** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **

The "Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age" exhibition at the Science Museum is brilliant. Don't miss it!

A couple of teasers before I sort out the rest of the pictures:

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iBolANI.jpg


:)
 
Now for something completely different, the winner of "2015 Tracking Station Music Contest". :D

So to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Estrack network we have the 11,2 km/s", now the official theme music for ESA's Estrack ground station network:

 
Virgin Galactic moves forward with a successful test firing of the NewtonThree main stage engine:


The test reached steady-state operation and allowed the team to capture high quality data about the engine during start-up, operation, and safe shutdown. It occurred the same week as multiple full duration firings of the gas generator for LauncherOne’s upper stage engine, each exceeding six minutes in duration.

LauncherOne’s orbital flights are achieved using two rocket engines: a single 73,500 lbf thrust ‘NewtonThree’ main stage engine, and a single 5,000 lbf thrust ‘NewtonFour’ upper stage engine. Both the NewtonThree and the NewtonFour are highly reliable, pump-fed LOX/RP-1 liquid rocket engines designed, tested, and built by Virgin Galactic.

Previously, we had completed successful test campaigns on pressure-fed demonstrator engines in each thrust class—the ‘NewtonOne’ and ‘NewtonTwo’ engines. These are now retired.

There is much work yet to be done but we are excited to share the news about such encouraging test results along the road to space.
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