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<p>Virgin Galactic, founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, and Blue Origin, by Amazon creator Jeff Bezos, are racing to be the first to finish their tests -- with both companies using radically different technology.</p>
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<p><span style="font-size:18pt"><strong>- Moments of weightlessness -</strong></span></p>
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<p>Neither Virgin nor Blue Origin's passengers will find themselves orbiting the Earth: instead, their weightless experience will last just minutes. It's an offering far different from the first space tourists, who paid tens of millions of dollars to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) in the 2000s.</p>
<p>Having paid for a much cheaper ticket -- costing $250,000 with Virgin, as yet unknown with Blue Origin -- the new round of space tourists will be propelled dozens of miles into the atmosphere, before coming back down to Earth. By comparison, the ISS is in orbit 250 miles (400 kilometers) from our planet.</p>
<p>The goal is to approach or pass through the imaginary line marking where space begins -- either the Karman line, at 100 kilometers or 62 miles, or the 50-mile boundary recognized by the US Air Force. </p>
<p>At this altitude, the sky looks dark and the curvature of the earth can be seen clearly.</p>
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<p><span style="font-size:18pt"><strong>- Virgin Galactic -</strong></span></p>
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<p>With Virgin Galactic, six passengers and two pilots are boarded onto SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity, which resembles a private jet.</p>
<p>The VSS Unity will be attached to a carrier spacecraft -- the WhiteKnightTwo -- from which it will then detach at around 49,000 feet (15,000 meters.) Once released, the spaceship will fire up its rocket, and head for the sky.</p>
<p>Then, the passengers will float in zero-gravity for several minutes, before coming back to Earth.</p>
<p>The descent is slowed down by a "feathering" system that sees the spacecraft's tail pivot, as if arching, before returning to normal and gliding to land at Virgin's "spaceport" in the New Mexico desert.</p>
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Cummins Acquires Electric Powertrain Supplier Efficient Drivetrains
There are no details on the deal, as the closing of the acquisition is expected during the third quarter.
Silicon Valley-based EDI was most known for providing powertrains for all-electric and plug-in hybrid buses and trucks and that's what Cummins would like to do in the future.
Earlier Cummins acquired also UK-based Johnson Matthey Battery Systems and North America-based Brammo.
"Cummins began developing its electrification capabilities more than a decade ago. During the past nine months, it accelerated investment in this business when it undertook strategic efforts to build capabilities across the entire range of electric storage, as evidenced by the acquisitions of UK-based Johnson Matthey Battery Systems and North America-based Brammo. Upon the addition of its fully-electric and unique four-mode hybrid powertrains, EDI will broaden Cummins' electrification expertise and products. EDI's hybrid system is the most versatile on the market today, able to switch, in real time, between fully electric, series and parallel modes."