Apropos my comment here, Rand Simberg superbly summarizes the serious threat SpaceX poses for the older space launch companies.
The competition heats up: Russia’s deputy prime minister is pushing to accelerate the completion of Russia’s new spaceport in Vostochny.
The first scheduled launch is now planned for 2015, but this article suggests they are trying to make it happen by the fall of 2014.
A Brazilian earth research satellite was lost today when a Chinese Long March rocket failed to put it into orbit.
The cause of the failure is not yet known. This failure, however, is a strong boost for SpaceX, as China is its strongest competitor in terms of price.
Tbe competition heats up: International Launch Services ((ILS) has successfully launched its Russian Proton rocket to put another commercial communications satellite into orbit.
This launch solidifies the recovery of the Proton rocket since the disastrous July launch. With the Russian government forcing a consolidation of all Russian aerospace companies into one government owned cooperation, however, it is unclear what will happen to ILS and Khrunichev (the Russian company that makes the Proton).
China’s lunar probe has entered lunar orbit.
The rover Yutu is scheduled to descend to the surface on December 14.
Sacrilege! No alcoholic beverages for the Russian astronauts to drink on ISS on New Year’s Eve.
Google Lunar X-Prize competitor Moon Express has unveiled its lunar lander, scheduled to soft land on the Moon in 2015.
Moon Express is generally considered the leader in this lunar landing X-Prize competition, and this story adds weight to that consensus.
A map of Opportunity’s journey on Mars as it approaches its tenth anniversary since landing on January 25, 2004.
The map gives some nice perspective of just how far the rover has traveled in the past decade, as well as the increasing scale of the geological features it has observed. Opportunity began inside tiny Eagle Crater, moved on to larger Endurance Crater, then to the even bigger Victoria Crater, and now to the truly massive Endeavour Crator, 14 miles in diameter.
Let the space price war begin.
Two money quotes:
This latest launch is bad news for Russia, Europe, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin. SES paid $55 million to SpaceX for the launch; rivals typically charge $100 million to $200 million. SpaceX has a backlog of about $4 billion worth of launches, many for commercial customers that it can now begin to serve.
and this:
We’ll really get a sense of SpaceX’s abilities over the next year. The company plans to launch rockets at a much more ferocious clip, to refine their reusability and to prepare for sending humans to the International Space Station. You can also expect to see SpaceX tormented by politicians with ties to existing launch contractors and military suppliers. May we live in interesting times.
Some more details about the impending takeover and overhaul of the Russian space industry by the Russian government.
Sadly, Russian culture is strongly top-down and authoritarian. After two decades of wild freedom — when they claimed a large share of the launch market and made a lot of money — they are now returning to their centralized ways. It will not work.
How India’s cryogenic rocket engine program was hampered and delayed, by the United States.
The article is fascinating, and rings very true until the last section. George Bush Sr. was an old CIA guy who distrusted the Soviets enough to want to prevent them from having any dealings with India, and Bill Clinton was very hostile to India during his entire administration. It is very easy to believe both presidents worked to stymie India’s efforts to work with the Russians.
The Air Force’s X-37B is approaching one year in orbit.
The ship in space now is on its second flight, and the third total flight of the program.
