In a series of thoroughly unexpected and impassioned introductory remarks at one of several 2018 Advisory Council meetings, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine bucked at least two decades of norms by all but explicitly stating that reusable rockets built by innovative private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin will enable the true future of space exploration. Incredibly, […]
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For a variety of reasons both clear or otherwise, a significant number of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches initially scheduled near the beginning or middle of the second half of 2018 are all slipping right into October, November, and December. While communications satellite Telstar 18V’s two-week slip to NET September 8 and SAOCOM-1A’s […]
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According to program manager Kathy Lueders, SpaceX has chosen against reusing its upgraded Crew Dragon spaceships on NASA Commerical Crew Program (CCP) launches, even though NASA itself explicitly provided both CCP providers (Boeing and SpaceX) the option to propose reflights of crew capsules. In fact, Boeing did just that with their CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, proposing […]
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In a Commercial Crew update presented by Program Manager Kathy Lueders to the NASA Advisory Council (NAC), the agency has confirmed that SpaceX is deep into the final stages of hardware preparation and testing ahead of their first uncrewed and crewed demonstrations launches of Crew Dragon. Barring a miracle for Commercial Crew Program partner Boeing’s […]
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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 fairing catcher ship Mr Steven has had all four new arms removed as the company’s recovery engineers and technicians continue to iterate on his fairing recovery mechanism and operational strategy. The purpose of this round of arm removal is unknown, but the work going on at Berth 240 is nevertheless a fascinating glimpse […]
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Speaking at the 2018 Mars Society Convention, SpaceX’s Principal Mars Development Engineer Paul Wooster briefly presented on the company’s BFR and Mars colony ambitions. While the majority of the 30-minute talk rehashed CEO Elon Musk’s 2017 BFR update and subsequent Reddit AMA, it also happened to contain a handful of new details and slides, including a […]
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SpaceX has released a video commemorating the amazing successes of its 2018 Hyperloop Pod Competition at the same time as it’s opened up registration for next year’s follow-up competition, paving (pipelaying?) the way for another throwdown that will seek to once again crown victorious the student team with the fastest pod. With any luck to […]
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SpaceX’s primary Crew Dragon recovery vessel GO Searcher is undergoing a number of modifications in preparation for inaugural demonstrations flights of the company’s first human-rated spacecraft. Most notably, GO Searcher is being fitted with a helipad that will be used to rapidly transfer astronauts from Crew Dragon to Cape Canaveral, where they will go through […]
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SpaceX’s next rocket launch, a new Falcon 9 Block 5 vehicle carrying Telesat’s Telstar 18V geostationary communications satellite has slipped from an original launch target of August 22nd to no earlier than (NET) September 9th, pointing towards difficulties somewhere within the space launch apparatus. While a two and a half week delay may feel immense […]
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Stratolaunch, an aerospace company funded by Microsoft-made billionaire Paul Allen to build the world’s largest flightworthy aircraft, has announced a decision to build its own liquid-fueled rockets, to be air-launched from the aforementioned mega-plane. Targeting an inaugural launch of the first version of the rocket – currently nicknamed “Kraken” – as early as 2022, Stratolaunch has […]
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