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Michael Alsbury

American - (VG)

Lost In Flight

Date of Birth: March 19, 1975
Date of Death: Oct. 31, 2014


Michael Tyner Alsbury was an American test pilot for Scaled Composites. On October 31, 2014, Alsbury was test flying the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo, VSS Enterprise with Peter Siebold. The craft broke up in-flight, resulting in a total loss of VSS Enterprise, which crashed in the California Mojave Desert.

SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF01

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
Oct. 10, 2010, noon
Status: Success
Mission:

Free glide test flight of VSS Enterprise.

Suborbital
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SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF02

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
Oct. 28, 2010, noon
Status: Success
Mission:

Free glide test flight of VSS Enterprise.

Suborbital
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SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF06

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
April 27, 2011, noon
Status: Success
Mission:

Free glide test flight of VSS Enterprise.

Suborbital
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SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF17

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
June 26, 2012, noon
Status: Success
Mission:

Free glide test flight of VSS Enterprise.

Suborbital
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SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise GF23

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
Dec. 19, 2012, noon
Status: Success
Mission:

Free glide test flight of VSS Enterprise.

Suborbital
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SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise CF01

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
April 12, 2013, noon
Status: Success
Mission:

Cold flow test flight of VSS Enterprise.

Suborbital
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SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise PF01

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
April 29, 2013, noon
Status: Success
Mission:

Powered test flight of VSS Enterprise.

Suborbital
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SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise CF02

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
Aug. 28, 2014, noon
Status: Success
Mission:

Cold flow test flight of VSS Enterprise.

Suborbital
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SpaceShipTwo | VSS Enterprise PF04

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
Oct. 31, 2014, noon
Status: Failure
Mission:

Powered test flight of VSS Enterprise. Unintended feathering destroyed the vehicle in-flight, killed one pilot and injured the other.

Suborbital
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Founder: Richard Branson

Virgin Galactic is an American spaceflight company within the Virgin Group. It is developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists. Virgin Galactic's suborbital spacecraft are air launched from beneath a carrier airplane known as White Knight Two.


Long March 2C/YZ-1S
Success
2 days, 5 hours ago
SatNet test satellites
Launch Area 4 (SLS-2 / 603) - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Officially described as "Satellite-Internet Technology Demonstration Satellite(s)". Probably test satellites for the Chinese state-owned LEO commu…


Falcon 9
Success
3 days, 8 hours ago
Cygnus CRS-2 NG-23 (S.S. William “Willie” C. McCool)
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

This is the 23rd flight of the Northrop Grumman's uncrewed resupply spacecraft Cygnus and its 22nd flight to the International Space Station under th…


Falcon 9
Success
4 days, 12 hours ago
Starlink Group 17-10
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat
Success
5 days, 4 hours ago
Glonass-K1 No. 18 (Kosmos 2595) & Kosmos 2596
43/3 (43L) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Glonass-K1 are the third generation of satellite design for GLONASS satellite navigation system. GLONASS is a Russian space-based navigation system c…


Falcon 9
Success
6 days, 4 hours ago
Nusantara Lima
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

Nusantara Lima is an Indonesian geostationary communications satellite with a capacity of more than 160 Gbps.