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Virgin Galactic Gets Official Clearance to Start Flying Paying Customers to Space

Gizmodo

An upgraded FAA operators license now allows Virgin Galactic to include paying customers on its space flights, in what is a major milestone for the company and also the nascent space tourism sector. Read more.

Tourism 104
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Virgin Galactic spaceplane VSS Unity completes successful flight

The Verge

Saturday’s flight, which also carried research payloads for NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, is the latest step toward Virgin Galactic’s goal of a space tourism program. Saturday’s flight was the 400th commercial space launch licensed by the FAA. Unity is able to carry up to six passengers and two pilots.

Tourism 103
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6 tips for making the most of a tight IT budget

CIO Business Intelligence

For example, CIOs can buy an off-the-shelf system that costs X in license fees today and 20% of X every year as long as they are using it or they could choose to build the system in a manner where instead of X they incur 1.5X “It took some time for me to realize how to make the right tech choices.

Budget 138
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Who’s an astronaut? FAA weighs in on a murky issue for suborbital space travelers

GeekWire

Those guidelines suggest that astronaut wings can go only to crew members on a licensed spacecraft who contribute to flight safety and rise above the 50-mile altitude mark. The answer appears to be no, if you go by the Federal Aviation Administration’s newly issued guidelines for its commercial space astronaut wings program.

Travel 139
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Virgin Galactic downplays rumblings about a suborbital Branson vs. Bezos space race

GeekWire

Messier quoted his source as saying the July 4 plan was contingent upon receiving licensing approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier has said Branson would be on one of the upcoming SpaceShipTwo flights, taking place as early as this summer.

Nonprofit 129
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Blue Origin’s mystery passenger revealed: At age 18, Oliver Daemen will be youngest spaceflier

GeekWire

” He graduated from high school last year, and took a gap year before continuing his studies to obtain his private pilot’s license. Blue Origin said the flight “will fulfill a lifelong dream for Oliver, who has been fascinated by space, the moon and rockets since he was 4.”

Study 119
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‘Mercury 13’ woman aviator Wally Funk will ride with Jeff Bezos on Blue Origin suborbital space trip

GeekWire

“Everything the FAA has, I’ve got the license for,” Funk said in the Instagram video. Funk, the youngest member of the Mercury 13, went on to become the first female flight inspector at the Federal Aviation Administration, and one of the first female air safety investigators at the National Transportation and Safety Board.

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