SES, SpaceX, and the Steady Beat of Progress
James Dean with a great article for Florida Today on SES, SpaceX, and reusability.
The Past and Future of Blue Origin’s Orbital Launch Site
A great piece by Chris Bergin and Noel Munson of NASASpaceFlight on the storied histories of launch complexes 11 and 36, and what Blue Origin plans for their future.
Masten’s Green Bipropellant: MXP-351
Read the whole post over on Masten’s blog. Great to see progress on safer storable propellants and Masten’s lander. There’s also a video from a few months ago of MXP-351 performance testing.
Thornberry Walks Back Vulcan Intervention
Paywalled article, but the viewable introduction says it all.
SpaceX Signs Five-Year Lease at Port Canaveral
We first heard about SpaceX taking over the old SpaceHab buildings back in August, so I guess the building will suit their needs. SpaceX will be building out quite a bit of real estate on the Cape, as documented in their recent LZ-1 expansion plans.
BE-4 Hydrostatic Bearings
Jeff Bezos’ most recent email update on Blue Origin was all about the BE-4 and its hydrostatic bearings. Interestingly, George Sowers, VP of Advanced Concepts & Technologies at ULA, commented on their use of hydrostatic bearings on Twitter.
Optimus Prime
We started seeing some great photos of SpaceX’s new piece of infrastructure on the ASDS: Optimus Prime. Scott Murray also posted some over-exposed-but-lovely shots of Optimus Prime on the ASDS, complete with shots of its garage.
#OccupyKourou
I love me a unique launch delay.
Former Director of Quality Control at Roscosmos Killed in Jail
An unexplained move to a CCTV-less cell: highly suspicious, or highly opportunistic.
Blue Origin Factory “Tour”
More a trespassing/sightseeing adventure than a tour, but interesting nonetheless.