It appears that the next attempt to launch Falcon 9/Dragon is now set for Wednesday.
The Falcon 9/Dragon test launch is likely delayed to at least Thursday. Key quote:
During reviews of vehicle closeout photos this morning, engineers found a possible crack in the second stage engine nozzle. If the nozzle needs to be replaced, the first launch opportunity would be Friday or Saturday. Officials called “remote” a possibility that the problem could be resolved in time to fly Wednesday.
It appears that yesterday SpaceShipTwo flew another successful test flight.
Sierra Nevada, one of the new aerospace companies competing for NASA’s commercial crew money, appears to be the frontrunner to use the two X-34 suborbital rockets recently taken out of storage.
The space war continues to heat up again. In a hearing today in the Senate, several senators complained loudly that NASA isn’t implementing the details of the September authorization act.
What clowns. These same senators haven’t provided NASA (or anyone) with a budget. They have also given NASA an authorization bill that does not provide the agency with enough money while simultaneously demanding that things be done faster. And they’ve done this at a time the federal government is almost bankrupt. Moreover, the bill requires that NASA build things that the Obama administration doesn’t want to build (though in truth, the Obama administration itself is so confused that no one, including them, knows what they are going to do).
All in all, the whole thing is a mess.
As I’ve said earlier, it’s all pork. Even if NASA gets the money laid out in the authorization bill, it will accomplish nothing except spread some cash around to several congressional districts. Nothing will get built. And in the process of sending that money to new aerospace companies NASA will do much to squelch their creativity and innovation.
Better to cut it all, and let the aerospace industry sink or swim on its own. It will almost certainly do better that the government at this point. In fact, how could it do worse?
Is this finally going to happen? Richard Branson says Virgin Galactic could be flying tourists within a year.
It’s now official: the second test launch of the Falcon 9, with the Dragon capsule, is set for December 7, with a static test firing of the rocket’s engines on December 3.
Then again, this is taking land ownership a bit too far: Spanish woman claims ownership of the Sun.
Better late than never: The FAA today issued a license to SpaceX, allowing it to bring its Dragon capsule back to Earth after launch.
The new space race: Virgin Galactic and KLM Airlines.
Hooray for private space! Future tests of SpaceShipTwo will be even more challenging.
A deal with the devil: Former shuttle manager decries NASA’s commercial crew safety regulations. Key quote:
The U.S. government did not always rely on voluminous specifications to safeguard pilots or astronauts, Hale said, citing requirements for the first U.S. military aircraft which covered only 2.5 pages and those of NASA’s Gemini capsule which were about 12 pages long.
Hooray for private space! SpaceShipTwo successfully completed its third glide flight yesterday.
This post by retired NASA engineer Wayne Hale explains why it probably is a good idea if Congress cuts the subsidies for new commercial space: The coming train wreck for commercial human spaceflight. This is the key quote, where Hale describes the regulations NASA is requiring these new companies to meet:
The document runs a mind-numbing 260 pages of densely spaced requirements. Most disappointing, on pages 7 to 11 is a table of 74 additional requirements documents which must be followed, in whole or in part. Taken all together, there are thousands of requirement statements referenced in this document. And for every one NASA will require a potential commercial space flight provider to document, prove, and verify with massive amounts of paperwork and/or electronic forms.
The cold war is back! Companies in the U.S. and Russia are in a race to build the first private space stations.
Orbital Sciences today successfully completed the first test of the first stage engine for its Taurus II rocket, the rocket the company plans to use in sending cargo to ISS.
The commercial suborbital industry responds to the recent science paper that said that the soot from their rocket engines might cause to global warming.
Yesterday SpaceShipTwo completed its second successful free flight (via Clark Lindsey at www.rlvnews.com). The results:
Flew to more aggressive stall indication. Evaluated handling and stability through several maneuvers. Expanded envelope to 230 KTAS and 3g’s. Roll evaluation. Full stop landing.
Our government at work! The FAA has given SpaceX a license to launch the Dragon capsule, scheduled for a November 18 launch on the Falcon 9 rocket, but not yet given them a license to land.
The rocket launch company Sea Launch has exited bankruptcy under Russian ownership.
Is this a great country or what? The company that is performing the zero gravity beer test on November 19 is selling advertising space on the astronaut’s flight suit to anyone with a few thousand dollars cash.
Bigelow is expanding its factory, and here’s a gallery of images showing the work’s progress.
More government idiocy: Tax official threatens to shut down kids‘ pumpkin stand for lacking “a proper permit.”
The 123,000 MPH plasma/nuclear engine and the astronaut who is building it.
Two companies who are offering suborbital tourism space flights have indicated that the price per ticket could drop by 2011.
The commercial half of NASA’s future manned program is moving foward. The agency today began soliciting bids for “launchers and spacecraft that would transport astronauts to and from low Earth orbit destinations on a commercial basis.” Contract awards are expected by March 2011.
The private race to the Moon, led by the Google Lunar X Prize. Key quote:
The Google Lunar X PRIZE offers a total of $30 million in prize money to the first privately funded teams to land robots on the Moon that explore the lunar surface by moving at least 500 meters and by sending back two packages of high definition video and photos we call Mooncasts. Unlike our first competition, the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE, the Google Lunar X PRIZE isn’t a ‘winner take all’ proposition: instead, we have a $20 million Grand Prize, a Second Place Prize that will award $5 million to the second team to meet all of the requirements, a series of technical bonus missions that can allow teams to earn as much as an additional $4 million, and a $1 million award that will go to teams that make the greatest contribution to stimulating diversity in space exploration and, more generally, in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
The competition operates on a “payment on delivery” model: the prize money is only given to teams after they complete a successful mission, meaning that each team needs to raise all the capital needed to design, develop and conduct their missions on their own. We’re now three years into a fairly long effort: the prize is available until all of the prize purses are claimed or until the end of the year 2015. Last week, we accepted our 24th team into the competition.
SpaceX is now targeting November 18 for the second test flight of its Falcon 9 rocket, which will also be the first test flight of its Dragon capsule.
Richard Branson, President of Virgin Galactic, says that his company plans to compete in the upcoming race to develop orbital space vehicles.
