The latest, from Anatoly Zak.
If they don’t know why the explosion occurred, they won’t be able to fly until they figure it out. Also, if I were NASA, I’d still be nervous about the May 26th Soyuz flight.
Category Archives: Space
Charles Pooley Of Microlaunchers
He was supposed to give a presentation at Space Access. He didn’t show up.
Over at Arocket, Ed LeBouthillier (his collaborator on his book
I just got a call from the Las Vegas coroner’s office.
Apparently Charles has passed on and is no longer with us.
May the rocket gods look kindly on his soul. May he join his family, friends and ancestors in the family hall with honor.
Sorry to hear that. I didn’t know him well, but I’d talked to him a few times. RIP.
Merlin 1-D
#ExplorationDelendaEst No, it’s not an engine designed for “human space exploration.” It’s an engine designed for human spaceflight. I had a mini-rant about this at Space Access Saturday. #
Our Future In Space
Lee Billings reviews what looks to be interesting new book
Back In LA
It was great to see everyone at Space Access after the hiatus last year. It was also nice to see quite a few enthusiastic young people. More thoughts anon, but I’m beat from the drive, and insufficient sleep.
Amending The Space Act
Dana Rohrabacher has introduced his proposed legislation to amend the Space Act, in order to redirect NASA toward space settlement and development.
Space Access
I’ve arrived at the conference. Looks like a great turnout, and a lot of familiar faces. A lot of seem to be getting older. Will Pomerantz gave an overview of future plans for Virgin Galactic, and took a lot of questions at the end. Still unclear what the future of propulsion is for SS1, though he said he thinks that they’re going back to rubber. Follow Doug Messier (@spacecom) for more details. Many of the questions were his.
Blue Origin
Powered by a BE-3 engine, the spacecraft flew to 307,000 feet, the edge of space, and returned smoothly to the ground. The company said it was able to recover the reusable spacecraft./blockquote>
I believe that the BE-3 is the smaller version of the BE-4 that will power the new ULA rocket. So it’s a LOX/LNG vehicle. They didn’t recover the propulsion system, but don’t seem concerned about it. Like SpaceX, now that they’re flying again, they’ll continually improve. A very auspicious event as I get ready to drive to Phoenix this morning for the Space Access conference, which starts this afternoon.
FAA-AST
The House Appropriators refuse to increase the office budget.
This is stupid. There’s a huge increase in commercial flights coming, and they won’t be able to support the licensing.
The RD-180 Replacement
Basically, as it is with NASA and SLS, Congress is forcing the Air Force to waste money on an engine that ULA doesn’t want, or need.