SpaceX

[docmordrid]

The House is also drafting legislation to ban launching EELV payloads using RD-180's bought after Oct. 1 2014.

A stick to show (earned) displeasure and hopefully bring on the use of a US alternative.

About 10 years overdue IMO.

Sent from my LG-E980 using Tapatalk

[Glom]

So the House is proposing is its own Iron Curtain?

If sanctions due to the current situation mean you can't buy Russian the fine, but banning Russian products on first principle is just petty protectionism.

[docmordrid]

Welcome to hardball politics. In the US it's a contact sport.

BTW: the CRS3 thread has the first pic of F9 landing at sea

[NEOWatcher]

So the House is proposing is its own Iron Curtain?

If sanctions due to the current situation mean you can't buy Russian the fine, but banning Russian products on first principle is just petty protectionism.

This situation is a bit different than just banning Russian products because it is tied to US security concerns and domestic capabilities.

[selvaarchi]

SpaceX announces it's next launch - 10th May

http://www.spaceflight101.com/orbcom...h-updates.html

Sustaining a high pace of launches with short turnaround times in between missions from the same launch pad is an important requirement for SpaceX and its packed manifest of launches. A key to becoming a leading a commercial launch provider will be establishing a quick turnaround in between launches from both coasts as SpaceX seeks to scale up operations to more than 20 missions per year in the not too distant future.

Earlier in 2014, SpaceX had to push the Falcon 9 launch with the Dragon SpX-3 spacecraft to the right several times which also led to subsequent launches slipping. To make up for time lost on SpX-3, SpaceX decided to set its next launch for May 10, attempting a 21.5-day turnaround between launches from Space Launch Complex 40.

[publiusr]

So the House is proposing is its own Iron Curtain?

If sanctions due to the current situation mean you can't buy Russian the fine, but banning Russian products on first principle is just petty protectionism.

I actually don't have a problem with some level of protectionism myself.

So much time and energy has been wasted on SLS bashing that folks forget one salient point.

SLS paves the way, however slightly, for BFR. Every dollar SLS spends--say, to uprate Stennis, build vertical weld tools, etc--is one dollar Space X doesn't have to spend if they were to say, run Michoud at a later date.

Every defense dollar spent propping up EELVs hurts Musk.

The choice is clear. Save the bile for ULA--that's your real enemy.

[selvaarchi]

SpaceX keeps it's steady progress on it's journey to reusable rockets

http://www.spaceflight101.com/spacex...t-updates.html

SpaceX has conducted the second flight test with its F9R-Dev1 test rig currently undergoing low-altitude testing at the company's McGregor Test Site, Texas. Flying to new heights, Thursday's test took the F9R test rig to an altitude of 1000 meters, quadrupling the height of its first test that was performed two weeks earlier.

The previous testbed known as Grasshopper reached an altitude of 744 meters in its highest flight.

[selvaarchi]

More details on SpaceX launch on the 10th

http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/010/status.html

The official weather forecast shows an 80 percent chance of acceptable conditions for Saturday's launch of a Falcon 9 rocket with a load of six commercial communications satellites for Orbcomm.

The launch window has been revised and now opens at 9:47 a.m. EDT (1347 GMT) and extends for 54 minutes.

[NEOWatcher]

More details on SpaceX launch on the 10th

We already have a thread for that.

[selvaarchi]

SpaceX Challenge to ULA Block Buy Could Hinge on Questions of Timing

http://www.spacenews.com/article/mil...ions-of-timing

The timeline is also expected to help resolve the question of whether SpaceX met Air Force certification requirements for launching national security payloads in time to compete for the contested launches. To meet those requirements, a company must transfer data to the Air Force from three successful missions of the rocket with which it hopes to compete.

[publiusr]

ULA is already trying to influence discussion groups
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/ind...?topic=34684.0

The phrase involving the words "deaf ears" comes to mind...

George Sowers tries to say that "ULA does not 'recieve' a subsidy"

And the response? " Regarding the term 'subsidy', if one looks at the definition of the word, it's hard to define the Launch Capability contract as anything but a subsidy."

One of the better responses: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/ind...383#msg1196383

"I'm sorry, but IMHO, ULA was born of illegitimacy. The appeals to ULA's patriotism and the denigration of SpaceX as irresponsible and meddlesome are purely laughable when coming from a corporation with the history that it has"

More:
"I find ULA's irresponsibility the more galling. It is sending tens of millions of dollars a year to the acquisitive Russian government meanwhile our diplomats have to walk a tightrope of punishment and wink-and-nod in order to assure a continued supply to ULA. How did ULA get us in to this mess?"

Elon was going to the former Soviets to buy some rockets--but got treated in a rather ugly fashion:

Elon was ready to buy three Russian ICBMs for $21 million when the Russians told him that no, they meant $21 million for one. "They taunted him," Cantrell says. "They said, 'Oh, little boy, you don't have the money?' I said, 'Well, that's that.' I was sitting behind him on the flight back to London when he looked at me over the seat and said, 'I think we can build a rocket ourselves.'"

http://www.esquire.com/features/amer...interview-1212
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/ind...373#msg1196373

Wow--what an allegation
http://nextbigfuture.com/2014/05/elo...illion-no.html

With the tanker scandal, the EELV data theft and thundervision, no wonder...

