Comments on: Air Force sends letter of concern about Vulcan to ULA

By: pzatchok

pzatchok — Wed, 15 May 2024 19:00:45 +0000

Another drone ship in each ocean would be best. They can at least be used as back ups and kept in port until then.
But Space X’s launch cadence is limited by the slowest portion of it. Its best they do not let that become the drone ships.

By: MDN

MDN — Wed, 15 May 2024 07:10:00 +0000

Looks like there is a reason SpaceX has commissioned another drone ship. I expect the government hasn’t just been talking to ULA and Blue Origin, and have already started to slate a number of their priority missions over to SpaceX and the details of this will be announced later this year. Just a guess, but it’s what I’d be doing if I were in charge.

By: James Street

James Street — Wed, 15 May 2024 06:04:32 +0000

The genius of SpaceX is shown again for not just building rockets, rocket engines and Starlink satellites, but building rocket, rocket engine and Starlink satellite manufacturing systems. I wonder how they kept that objective from constantly being diluted.

I’m reminded of this system design flow cartoon:
https://thenamiracleoccurs.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/miracle2.jpg

By: Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright — Wed, 15 May 2024 04:49:52 +0000

Dwayne Day had a fine article (Burning Thunder) about Dynetics SRB replacement called Pyrios.

Pyrios was to use two simplified Saturn V type F-1 engines and simple, rugged J-2 equipped upper stages (named Jarvis long before BO co-opted that name for NG’s upper stage).

The whole idea of having two EELVs from two companies was what USAF wanted before ULA formed.

Pyrios needs be restarted with Dynetics in the driver’s seat and ULA and Bruno shown the door.

By: Jay

Jay — Tue, 14 May 2024 22:46:09 +0000

Tom D,
Good question. I have not seen many performance numbers about the BE-4 published. The Raptor numbers are out there and the thrust values are close to the BE-4, but that’s about it. It would take same re-engineering of the Vulcan to take the Raptors. Of the payload mass to orbit numbers published, the Vulcan is in between a Falcon-9 and Falcon-Heavy in capability, but it uses SRBs as well.
Of course the Falcon-9/Heavy first stages use the Merlin engines which use kerosene/LOX, while the Raptor and BE-4 engines use methane/LOX

SpaceX could certainly deliver the engines in the quantity that they need. The y have demonstrated their manufacturing capabilities.

By: mkent

mkent — Tue, 14 May 2024 18:53:05 +0000

I’m curious as to which national security payloads are stuck on the ground awaiting launch. As far as I can tell, it’s only USSF-106.

USSF-106 is a relatively low-value technology demonstration mission that the Space Force wants to use as a pathfinder for a new launch vehicle. They did much the same thing for their first one or two Falcon 9 launches. So even if another launch vehicle were available, they’d still wait for Vulcan.

There is, of course, GPS 3-7. The GPS constellation is currently as full as it can get. There are 24 operational satellites on orbit along with eight on-orbit spares. That’s as many on-orbit spares that there can be. In order to launch another one they’d have to disable one of the current spares. GPS III satellites can be launched by SpaceX should the need arise, but the eight on-orbit spares would probably last 5-10 years, so I highly doubt that will be necessary.

We’re actually in a good spot as a country. As far as is known from public information, all of our constellations, military and civil, are at full strength.

By: Tom D

Tom D — Tue, 14 May 2024 18:11:12 +0000

I wonder if SpaceX would sell their Raptor motors to ULA as a replacement for Blue Origin?

By: Ray Van Dune

Ray Van Dune — Tue, 14 May 2024 17:59:37 +0000

The military should also have their USAF and USSF Secretaries have a chat with Joe Biden, and ask him to quit screwing around with SpaceX and let them do the launches required to develop the our next generation of boosters!

But of course throwing our military (and Israel) under the bus is necessary for Joe to hang onto the Young Terrorist vote!