ULA today stated that they have enough Russian engines in stock to complete the 36 launch U.S. military bulk buy.
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ULA today stated that they have enough Russian engines in stock to complete the 36 launch U.S. military bulk buy.
Whether they will actually complete that bulk buy remains unknown.
Please consider donating to Behind the Black, by giving either a one-time contribution or a regular subscription, as outlined in the tip jar to the right or below. Your support will allow me to continue covering science and culture as I have for the past twenty years, independent and free from any outside influence.
ULA today stated that they have enough Russian engines in stock to complete the 36 launch U.S. military bulk buy.
Whether they will actually complete that bulk buy remains unknown.
Hi Bob,
I looked for some link to email you directly, not finding one I decided to comment on this article, since it’s remotely related to my subject. I am a regular listener to John Batchelor, and thoroughly enjoy your commentary.
I wanted to alert you to a space related contest – put on by hackaday.com and is called the Hackaday Prize. Entrants are invited to post projects of a future looking nature, and some metric of popularity and judging is to award one lucky entrant with a Trip To Space. You would know better than me who would be providing this prize, but apparently the winner won’t be riding a Russian engine. (there’s the remotely related part).
I entered the contest, and they also asked that we spread the word around. They had some suggestions, but since I get my Space related news form you via John Batchelor (sometimes C2C) and Hackaday encourages innovation and an open, collaborative approach to development, I thought you might like to discuss the contest.
I’m afraid my project is not a rocket engine that seems to be in demand all of a sudden, but it’s “out there”.
Thanks again for the great commentary !
Eric
Hi Eric.
Is there a link to this contest?
Do we know the breakdown of Atlas vs Delta boosters in that bulk buy? Assume half/half. I recall that several of the buys were for Delta4-Heavy’s which need 3 cores each. So assume 3 Heavys, that is 9 of the 36 cores. Assume the remaining 27 go half/half Delta/Atlas. They are saying they have 13 or 14 engines in stockpile? That seems pretty large to hold, just from a cost of storage perspective.
From the Wikipedia list it looks like the Atlas-V has been launching 4-5 a year. So yeah 3.5 years would come out to that many.
But why would they be expensive to hold?
I should have posted a direct link, sorry.
http://hackaday.io/prize
Interesting indeed. I have posted this on BtB. Thanks for the tip, and good luck!