Chris Bergin has the latest on the next flight, which has been delayed due to issues with the slush LOX. I wonder if they’re running into problems at the Cape that they didn’t encounter in McGregor, due to the different environment.
Category Archives: Space
Childhood’s End
David Brin is remembering Arthur C. Clarke.
NASA’s Budget
The omnibus bill provides a boost, and full funding of Commercial Crew, for the first time ever. It also allows NASA to apply Soyuz payments for 2018 flights to the program, to get it flying in 2017 (I still think they could fly next year if they were serious about it). Loren Grush has more. Unfortunately, it also increases the SLS budget.
On the milspace side, it also lifts the restriction on the RD-180, which McCain is going nuts about on the floor right now, according to Twitter. He’s lambasting Shelby and Durbin by name.
[Update a while later]
The worst part of the NASA budget is that it overfunds SLS at the expense of (as usual) technology.
[Update a few minutes later]
Here‘s the McCain story. Nutty.
“The 1%” “Escaping” To Mars
A dumb piece at Newsweek.
On the other hand, here’s a smart piece from Eric Berger: We’re going back to the moon, with or without NASA. Absent a major change of attitude in Congress, probably without.
XCOR News
They say they’ve closed the loop on the propulsion system for the Lynx. Sounds like they still have to improve it to get needed performance, but that’s a breakthrough. One of the long poles, as well as the wings.
The Geminids
Looks like they should be great this year, with an almost new moon. Might drive up to the mountains or desert, if it’s clear.
Growing Crops On Mars
…by wiping out their disease resistance?
I’m skeptical. I think we’ll come up with better solutions than this.
The Future Of Commercial Spaceflight
An interview with Jeff Greason, at Space.com.
NASA And LEO
NASA Watch has a draft of the NAC statement on LEO operations and ISS transition. It’s as though it’s posted from an alternate reality:
Even after a shift of focus to cis-lunar space and beyond has occurred, NASA may need to maintain some capability to get astronauts into low Earth orbit. If the Agency concludes that such a capability is necessary, it would be unwise to assume the existence of commercial demand for human access to LEO that may or may not materialize. Taking steps to encourage commercial activity in LEO may not be adequate to guarantee a successful transition.
So WTF is this supposed to mean? By NASA “maintaining some capability,” do they mean on a NASA owned/operated rocket? When Commercial Crew is operational (and there is zero reason to believe that won’t happen, regardless of how much Congress attempts to delay it with budget cuts), that will be how NASA gets its astronauts into LEO. Even in the very unlikely event that no commercial demand emerges, that capability will remain in place for as long as NASA wants to use it, at a much lower cost than NASA has ever gotten anyone into space. So can someone on the NAC explain to me what this word salad means? What are they proposing? Because if they’re proposing SLS/Orion, that’s economically insane.
Embracing The RLV Evolution
Comparing and contrasting NASA and private industry. I prefer the term “space transports” to RLVs, though.