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Franz Haider

American - (VG)

Occasional Spaceflight


For Austrian entrepreneur and world traveler Franz Haider, the dream of becoming an astronaut started at the tender age of 7, when he saw the Apollo 11 Moon landing. His mother cautioned him, however, that his home country had no space program. But his desire only grew stronger and, at the age of 27 while on a trip to New Zealand, he had an epiphany: “We had reached the farthest point from our homeland, and I was thinking with a friend about how to top that. There was only one thing we could think of: A trip to space or to the Moon.” After waiting 16 years for his spaceflight, Franz says traveling on ‘Galactic 06’ was his grandest adventure yet. “I have always been fascinated by all that our beautiful planet has to offer, and seeing it from space has been profoundly life changing.” His spacesuit displays the Austria and USA flags. On his flight, Franz carried a photo of his 3-year-old son.

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.


New Shepard
Success
2 days, 13 hours ago
NS-33
West Texas Suborbital Launch Site/ Corn Ranch - Corn Ranch, Van Horn, TX, USA

NS-33 is the 13th crewed flight for the New Shepard program and the 33rd in its history.


Falcon 9
Success
3 days, 11 hours ago
Starlink Group 15-7
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 26 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


H-IIA
Success
3 days, 12 hours ago
GOSAT-GW (Ibuki GW)
Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-1 - Tanegashima Space Center, Japan

GOSAT-GW (Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite Greenhouse gases and Water cycle), also known as Ibuki GW and formerly known as GOSAT 3, is JAXA's nex…


Electron
Success
3 days, 21 hours ago
Symphony In The Stars
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

'Symphony In The Stars' is the first of two dedicated missions on Electron to deploy a single spacecraft to a 650km circular Earth orbit for a confid…


Falcon 9
Success
4 days ago
Starlink Group 10-34
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

A batch of 27 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.