Want to own and drive a car able to go faster than 265 miles per hour? You can!
I’m both glad and not surprised that some heavy hitters are beginning to say this. As I noted last year, as the commercial space program begins to show success the politics will increasingly favor it over the very expensive and not very productive NASA-built Space Launch System.
Be prepared for SLS to steadily lose political support in the coming years.
The competition heats up: India has successfully tested a homebuilt engine to be used in its more powerful geosynchronous launch rocket, set for launch in July. More here.
Previous launches of the GSLV rocket used a Russian-built engine on a second stage. They also ended in failure, not because of the Russian equipment but because of other problems.
Three astronauts were successfully launched today from Russia and are expected to dock with ISS later tonight.
They are the first crew to use the fast route to ISS, only six hours, rather than the more traditional two day rendezvous path.
The competition heats up: Elon Musk confirms that on future Falcon 9 launches they will do tests of a powered return of the first stage.
For the upcoming flight, after stage separation the first stage booster will do a burn to slow it down and then a second burn just before it reaches the water. In subsequent flights they will continue these over-water tests. He repeatedly emphasized that he expects several failures before they learn how to do it right. If all goes well with the over-water tests, they will fly back to launch site and land propulsively. He expects this could happen by mid-2014.
These tests are an extension of the Grasshopper tests, only this time they will take place during an actual launch.
The competition heats up: A Proton rocket has successfully launched a Mexican communications satellite today.
ILS, the company that launches the commercial Proton rocket, needed this success badly, considering the recent problems they have had with the Proton’s Briz-M upper stage.
The competition heats up: Virgin Galactic reports that the recent tests of the engine for SpaceShipTwo have been a complete success.
It appears that they are getting very close to putting the engine on the spaceship for the first powered flights. Things should get very exciting when they do.
How big will the Stratolaunch first stage aircraft be? Big. Very big.
An expedition financed by Jeff Bezos has recovered two Apollo-era Saturn 5 F-1 engines from the ocean bottom.
The competition heats up: ILS, the company that launches the Russian Proton rocket, has lowered its prices.
The reason they have given is that the insurance rates to use their rocket have risen due to the three Proton rocket failures in the past two years and that they want to offset that cost for their customers. I suspect a second reason is the price pressure that the Falcon 9 is placing on them.
The competition heats up: Orbital Sciences has now set April 16-18 as the launch window for its first test launch of its new Antares rocket.
Sarah Brightman’s visit to ISS in doubt.
Soyuz taxi flights normally visit the International Space Station for a period of about eight days. NASA and Roscosmos are considering extending a 2015 visit to one month, however. If that happens, Brightman would have to give up her seat to a scientific researcher, who would perform some short-term experiments aboard the space station.
Roscosmos manned space flight director Alexei Krasnov had previously indicated that Russia might consider carrying two paying customers on the 2015 taxi flight. So, it would be theoretically possible for Russia to fly Brightman and the researcher. It’s unknown whether Brightman would want to spend that long aboard the space station, however, and pricing policy to longer-duration stays have not been worked out.
The competition heats up: China says it will by 2015 do a re-entry test of the spacecraft it will use to return a lunar sample from the Moon by 2020..
Physicians fight back against Obamacare.
Dr. Ryan Neuhofel, 31, offers a rare glimpse at what it would be like to go to the doctor without massive government interference in health care. Dr. Neuhofel, based in the college town of Lawrence, Kansas, charges for his services according to an online price list that’s as straightforward as a restaurant menu. A drained abscess runs $30, a pap smear, $40, a 30-minute house call, $100. Strep cultures, glucose tolerance tests, and pregnancy tests are on the house. Neuhofel doesn’t accept insurance. He even barters on occasion with cash-strapped locals. One patient pays with fresh eggs and another with homemade cheese and goat’s milk. “Direct primary care,” which is the industry term for Neuhofel’s business model, does away with the bureaucratic hassle of insurance, which translates into much lower prices. “What people don’t realize is that most doctors employ an army of people for coding, billing, and gathering payment,” says Neuhofel. “That means you have to charge $200 to remove an ingrown toenail.” Neuhofel charges $50.
