A private one. All is proceeding as I have foreseen.
I hope they have a good camera to see if it’s beautiful clouds, or just gray.
Category Archives: Space
Bernard Kutter
I got an email from Jon Goff about this yesterday, but didn’t want to post until there was a public announcement.
This is a huge loss to the industry. He had a great deal of vision, that was squandered by the child abuse of ULA’s parent companies. Not sure he’s replaceable. My deepest condolences to all his friends and family.
[Update a few minutes later]
Well, that was fast. This post is already number two on a DuckDuckGo search for “Bernard Kutter.” Funny thing is that Google has nothing on the death.
[Update a while later]
A tribute from the National Space Society.
Ceres
It’s geologically active, and may have an underground ocean.
Ceres is underrated. It should be considered a planet.
Rogozin’s New Trampoline
Apparently he thinks he’s competing with Falcon 9/Dragon, because there is no mention of Starship.
The Space Industry
Morgan Stanley thinks that investors should be more interested in it than they are.
[Afternoon update]
Sorry, didn’t realize that article was two years old.
Space Solar Power
Here’s an overview of the state of the art of needed technologies to beam power to earth, from almost three decades ago, when I was working at Rockwell. I ran across it in trying to reduce the entropy of my office. It’s funny how little has changed.
Sorry about the rotation; that’s how it scanned into the PDF. Just rotate it with your browser.
SN5
It’s getting ready for the flight attempt. Watch it live.
[Update a while later]
Looks like another scrub; they’re detanking. Probably not today.
Dragon Returns
A reader emailed me, asking why I hadn’t mentioned this weekend’s return of Endeavour from ISS (it will be splashing down in about three hours). I replied that there wasn’t much to talk about; the entire mission has been utterly nominal. At this point, like Elon, I’m much more interested in Starship. It would be great if it can take its first flight on the same day that Dragon returns with crew, though.
[Noon PDT update]
They’re in the water, and SpaceX’s job is done. It appears to have been a perfect flight.
[Update at 1230 PDT]
Where the hell was the Coast Guard? How did those private boats get so close to the capsule? I can’t believe they didn’t set up a perimeter. Meanwhile…
Solar Flares
We may soon be able to predict them. That would be nice.
Static Fire Success
Starship could take its maiden flight as soon as Sunday.