Free Astronomy Magazine January-February 2015

11 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2015 ASTRONAUTICS S pace travel is the one activity that par excellence sees mankind pushing itself and the technology that it uses to the limit. The risks involved are higher the more innovative the project undertaken is, and it is virtually inevitable to run into unex- pected events that can cost dearly. We had a demonstration of this at the end of Octo- ber when, within a matter of days, there were two major accidents, which dealt a heavy blow to the private astronautics in- dustry that for more than a decade has been painstakingly trying to move into the spaces freed by NASA's retiring shuttles. The first accident took place on 28 October at the Wallops Island launch base in Virgin- ia, and had as its protagonist an Antares rocket owned by Orbital Science Corpora- T he Virgin Ga- lactic space- plane pictured hurtling towards the upper atmo- sphere, during a test flight.