SSL to Supply Robotic Arms for DARPA Satellite Servicing
Robotic satellite servicing is going to be a very interesting (and huge) segment of the industry to watch.
And here’s the megafeed of everything I’ve been doing.
Robotic satellite servicing is going to be a very interesting (and huge) segment of the industry to watch.
Elon forgot to add “Build a rover for the Mars colony” to this list. After all, Bioweapon Defense Mode sounds like a pretty good thing to have on a planet filled with air that isn’t yet breathable.
A former resident talks about SpaceX’s plans for—and construction of—their own commercial spaceport near Brownsville, Texas. Pretty interesting to read about the social and economic collision that is happening straight from someone with great perspective on it. The new spaceport will be launching Falcon 9 and Heavy, and presumably the insanely huge Mars rocket—often called the Mars Colonial Transporter—that SpaceX is due to unveil in September.
Hidden in this article about the Mars 2020 budget is a piece about a potential sample return mission that I find particularly interesting.
A good bit of insight into the changes going on over at ULA that I had not heard before. I still have concerns about the roadmap to get Vulcan up and operating, but there are clearly some good strides being taken to get there.
The crowdfunded, nonprofit, amateur (in operation—not in spirit!) space program is preparing to launch the Nexø I rocket this weekend. They’re currently targeting Saturday, July 23rd.
SpaceX had a great night launching the CRS-9 mission, and it’s all good signs for their future. The Senate hearing, as I predicted, was focused on maintaining the status quo. US and Russian engineers and scientists have some ideas on the future of international space policy.
Describing Spaceport America as “fully operational” isn’t untrue, but still somewhat of an overstatement.
Some interesting insight into SSL’s inner-workings, as well as some good follow-up on the discussion Logan and I had about chemical vs. electric satellites.
To me, Mars is where all the interesting discoveries live and our future awaits, but lunar missions are much better suited for a governmental space program—or at least for a governmental space program that is run like NASA has been run for decades.
Fantastic breakdown of the Mars 2020 rover CAD render by Lars Osborne. Touches on some changes from Curiosity, and new experiments and hardware—including the tiny helicopter and the sample return storage system.
A tug-of-war like this between ESA and the EU could have some harmful fallout, especially with tensions already high after the Brexit referendum.
NASA’s Resource Prospector mission is important. We have to learn how to live off the land if we want to go anywhere. The more people working on that problem, the better.
I’ve been harping on three things in particular as the most important aspects of SpaceX’s 2016 work: schedule certainty, flight rate, and reuse. Last night was filled with good signs for SpaceX’s future.
There are a few interesting bits in NASA’s latest release about the Mars 2020 rover—tighter landing ellipses, better site selection, and better imagery during EDL.
More good signs for ESA’s exploration plans. Whatever decisions come out of the ESA’s December meeting should be exciting.
As I said the other day (and ranted about on the podcast this week), this hearing was focused on maintaining the status quo at all costs.
As I’ve been talking about on the podcast lately, China is looking to partner with anyone and everyone, but the US is still stubbornly shutting them out.
Great, encyclopedic rundown of an interesting program by Chris Gebhardt on NASASpaceflight.
Some interesting-looking sessions on the agenda for today over at the ISS R&D conference—specifically with appearances by Tory Bruno of ULA, Frank Culbertson of Orbital ATK, Peter Diamandis of XPRIZE, and more.