Garrett Reisman just announced that they had to scrub their static test firing today, so this weekend’s launch will be delayed (maybe Tuesday, same day as next OSC launch).
Category Archives: Space
Blue Origin
Looking for a coastal launch site for orbital flight. Orbital vehicle is two stage, with first stage reusable, flyback vertical landing (like SpaceX).
Developing 100,000 lbf thrust lox/hydrogen engine. Deep throttle capability to allow vertical landing.
Xenon
At lunch at #AIAASpace2013, NASA is proposing ten tons of it for propellant for the asteroid mission. World production is about a ton per year.
AIAA Space 2013
I’m down in San Diego attending the conference, and the setup is not particularly conducive to laptops or blogging.
The STEM “Crisis”
“If there was really a STEM labor market crisis, you’d be seeing very different behaviors from companies,” notes Ron Hira, an associate professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, in New York state. “You wouldn’t see companies cutting their retirement contributions, or hiring new workers and giving them worse benefits packages. Instead you would see signing bonuses, you’d see wage increases. You would see these companies really training their incumbent workers.”
“None of those things are observable,” Hira says. “In fact, they’re operating in the opposite way.”
And even if there was, the notion that NASA would help it is ludicrous. Particularly if anyone thinks it’s going to do so by building rockets to nowhere.
Space Radiation
Does it discriminate against women?
No, NASA’s arbitrary policies do. Let people accept their own risks.
Water On The Moon
An Anti-Satellite Weapon
Has China launched one?
Reusable Rockets
Megan Gannon has another article on this past weekend’s DC-X meeting in Alamagordo.
The Solar System
A cute video, featuring the sun destroying the earth. Time to pack up and find a new one — we only have half a billion years or so.