Category Archives: Space

Business, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

NGLLC Wrap Up

6 Comments

Alan Boyle has updated his coverage of last week’s and weekend’s rocket festivities up in the desert. Stupid comments like this are somewhat dismaying, as usual:

Definitely not a million dollar subject to write about Alan. These amateur rockets look like something cobbled together from legos by crazy kids. Write about these amateurs when they do something significant like getting one of their Frankenstein rockets into space, or to the moon.

The real news was the awesome success Ares 1-X had yesterday, why no Cosmic Log article Alan? NASA showed us they are still the professional adult at the rocket launching party. What a beautiful sight it was to watch the Ares 1-X launch live on NASA tv. We need to give more money to NASA to get the Ares and Constellation programs rocking and rolling to the moon and Mars.

Go NASA!

Yes, go NASA, which has billions of taxpayer dollars to play with, with little accountability. But yeah, let’s give them even more money.

Whereas Armadillo and Masten are accountable to their shareholders, which is why they accomplish so much for so little money. So who are the “adults” at this party, again? Give either of these companies one one hundredth of what NASA spent on the Corndog flight, and see how far they get with it. I’d bet a lot higher than the Corndog flew. In fact, I suspect that Armadillo for one will be higher within a year, with their existing funds.

[Update a few minutes later]

Mike Massee has put up a nice photo gallery.

[Mid-morning update]

Speaking of Armadillo flying higher, they got to almost two thousand feet yesterday.

Media Criticism, Space

Non-Space Media Coverage

3 Comments

John Johnson, who I saw out at the test site in Mojave on Wednesday, has a story about the Masten feat at the LA Times today, illustrated with a photo by XCOR’s Mike Massee. My only problem with it is that he understates NASA costs:

NASA’s next-generation rocket, the Ares 1X, which was test-launched Tuesday, has cost tens of millions of dollars. Xoie and her predecessors have cost about $2 million.

Actually, while it’s technically true that Ares 1-X cost “tens of millions” (over forty tens of millions), it would be more accurate and less misleading to say that it cost hundreds of millions. Not to mention the fact that it flew Wednesday, not Tuesday. Tuesday was the originally scheduled launch date, but it was delayed until Wednesday.

So much for those much-vaunted “layers of editors and fact checkers” at the Dog Trainer.

Business, Space

Following Masten

5 Comments

Ian Kluft is tweeting progress. Sounds like a much calmer day than the last two, which should be good for accuracy. I think that Armadillo got overconfident. As people noted in comments at Clark Lindsey’s place, they had another opportunity in September to go for a tighter landing, and declined it. They may end up regretting it, but only if Masten can shake whatever’s been jinxing them for the last couple days.

[Update at 10:10 AM PDT]

They should be flying in a minute or sofew minutes.

[Update at 10:20]

They took off and are hovering off their required three minutes before landing.

[11:25 update]

They’re refueling and preparing for the trip home. They landed about a foot from the target on the first flight. I don’t know how that compares to Armadillo’s flight, but I suspect it’s tighter.

[11:29 update]

The vehicle is fueled (alcohol). Now it just needs to be oxidized, with LOX.

[Update early afternoon]

I missed it, because I was in a meeting, but congratulations, Masten. They not only accomplished the goal, but they snatched first place from Armadillo.

John Carmack is understandably unhappy, but as he admits, he had a chance to better his score earlier, and didn’t take it.

[Update a few minutes later]

Alan Boyle has a fairly up-to-date story, including a preview of this afternoon’s first attempt by Unreasonable Rocket.

Business, Space

A Second Chance

Well, actually a fifth chance, when they were only supposed to get four. The judges have ruled that Masten can have one more shot this morning.

I can understand why Armadillo and Unreasonable Rocket might be upset about this, though Unreasonable Rocket has more of a legitimate gripe, since Armadillo benefited from lenient judges themselves last year when they won Level I.

Anyway, here’s hoping for success, finally. Clark has links to resources for following it.

Business, Economics, Space

NGLLC Day Two

3 Comments

Clark Lindsey is tracking progress up in Mojave today. The window presumably just opened.

[Mid-afternoon update]

Well, that’s it for Masten’s season. No chance to win Level II, but the second-place purse will remain on the table, unless the Pauls Breed can pull out a miracle in the next couple days. They apparently made the first three-minute flight, but had a fire on landing, and burned some sensor cables that they either had no replacements for, or insufficient time to replace within the window. But at least they’ll take the second-place for Level I (again, assuming that Unreasonable Rocket can’t beat their landing accuracy). Good luck to all contenders, now and in the future.

I will note that the 180-second test they did on Tuesday was tethered — Xoie had never flown in free flight, I assume because they simply ran out of time. But that shows why you have to do a full dress rehearsal (as Armadillo learned a couple years ago). It will be interesting to find out what caused the fire, if they can figure it out. Anyway, it’s a shame.

[Bumped]

Political Commentary, Space

Not So Great A Success

8 Comments

Apparently, in addition to the recontact after stage separation and tumbling second “stage,” the parachutes on the Corndog failed and damaged the cases of the first stage. But hey, what do you want for half a billion dollars? I mean, besides a whole new launch company and launch vehicle, as SpaceX managed to do for that amount.

[Update a few minutes later]

The obvious question, of course, is if the recontact damaged the chute system.

Space

The Million-Dollar Race

Alan Boyle has a report on the current status of the NGLLC. I’d like to go back up to Mojave this morning, but I’ve got too much to do here today, with a deadline looming tomorrow. It’s going to be colder, too (it looks like it was close to freezing last night in the Antelope Valley), but the wind should be settling down, which will be better for Masten than yesterday, if they’ve sorted out their comm problems.

Anyway, good luck to all.