Aviation Week looks at the launch challenges facing SpaceX over the next two years.
Aviation Week looks at the launch challenges facing SpaceX over the next two years.
Though it is very clear SpaceX has a tough schedule of launches coming up, with much of the future of American aerospace riding on their success, this article is strangely hostile to the company. There is no doubt the company has fallen behind schedule, but the list of customers who have been willing to commit to the company is quite impressive, especially considering that SpaceX literally didn’t exist six years ago.
I’ll make several predictions:
- SpaceX will experience further launch delays.
- SpaceX will even have one launch failure in the next two years.
- SpaceX will nonetheless succeed, because its successes will far exceed the failures, and they are clearly offering a better product for less money.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Aviation Week looks at the launch challenges facing SpaceX over the next two years.
Though it is very clear SpaceX has a tough schedule of launches coming up, with much of the future of American aerospace riding on their success, this article is strangely hostile to the company. There is no doubt the company has fallen behind schedule, but the list of customers who have been willing to commit to the company is quite impressive, especially considering that SpaceX literally didn’t exist six years ago.
I’ll make several predictions:
- SpaceX will experience further launch delays.
- SpaceX will even have one launch failure in the next two years.
- SpaceX will nonetheless succeed, because its successes will far exceed the failures, and they are clearly offering a better product for less money.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
>…because its successes will far exceed the failures, and they are clearly offering a
> better product for less money.
The first would be a change for them you shouldn’t expect — so’s the secound really. They are drifting into being a high cost, high risk provider -with a very high failure rate across the board.
There is no guarantee that they are going to build a better product. I personally predict that when NASA’s manned spaceflight requirements become applicable to them, the SpaceEx product will suddenly be deemed far inferior to that of either Boeing or Lockheed.
Interesting article. Thanks for the link.
I guess one person’s “strangely hostile” is another person’s honest reporting.
While they are not cheerleading (which seems to be the default Internet position) for Space X, they merely reported on the facts of the situation.
>.. they are not cheerleading (which seems to be the default Internet position) for Space X …
Sadly true (and as well for CBS on a article about Musk this evening). Its all reminding me of folks before the dot com bubble days – unreasoning enthusiasm, regardless of the facts.
I’m not sure if its the Heinleinian romance of the idea, or desperation.
Well let’s see how they do with the scheduled April launch to supply the ISS – if that comes off well, it could allay a lot of the fears. I for one hope they succeed…
Its going to take a lot more then a luck launch to quell fears, much less compensate for their track record so far. They have become the poster child in congress on why COTS and CCDev – and by extension any commercialized launch -is a stupid and dangerous idea.
I think it worth a caveat to point out that the poster-child status doesn’t reflect the eventual reality that spaceflight can’t always be governmental in scope. But the Congress certainly feels that way when SpaceEx just keeps missing milestones and making mistakes under the aegis of a government contract.
Well, everyone should keep in mind that NASA has missed multiple deadlines over the years – there was an article not long ago that detailed how we could’ve had Alan Shepard in space before the Russians sent Gagarin, but delays related to safety concerns caused us to “lose” the race, though, of course, we ultimately “won” it with Apollo. And remember the disastrous Apollo 1 fire that killed Grissom & 2 other astronauts & delayed Apollo almost 2 years. Not excusing any delays or mistakes by SpaceX, but let’s face it, it’s a dangerous business, sometimes not everything goes as planned & safety of the human crew must be the #1 priority, even if it leads to delays. I think Congress understands that as well – it’s not like delays in manned spacelflight would be anything they hadn’t seen before. I think we’ll have a little better handle on things after this next COTS demo flight, whichever way it goes (hopefully successful)…