/2006/12/14/simonyi.jpg


MISSION CONTROL (Moscow Region), April 21 (RIA Novosti) -
A Soyuz spacecraft carrying the 14th crew of the International Space Station (ISS) has landed at the space center in Kazakhstan, a mission control center near Moscow said.

The commander of the rescue group watched the descent from a helicopter and reported to the mission control center that the spacecraft had landed according to plan.

The crew has returned to the Earth after seven months onboard the ISS. Apart from Russian Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria from the United States, the 14th crew also includes the fifth space tourist and software billionaire, Hungarian-born American Charles Simonyi.

"Charles Simonyi and the crew of the 14th ISS mission have successfully gone through the descent and the landing, and are in a good mood. The temperature at the landing site in Kazakhstan is plus 19 °C (66.2 °F)," the rescue official told the mission control center.

The spacemen have been extracted from the landing capsule. Tyurin who was placed in a mutton-covered armchair, did not look very well to begin with after such a long time in orbit but adapted to the Earth conditions quite soon. Unlike Tyurin, Simonyi, who was extracted second, had a broad smile on his face. Lopez-Alegria felt normal but it took him some time to recover after zero-gravity.

The crew will be delivered to the Baikonur space center by a helicopter and then taken to the space training center of Zvyozdny Gorodok (star city) near Moscow.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070421/64115203.html

[december]

Firm rockets into space tourism

The European aerospace giant EADS is going into the space tourism business.
Its Astrium division says it will build a space plane capable of carrying fare-paying passengers on a sub-orbital ride more than 100km above the planet.

The vehicle, which will take off from a normal airport, will give the tourists a three-to-five-minute experience of weightlessness at the top of its climb.
Tickets are expected to cost up to 200,000 euros (£135,000), with flights likely to begin in 2012.

"We believe it is the will of human beings to visit space and we have to give them the possibility to do that," said Francois Auque, the CEO of Astrium.
"Astrium is by far the largest space company in Europe, so we are very knowledgeable in all these matters. We believe our concept is extremely safe, extremely comfortable and cost effective," he told BBC News.

Two in one
EADS Astrium is the company that builds the Ariane rocket, which lofts most of the world's commercial satellites. Its space jet is a very different concept, however.

The front end of a full-scale model was unveiled at a publicity event in Paris on Wednesday. From a certain angle, the vehicle resembles an ordinary executive aircraft - but its engineers claim it is in fact "revolutionary".
The production model will use normal jet engines to take off and climb to 12km. From there, a rocket engine will kick the vehicle straight up, taking it beyond 60km in just 80 seconds. By the time the rockets shut down, the craft should have sufficient velocity to carry it above 100km - into space.
As the plane then begins to fall back to Earth, the pilot will use small thrusters to control its attitude, guiding the vehicle into the atmosphere from where it will use its jet engines again to return to the airport.

The total journey time will be about one-and-a-half hours.

READ MORE -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6749873.stm

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/43043000/jpg/_43043947_akeoff203b.jpg

http://www.charlesinspace.com/