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Neil Kornswiet

American - (VG)

Occasional Spaceflight


Since Neil Kornswiet was a young boy in Ohio, he’s been fascinated with all things space and space travel. He watched the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo launches on his family’s tiny black-and-white TV; he devoured every space-related book he could get his hands on, as well as science fiction by Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, and others; and he was a huge fan of the 1960s TV show Lost in Space. But it was the opportunity to do legislative research for U.S. Senator John Glenn – the former Mercury astronaut –that cemented his lifelong passion for space. During their friendship, the Senator encouraged Neil to try flying airplanes and predicted that space tourism would occur during Neil’s lifetime. Now, after flying aboard ‘Galactic 06,’ space travel has forever changed the way Neil looks at the universe and his place in it, just as Glenn told him it would. Among other things, Neil is a commercial pilot with thousands of flight hours and flies his own Gulfstream G550 jet. His spacesuit displays a USA flag patch as well as a patch honoring John Glenn.

SpaceShipTwo | Galactic 06

Virgin Galactic | United States of America
Air launch to Suborbital flight
Jan. 26, 2024, 5:42 p.m.
Status: Success
Mission:

Sixth commercial Virgin Galactic mission.

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.


Falcon 9
Success
18 hours, 27 minutes ago
Starlink Group 6-76
Launch Complex 39A - Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

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


Zhuque-2E
Success
21 hours, 9 minutes ago
Guangchuan-01 & 02
Launch Area 96 - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

2 satellites for testing and demonstrating LEO communication satellite constellation technologies. First flight of the enhanced Zhuque-2.


Falcon 9
Success
2 days, 13 hours ago
Starlink Group 12-1
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

A batch of 23 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Electron
Success
2 days, 19 hours ago
Ice AIS Baby (Kinéis 11-15)
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Third batch of five satellites for the French Kinéis IoT constellation designed to operate with 25 nanosatellites of 30 kg each.


Long March 2
Success
2 days, 23 hours ago
SuperView Neo 2-03 & 04
Launch Area 4 (SLS-2 / 603) - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Commercial Synthetic-aperture radar Earth observation satellites built by CAST for China Siwei Survey and Mapping Technology Co. Ltd.