SCALE MODEL NEWS

SMN REPORT: News that the US company SpaceX successfully launched its Dragon space capsule, which is now on course for a test rendezvous with the ISS International Space Station makes us smile. And of course, it opens the door to the model-making wish-list. Elon Musk of SpaceX with the Falcon 9 launcher that carried Dragon to orbit. BIG, BIGGER, BIGGEST We’re waiting for an injection kit of the Dragon capsule, or even a ready-built will do. Both preferably in two scales: 1:72 and 1:48. The smaller scale can include the Falcon 9 booster, the bigger one with detailed inside features - in both cargo and future crewed versions please, complete with a lineup of seven scale astronauts, in seated positions and a standing set too. There's more - let's be honest and say we’d also like to see a superdetail 1:24 cutaway kit. Come on, Revell - or more logically kit-maker Dragon, as the real thing’s your namesake. QUESTION OF SIZE Wish list over, we think these scale comparisons are absolu...

Mat Irvine weekend read: In 2012 a new addition will join the famed USS Intrepid Museum Complex at Pier 86, New York City. The new display star will be the ALT (Approach and Landing Tests) Space Shuttle Orbiter Enterprise , ( above ) due to fly from Washington DC to JFK International Airport on the back of NASA’s Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Summer move for the Shuttle In summer 2012, Enterprise will be floated by barge along the Hudson River, then hoisted onto the flight deck of the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier ( above ), for public view under a protective cover. It’ll become a definite ‘must-visit’ target for aerospace fans. Models show the ship as she was in World War II (above), and after the angled flight deck was fitted (below). About the USS Intrepid The USS Intrepid aircraft carrier was commissioned in 1943, then served in the Pacific Theatre, earning the dubious distinction of taking the most enemy hits in combat. In the 1950s the ship was upgraded with an angled ...

SMN report: Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic seems to be on track to become the world's first commercial spaceline, with a passenger-carrying spaceship, the VSS Enterprise , carried by a twin-fuselage mothership, VMS Eve . Both vehicles were developed by California-based Scaled Composites, headed by the veteran designer Burt Rutan. Eventually there will be two motherships and five spaceships in the Virgin Galactic space fleet. Spaceport America And now that Spaceport America, Mojave, California, has been opened, the craft have an operating base. It’s the world’s first private spaceport, with a suitably futuristic terminal ( above ) designed by the internationally famous Foster + Partners.  Voyage to the edge of space Actually, the word ‘spaceship’ is a slight exaggeration, for the Mach 3 craft are not designed to go into orbit, like the winged Space Shuttle Orbiters. Instead they will go just above the 100 km  (61 miles) mark, a somewhat arbitrary height called the Karman...