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Solar plane lands in New York City

A solar-powered airplane finished crossing the United States on Saturday, landing in New York City after flying over the Statue of Liberty during its historic bid to circle the globe, the project team said.  The spindly, single-seat experimental aircraft, dubbed Solar Impulse 2, arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at about 4 a.m. local time after it took off about five hours beforehand at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania, the team reported on the airplane's website.  Such a pleasure to land in New York! For the 14th time we celebrate sustainability," said the project's co-founder Andre Borschberg on Twitter after flying over the city and the Statue of Liberty during the 14th leg of the trip around the globe. The Swiss team flying the aircraft in a campaign to build support for clean energy technologies hopes eventually to complete its circumnavigation in Abu Dhabi, where the journey began in March 2015. The solar cr...
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The Russian Space Agency finished assembling the space vehicle

On Saturday, the Soyuz crew module was attached to its rocket at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.  We watched as the completed vehicle was loaded onto a flat-bed transporter, ready to be carried to the launch pad.  Mr Peake and two other crew members will launch to the International Space Station on Tuesday 15 December.  During his seven-month stay on the orbiting outpost, the former Army helicopter pilot will carry out a programme of experiments and educational activities.  He will be accompanied on the flight by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and US astronaut Timothy Kopra.The Soyuz spacecraft - which carries the crew to the ISS - and its rocket are assembled at adjacent facilities at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.  On Friday, the crew module was transported by train from its assembly site - known as Building 254 - to the huge hangar-like facility designated Building 112. More than 40 years ago, Building 112 housed a giant (105m-high) rock...
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The Amazon entrepreneur Jeff Bezos claimed success on the second flight of his New Shepard spaceship

Intended eventually to carry people just above the atmosphere, the re-usable vehicle launched from west Texas on Monday with no-one aboard.  Both parts of New Shepard - the capsule and its propulsion unit - landed safely, Mr Bezos' company said.  On the maiden outing in April, the propulsion module was lost on the way down because of a hydraulic failure.  True to his way of working, the US billionaire gave no specific notice of the flight, stating last week only that another mission would occur "very soon".  This means all the video and information about the event have come out directly from Mr Bezos' space operation, Blue Origin.New Shepard has the capability to transport six individuals to just above 100km in altitude. It reached this mark during Monday's test, ascending to 329,839ft (100.5km).  Its propulsion unit is designed to take off and land vertically so that it can be used time and time again.  Following the test flight, that unit touched dow...
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Armstrong risked life in a variety of experimental vehicles before he became an astronaut

In the center of a large, bright hangar at California's Edwards Air Force Base was a large cross made of two iron girders balanced on a universal truck joint.  Six thrusters on the ends of the cross's limbs shot spurts of compressed nitrogen every time Neil Armstrong, sitting in a makeshift cockpit on the cross's forward end, moved the control stick in his left hand.  It might not have looked it in 1956, but this barebones simulator was the future Moonwalker's first step into space.  Armstrong's love affair with aviation began when he was six years old and skipped Sunday school to take an airplane ride with his father.  Inspired, Armstrong devoured books and magazines about flying, built model airplanes, and eventually earned his private pilot's license at 16 before he even learned to drive. In 1947, he began his formal training, enrolling at Purdue  University, Indiana, in a four year engineering programmer in exchange for...
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