Neuhofel is not alone in this. The article describes other doctors who have done the same. As the bureaucratic mess from Obamacare expands and becomes increasingly impossible for anyone to handle, we are going to see this happen more and more.
The competition heats up: Boeing is considering building a civilian version of the X-37B mini-shuttle.
My heart bleeds: Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) told employees at the Goddard Space Flight Center yesterday that sequester might force some layoffs there.
So, who does Hoyer work for, the employees at Goddard or the taxpayer? He apparently thinks he is the union rep for government employees.
Two stories today highlight not only the budget problems at NASA, but also illustrate the apparent unwillingness of both Congress and Americans to face the terrible budget difficulties of the federal government. In both cases, the focus is instead on trying to fund NASA at levels comparable to 2012, before the Obama administration or sequestration had imposed any budget cuts on the agency.
It is as if we live in a fantasy world, where a $16 trillion dollar debt does not exist, and where money grows on trees and we can spend as much as we want on anything we want.
» Read more
The competition heats up: Grasshopper flies again, but even higher.
SpaceX’s Grasshopper doubled its highest leap to date to rise 24 stories or 80.1 meters (262.8 feet) today, hovering for approximately 34 seconds and landing safely using closed loop thrust vector and throttle control. Grasshopper touched down with its most accurate precision thus far on the centermost part of the launch pad. At touchdown, the thrust to weight ratio of the vehicle was greater than one, proving a key landing algorithm for Falcon 9.
The competition heats up: Scaled Composites has done its first test firing of SpaceShipTwo’s engine.
No word yet on the test result, unfortunately.
The censoring of Google maps, by Google and governments.
This is a complex issue, described in great detail by the article. Very much worth reading.
Dragon has successfully berthed with ISS.
The naysayers will focus on the thruster problems on Friday. The yaysayers will focus on the fix and berthing today. The bottom line, however, is that this mission once again proves that SpaceX is a real player in the space business. Every other company has to match its achievements, most especially in price. The result will be the eventually lowering in the cost to low Earth orbit, which will then make all things possible.
And in fact, we are already seeing this, with the appearance of many new private companies or organizations, proposing all sorts of new space efforts, such as mining asteroids or sending people to Mars. The lower cost allows dreamers to consider their wild new ideas more doable. And they then go ahead and try to do it.
The competition heats up: After reviewing the results from the Antares hot fire on February 22, Orbital Sciences is now planning the first launch of the Antares rocket in April.
SpaceX has been given the go-ahead to have the Dragon capsule rendezvous with ISS on Sunday.
SpaceX has announced that they now have all of Dragon’s thrusters operating and are go for docking with ISS.
They have not announced when the docking will occur, but with the solar panels operating the capsule can function in orbit for a considerable time, giving them breathing room. And time will be necessary as both NASA and the Russians are nervous about letting any spacecraft approach ISS and will want a good number of tests to make sure all is well. The Russians are especially nervous, since they had the unfortunate experience of several collisions when they operated their space station Mir.
Bad news: After successfully reaching orbit, there appears to be a problem with the Dragon capsule.
They have not yet released any information about what happened. The link above says that it appears to be related with the communications link, but NASA and SpaceX have as yet released no information other than to say they will hold a press conference in a few hours.
UPDATE: it appears the problem is with Dragon’s thrusters. Engineers have delayed the deployment the capsule’s solar panels while they try to get the thrusters activated. See the second link above.
The competition heats up: China’s next manned mission is now set for this summer.
The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft will take flight sometime between June and August, the program said in a statement. It will deliver its crew to the Tiangong 1, where it will spend two weeks conducting tests of the station’s docking system and its systems for supporting life and carrying out scientific work.
An investigation of the Sea Launch launch failure on February 2 has pinpointed the failure to faulty parts made in the Ukraine.
The article is interesting in that it seems to reveal some friction between Russia and Ukraine, with the investigators making it a point to blame the Ukrainian components while specifically saying that “there was nothing wrong with the Russian-made equipment.”
The competition heats up: SpaceX has reported that its static fire test today of the Falcon 9 rocket was a success.
The launch of Dragon is now set for Friday.
The competition heats up: India successfully launched seven satellites into orbit today on a single launch.
