We’re one step closer to taking vacations in space, it seems, after Virgin Galactic showed off its latest launch vehicle Tuesday at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual AirVenture event in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Named WhiteKnightTwo but nicknamed Eve, the plane resembles the hull of a catamaran, with the space between its booms intended to carry the still-in-development SpaceShipTwo, and its paying customers, into space as early as 2011. (Presumably...

Ever wonder what it’s like to be a real astronaut? What would it be like to feel the g-forces of spaceflight? How do you perform everyday tasks out in space? Well, here’s your chance to find out. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of man’s first steps on the Moon, Astronomy magazine is teaming up with Borders and the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex to bring astronomy enthusiasts the “Train Like an Astronaut” Sweepstakes. Now through July 27, you...

It’s been a busy couple of months for Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson’s space tourism venture. WhiteKnightTwo — the mothership that will launch Virgin Galactic’s tourist spaceship, SpaceShipTwo — made its maiden flight from California’s Mojave Air and Space Port December 21. On December 17, 2003, the jet-powered WhiteKnightOne lifted SpaceShipOne to 50,000 feet, where it then rocketed into suborbital space. SpaceShipOne received the Ansari X...

It’s easy to love magazines when you work at a magazine publishing company, and I LOVE magazines. A few subscriptions here at the office, and a few at home, keep my nose in some publication during most of my free time — which is significantly less now as I spend most of my time at home chasing my now-walking daughter around. Sometimes the issues pile up, and it takes me a while to get to them. Hence, why I’m about to direct you to an article in Wired...

Once upon a time, barnstorming over the countryside in a biplane was sufficiently thrilling and expensive for the idle rich. Then, the only thing that would do was taking a steamer to Africa to blast away at lions for the season. Then there was (and remains) the curious habit of paying a small fortune for the privilege of expiring on Mt. Everest from hypothermia, oxygen deprivation, or stumbling into a crevasse. Much later, attempting to circumnavigate...