And here’s the megafeed of everything I’ve been doing.
A perfect Florida sky, the blending of past and future hardware with the weathered Fixed Service Structure and SpaceX’s brand-new transporter-erector, the sleek-as-ever Falcon 9 complete with landing legs…the absolute beauty of this photo is endless.
Our old friend u/Death_Cog_unit posted some photos over on r/spacex of the ITS composite tank back in port after its most recent test outing. This time, it came back in pieces.
Exactly the kinds of projects NASA should be putting attention towards. Help push the development of new and improved technologies that are critical to the missions we—collectively—are on the verge of undertaking. These are also the kinds of projects that show the value in having a testbed like the ISS active and nearby.
Representative Jim Bridenstine posted the full video of his talk at the Commercial Space Transportation Conference, and it’s absolutely worth your time to give it a listen. He speaks passionately and intelligently about spaceflight, exploration, technology, and policy, and shows a true understanding of the issues at hand. You don’t often see a member of Congress speak about these topics with such confidence and fire.
This week, NASA officially announced that NanoRacks will be adding an airlock onto the International Space Station to add capabilities and capacity to their already-up-and-running business. That announcement, along with some early insight into NASA policy in 2017, got me thinking about commercial opportunities within government programs, beyond Commercial Cargo and Crew.
A Falcon Heavy side booster was seen outside SpaceX HQ wrapped and ready to hit the road. On the ITS front, the composite tank was seen on the move in Anacortes, WA.
It took a while for this to be announced officially. I talked with Mike Johnson, Chief Designer at NanoRacks, back in September about the airlock project (among a lot of other very interesting topics) and he said on the podcast that they were all set on the NASA side and were about to start finding a launch slot.
Marcia Smith of SpacePolicyOnline.com saw a draft of the 2017 NASA Transition Authorization Act, and it contains some very interesting changes from the 2016 version that bounced around Congress last year. I discuss what some of these changes may mean in the light of Commercial Crew delays, NASA RFIs regarding SLS and Orion, and continued Russian reliability issues.
Thanks to my patrons for the month of January. If you’re getting some value out of what I do here and want to send a little value back to help support Main Engine Cut Off, head over to Patreon and donate as little as $1 a month—every little bit helps.
I’m not sure how well their strategy for Prometheus will work out, long-term, but I do admire the cautious-yet-curious attitude towards reusability rather than the fingers-in-ears attitude of Arianespace CEO Stephane Israel.
If you remove the historical link to the success of the Soviets in space, what does Russia have going for itself today? All of the bright spots one could point to are holdovers or descendants from a previous era.
A Florida budget proposal for the 2017-18 fiscal year includes a $17 million investment in Launch Complex 36, which Blue Origin will match.
I previously thought that SLS was more cancellation-prone, but I’m beginning to think Orion holds that title.
Aerojet Rocketdyne announced their plans to produce the AR1 in Huntsville. Though, as of right now, they don’t actually have anything to produce the engines for.
Marcia Smith of SpacePolicyOnline.com saw a draft of the 2017 NASA Transition Authorization Act, and it contains three very interesting changes.
CRS-10 has been set as the first SpaceX launch from 39A, with pad renovations taking longer than expected. EchoStar 23 will be launched after CRS-10.
SpaceX added over 40,000 square feet of space in Redmond, Washington, where their satellite internet operation is based.
I’m very excited to see how this next test goes. The first flight ended with a failed gear deployment and Dream Chaser tumbling down the runway. The funny thing is that this test is part of the original Commercial Crew agreement—windshields and all—though the results will support the Commercial Cargo variant of Dream Chaser.
Four members of the House of Representatives sent letters to DARPA and the Pentagon this week to file a complaint about a program in conflict with the 2010 National Space Policy. It’s a situation reminiscent of the debate over commercial use of retired ICBMs as low-cost launch vehicles, except this time, Orbital ATK is on the other side. I discuss the current issues and how their resolution may affect future policy decisions.
Orbital ATK fights for government subsidies when it comes to commercial usage of retired ICBMs, but against them when it comes to satellite servicing.