Can it continue to work?
Category Archives: Space
Australia’s Future In Space
Note the implicit but not necessarily valid assumption — that in order to do space activities, you have to launch from your own soil. For instance, I’d bet that Kodiak would be happy to lease some real estate to them for high-inclination launches.
Book Question
Has anyone actually ordered and received a copy yet?
[Friday-morning update]
Well, as you can see in comments, we have disparate results. One person has received it, one is going to next week, and one got a message that it’s a month away. So huh.
Inspiration Venus?
Jon Goff has an interesting blog post. Also, scroll through recent entries for a lot of useful speculation about utilizing Venerian resources. In many ways, Venus is a more interesting candidate for colonization than Mars is.
SpaceX
An asteroid has just hit the aerospace dinosaurs, in Europe, China, Russia, and here.
Safe Is Not An Option
I didn’t expect the book to be available for purchase at Amazon for another couple weeks. This
Working on e-versions now.
Blue Origin’s New Engine
I’m glad they’re making progress, but I don’t understand why they want a hydrogen engine for a booster, particularly for suborbital. The exhaust velocities don’t match well, and you have a lot of handling and bulk-density issues.
The Book
I just (finally) gave final approval for printing. Unfortunately, it won’t show up at Amazon for three weeks or so, but still in time to get it under the tree. I just ordered a couple dozen to see how it comes out.
Inspiration Mars
…and its uninspirational end:
…as this latest episode demonstrates, unaffordable programs like the SLS are not a highway to the solar system. They are a roadblock.
Another mission destroyed by the big-rocket myth.
SpaceX SES-8 Launch
The webcast has started, and they’re currently go for launch in about half an hour. It will take a while before they know if they’re successful, because they have to do a restart this time — it’s a mission requirement.
[Update a couple minutes later]
This is a little annoying. The webcast stalls every few seconds, and I have to hit pause/play to get it going again.