Virgin Galactic is hopeful it will have a successful test launch of its space vehicle next year.
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Instead, the FAA has opted to leave the medical screening process up to the commercial space vehicle operators.
Sierra Nevada Space Systems showed video of a successful flight of their Dream Catcher orbital space vehicle this year.
Taking over space trucking from NASA allows them to pay the bills as they develop increasingly capable space vehicle systems.
Once a passenger has disembarked from their space vehicle, there are much greater uncertainties that complicate medical decision making, Kirkpatrick said.
He has reported as the space vehicle Pathfinder arrived on Mars and beamed live video of the planet's surface back to earth.
You mean the company mommy and daddy rent our space vehicle from?
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In 2004, President George W Bush instigated ambitious plans to return astronauts to the Moon by 2020, necessitating the replacement of the shuttle by a new space vehicle.
Pyongyang has also argued that it made clear during negotiations with the U.S. that it would promise not to test a missile but not agree to restrict the launch of a space vehicle.
Every tile that's installed or a modification that's made to any space vehicle is closely monitored by NASA. A NASA supervisor was on hand with a clipboard, checking off various tasks by United Space Alliance engineers.
Virgin's Richard Branson has started Virgin Galactic in an attempt to sell suborbital trips to ordinary citizens, and Amazon.com 's JeffBezosJeff Bezos has started a company called Blue Origin to create a private suborbital space vehicle.
"But our concerns with Iran's development of space launch vehicle technologies are obviously well-known: Any space launch vehicle capable of placing an object in orbit is directly relevant to the development of long-range ballistic missiles, " she told reporters.
When they get back, the space vehicle will hopefully have provided enough data to pinpoint a potential drilling area so it can drill, collect and analyze rock samples using onboard tools -- a feat never-before attempted on Mars.
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But even the former head of the Russian Strategic Missile Troops, noting the capabilities of a recent Iranian "space vehicle" launch, predicted that Iran would have "ballistic missiles with a range of 3, 500-4, 000 kilometers or even more, " possibly in the next few years.
"We are planning to build a permanent base on the moon by 2015 and by 2020 we can begin the industrial-scale delivery... of the rare isotope helium-3, " said Nikolai Sevastianov, head of Russian space vehicle manufacturer Energia, at a seminar in Moscow in January.
If there is a boom coming, the fuse was lit by the 2004 flight of SpaceShipOne, a reusable space vehicle built by aircraft designer Burt Rutan and funded by Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) co-founder Paul Allen .
As it happens, Moscow is actively marketing its SS-25 ICBM as a "START I space launch vehicle, " complete with its standard-issue mobile transporter-erector-launcher.
"My gut tells me that the additional flying we may do on this airplane before it goes to the Air and Space Museum should be focused on developing the very best space tourism vehicle, " Rutan said.
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Nothing wrong in that, you might say, but plans for India's first inter-continental ballistic missile depend heavily on the technology developed for its space-launch vehicle.
Their misery was clear - all were showing signs of exhaustion and depression and many had suffered painful wounds from poorly designed compartments and terrible friction injuries due to inadequate space on the vehicle.
The move puts the Michigan company among a growing number of venture-backed American companies in the alternative vehicle space to land in China, where the government provides incentives for the development and purchases of all-electric and electric hybrid cars.
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The side-view mirrors on most cars are flat, and while they give drivers an accurate sense of the distance of cars behind them, they have a narrow field of view, leaving a space behind the vehicle -- the blind spot -- that a driver can't see.
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So the space shuttle became essentially a cargo vehicle, instead of a space bus.
Just the political issues involved might make it hard to find inexpensive space on a launch vehicle.
The European Space Agency believes the vehicle's capabilities will feed into many other exploration activities, at the Moon, Mars and other Solar System destinations.
But the design that is best to win that prize is not necessarily the best design to operate as a commercial vehicle for space tourism, where having low recurring costs is more vital.
In the British city of Cambridge, a private aerospace firm called Reaction Engines has been toiling away for more than 20 years to make reusable engines that can get a vehicle into space.
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For instance, the Audi A8 not only has a 372 horsepower engine that provides exhilarating driving characteristics, but it also has an aluminum space frame that lowers vehicle weight considerably versus a steel chassis.
In both cases, the cause appeared to be a problem with the Taurus XL rockets used as a vehicle by the space agency to launch the satellites into orbit.
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Suffredini said another Soyuz vehicle at the space station, which is set to fly back the other three crew members, will have its certification for the return mission expire by mid-November.
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