In unrelated news, the Puff fusion ship
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/...on-technology/

[selvaarchi]

SpaceX's Dragon SpX-3 spacecraft to depart from ISS and splash down in the Pacific Ocean this Sunday.

http://www.spaceflight101.com/dragon...n-updates.html

The Dragon SpX-3 spacecraft is being prepared to depart the International Space Station on Sunday for a short free flight ahead of a splashdown landing in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. Unberthing operations will get underway early on Sunday followed by the release of the vehicle at 13:26 UTC and landing at 19:02 UTC.

Dragon has been fully loaded with more than 1,560 Kilograms of hardware for return to Earth including nearly 750 Kilograms of Science and Research Hardware consisting of a wealth of samples taken in orbit as art of the various experiments ongoing aboard ISS as well as performed experiments for detailed post-flight analysis on Earth. Science hardware is returning aboard two powered GLACIER Laboratory Freezers - one launched aboard Dragon and one was loaded into the Spacecraft this week.

[docmordrid]

Perfect splashdown, within sight of the recovery vessels.

[Garrison]

Each time they spashdown a Dragon I half expect Musk to pop out when they open the hatch...

[Swift]

Each time they spashdown a Dragon I half expect Musk to pop out when they open the hatch...

Or Daenerys Targaryen?

[selvaarchi]

SpaceX has signed on the dotted line for another launch site

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/pr...4,5,6,15,17,34

Might not be such a good deal if the report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) turns out to be true.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ists-warn.html

Nasa's space shuttle launch pads and astronaut training facilities are in danger of being inundated by rising sea levels caused by climate change, scientists warned on Tuesday.

A new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) found that five of the US space agency's seven major facilities were threatened by surging water levels.

Among the bases at risk is Kennedy Space Center in Florida's Cape Canaveral, the launch point for the 1969 Moon landing and all of Nasa's human space flights since.

[Amber Robot]

Might not be such a good deal if the report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) turns out to be true.

The article says it's a 20 year agreement, so he might be ok, depending on how quickly the ice will melt in Antarctica.

[Garrison]

The article says it's a 20 year agreement, so he might be ok, depending on how quickly the ice will melt in Antarctica.

And if anyone is going have the means to escape...

[selvaarchi]

SpaceX is winning orders to launch commercial satellites.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/In...nches_999.html

Inmarsat has selected SpaceX to provide launch services for its S-band satellite and up to two further Inmarsat missions. Under the terms of its agreement with SpaceX, Inmarsat expects to use the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle, but will retain the possibility of using a Falcon 9 as an alternative, providing further launch flexibility.

Rupert Pearce, Inmarsat's Chief Executive Officer, said: "We believe that SpaceX has demonstrated tremendous successful progress in its launch capabilities and is now a fully-credible provider of vehicles to support geostationary missions.

[docmordrid]

What's notable is that it's for Falcon Heavy to launch a new generation of large commsats. Arianespace and ILS (Proton) will not be pleased.

[docmordrid]

SpaceX (@SpaceX)
08-07-14 20:07
Dragon production is in full swing – Spacecraft Cleanroom now at full capacity, with 3 Dragons + 1 trunk! pic.twitter.com/0gyUICbRPi

[Swift]

I assume on the outside of this room, the sign says "Here be dragons"

[docmordrid]

One would hope.

The Dragon production area holds several more in various stages of completion.

[Trebuchet]

Mass production of spaceships! The future is here.

[docmordrid]

Yup. These guys aren't kidding.

Between weld-up to outfitting it's not unusual for 6-7 Dragons to be on the floor. The CRS-4 Dragon is being prepped for flight and the CRS-5 is right behind it. The pad & MaxQ abort and DragonFly landing test Dragon V2's are also being outfitted and instrumented.

NASA put up a CRS Round 2 Request For Proposals (RFP) earlier this year for ISS flights after the current CRS Round 1 contract ends.

During that SpaceX is expected to transition to using Dragon V2 for both cargo and crew, both with land touchdowns.

Expected landing sites: at least Vandenberg and KSC (primary).

[Glom]

So Vandenburg finally comes into its own.

[docmordrid]

You have no idea. SpaceX has plans within plans for Vandenberg. It's being upgraded for Falcon Heavy Reusable (FH-R) as we speak. The plans are for Falcon Heavy to be reusable out of the gate. Imagine 3 cores returning minutes apart. Ditto at KSC.

[Elukka]

Any word on how they solved the reusability issues, namely the center stage essentially being a second stage and going much faster than a normal Falcon first stage? Just eat the payload penalty and spend more propellant on the return burn?

[Trebuchet]

A little off-topic, but Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal has scored a $1 Million contribution from Elon Musk for the Nikola Tesla museum he's been promoting for the last few years.

http://theoatmeal.com/blog/musk_tesla_museum

[ravens_cry]

Mass production of spaceships! The future is here.

Aren't Soyuz capsules made the same way?