And here’s the megafeed of everything I’ve been doing.
Scheduling the launch for the last slot in the initial window without a comment doesn’t express a lot of confidence. Rollout is scheduled for Tuesday (October 11), at which point the storm should be well out of the way.
Alejandro G. Belluscio of NASASpaceFlight wrote a fantastic piece on Raptor with quite a few interesting tidbits.
Last week on the podcast, Jake from WeMartians joined me for a discussion of our initial reactions to SpaceX’s Mars architecture. Today, I’m on his podcast with a bit of a deeper dive.
Sierra Nevada is finding every way it can to make Dream Chaser a reality. Their sticktoitiveness makes you believe we’ll see the crewed version launch at some point in the next decade.
Jonathan Goff wrote a nice blog post that’s really worth reading. He goes in-depth on what he likes, what he doesn’t like, what he’d do differently, and discusses his thoughts on the economics of the plan.
Elon Musk took the stage at the IAC this week and unveiled SpaceX’s architecture for their planetary exploration and colonization plans. Jake from WeMartians and I discuss our initial reactions to and takeaways from the event.
Rocket Lab announced that Launch Complex 1 is completed and ready for launches. We should see that first test flight on the schedule soon enough.
Orbital ATK posted a video over on YouTube showing their ideas for placing Cygnus-derived habitats in lunar orbit, and using them as the base for SLS-Orion missions throughout the 2020s. It also hints at the station staying there beyond the initial missions and supporting European (or other international) missions to the lunar surface.
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.