And here’s the megafeed of everything I’ve been doing.
If you haven’t gotten a chance yet to listen to Jake’s conversations with the crew members of HI-SEAS IV, I highly recommend checking it out. They’ve got incredibly interesting insights into the human side of long-duration missions.
My baseline expectation is a scaled-up Dragon 2. But maybe that’s not the best layout for a much larger spacecraft like we’ll see next Tuesday. There might be a way to design the spacecraft that would lead to a better layout, better functionality for payload, and better performance for atmospheric entry.
Looks like SpaceX has some plans of its own for streaming their announcement at IAC.
If the endgame here is to be used as the engines for the SLS advanced boosters, I would not be surprised in the slightest.
SpaceX is set to make an announcement next week at the IAC 2016 regarding their Mars colonization architecture. I talk about what we know, what I expect to see, and what I hope is included in their plans.
Throughout the troubled history of NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission, I’ve been miffed at the off-and-on relationship it has had with planetary defense.
We’re getting ever closer to a Rocket Lab launch. Keep your eyes peeled.
Tiangong-2 is set to launch today. It’s an important mission for the Chinese space program, so keep your eye on it.
Blue Origin surprised us all by previewing their massive next rocket, New Glenn. I discuss the few details we know, how New Glenn could fit into the market, what questions need to be answered, and many other things to consider in the wake of the announcement. I also touch on some plans I’ve got to cover SpaceX’s upcoming Mars announcement in tandem with Jake from WeMartians.
There are some great details about Blue Origin’s future launch site—and some details about their stage recovery mechanisms—in the permit application for LC-11 and -36 work. The good details are hidden in the Drainage Analysis Technical Memorandum.
This is one way to spin a manifest with less demand (from government) than previous years. Nonetheless, it’s a good way to reach out to the commercial side of the market and let them know that ULA can support them, as well.
I’m not going to talk about Amos-6 specifically (or any fallout thereof) until the cause has been found and announced, but I do want to talk about the things that are said about SpaceX after an event like this.
In light of today’s announcement by Blue Origin, I’ve been thinking about their vehicle naming.
Today, Jeff Bezos gave us a nice preview of their next launch vehicle: New Glenn.
By the sounds of it, Blue Origin is late on something, and it may be pushing their engine test back a bit. I imagine that Aerojet Rocketdyne and the Congress members that are to thank for the AR1 are a little bit excited.
Absolutely fascinating read about the work done by the 45th last week in response to the Amos-6 incident.
With each tweet from Elon Musk, it seems less and less likely to me that the Amos-6 incident was triggered from within the Falcon 9. If it’s discovered that there was an issue with the TE, now would be the best time to discover that.
If you need something good to watch this weekend, I suggest an Atlas-themed weekend, in honor of the launch of OSIRIS-REx, and ULA’s 111th straight successful launch.
A full transcript of Jeff Bezos’ email is at the link above, and they posted a nice animation of the flight on YouTube. They’ll be live-streaming the test in the “first part of October.”
They’re around $30 million under budget. It’s great to see a New Frontiers mission come in that far under budget.