Launch Industry Disrupted in 2014
(Source: Parabolic Arc)
With SpaceX reeling off one successful launch after another, ULA
pivoted on several fronts. One was to announce efforts to significantly
reduce costs on its highly reliable but pricey Atlas V and Delta IV
boosters. But, even that proved to be insufficient as SpaceX threatened
ULA on several fronts. In August, ULA named Tory Bruno as its new
president and CEO to replace Michael Gass, who had served in those
roles since the company was founded in 2006. Click here.
(1/7)
U.S. Government Should Fund Private
Space Companies, Not NASA (Source: Daily Northwestern)
In recent years, entrepreneurs saw the opportunity and created
companies like SpaceX and Sierra Nevada. Boeing has also expanded its
space program. For the past year or two, with the rockets they have
built, these companies have been carrying cargo, essentially building
and transferring some of the infrastructure for NASA.
One of the most important features of these companies was the fact that
they were not regulated strictly by NASA; it wouldn’t tell them how to
build their rockets. This freedom led to faster expansion with these
programs – bigger, faster and more capable rockets were built.
But in 2014 the U.S. government chose to fund NASA projects instead of
private companies, a huge mistake. Private companies such as SpaceX can
build whatever NASA builds faster, cheaper and better. For example,
SpaceX’s Falcon-Heavy rocket can carry much more cargo than the SLS
rocket of NASA, while costing only the equivalent of 1.25 years of the
SLS’s funding. The Falcon rocket will also be released at an earlier
date than the SLS, which would allow time for more extensive testing.
Click here.
(1/7)
Air Force 'Close' to Certifying
Falcon-9 for Military Payloads (Source: Reuters)
The U.S. Air Force said on Tuesday it was close to certifying a second
company to launch military and intelligence satellites into space, and
announced a review of the process used to vet new entrants. Currently,
the United Launch Alliance is the only company certified to launch
large military and intelligence satellites.
Lt. General Samuel Greaves, commander of the Air Force Space and
Missile Systems Center, said the Air Force had missed a December
deadline for certification, but added that "a new entrant is close."
Greaves did not name the company, but the Air Force's top military
acquisition official said SpaceX would soon be certified to carry out
launches. (1/6)
Delay in Air Force Certification for
SpaceX Triggers Process Review (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Air Force, which as of mid-December had hoped to certify
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to launch national security payloads by the
end of the year, is now targeting the middle of 2015, the service said
Jan. 7.
The delay, which has prompted the Air Force to re-evaluate its
certification process, raises fresh doubt about SpaceX’s ability to win
a competitive contract to launch a payload for the U.S. National
Reconnaissance Office, operator of the nation’s spy satellites. Bids
for that contract were due in August, but only certified launch
services providers are eligible to win. (1/7)
How Deep Can a Space Patent Dispute Go?
(Source: Medium)
For space companies, technologies which seem in one’s grasp more often
prove elusive. Years go by and millions upon millions of dollars can be
spent before there is an actual working prototype demonstrating that,
in fact, the technology works as envisioned. Better (or worse!) funded
competitors may pop up at any moment, using similar technologies to
steal the low hanging fruit of the existing space-related market.
What is a space entrepreneur to do in order to protect their developing
technologies and efforts from relegation to also-ran status? As
previously mentioned here, part of one emerging space company’s answer
to this conundrum was filing at least one somewhat curious patent
application: Blue Origin's application for "Sea Landing of Space Launch
Vehicles." Click here.
(1/7)
Kistler Beat Elon Musk to Reusable
Rocket Idea (Source: Upstart)
Kistler Aerospace for years aspired to the same reusability feat
entrepreneur Elon Musk had wanted to attempt this week. Kistler, a
space launch company that was ahead of its time before descending into
bankruptcy in 2003, is considered one of the first companies to attempt
a reusable space launch vehicle, the holy grail of the industry.
The only problem was the company, which for a time was located in the
Seattle suburb of Kirkland, ran out of money before its creation ever
flew. While Kistler was well respected in the industry in the late
1990s, partly because most of its top leaders were former NASA
engineers, it never accomplished a successful launch.
Kistler filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2003, with nearly
$600 million in debts to secured and unsecured creditors. Amazon CEO
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin company also has been attempting reusability
with its New Shepard space vehicle, but has not yet been successful.
(1/6)
Why Elon Musk is the Best and Worst
Thing to Happen to Orbital Sciences (Source: Fed Biz)
The next SpaceX launch will be one more reason why the Dulles-based
company is probably wishing Elon Musk would just go away. Like
everybody else, I was disappointed to hear California-based SpaceX
scrubbed Tuesday's Falcon-9 launch, anxious mostly to see whether the
company would pull off an attempt to recover the rocket, landing it
upon reentry on a barge floating in the Atlantic. This is no cheap
endeavor. And Musk himself pegs the odds of success at only 50 percent.
So what about competitor Orbital Sciences? Even if the Dulles company
had the cash to do such a thing, it could never rationalize the
investment to shareholders. Not with those odds.
"I have to think that Orbital would be interested to see what SpaceX's
financials look like, if the company ever were to go public. But in the
meantime, SpaceX just doesn't have the same degree of accountability,"
said Joe DeNardi.
What the company does have is a multi-billionaire at the helm, with a
pretty unrelenting hankering with space travel. And that's not
necessarily a bad thing for Orbital. If SpaceX succeeds Friday — or if
SpaceX even just learns from this first attempt then succeeds later —
Orbital and other competitors and the federal government would learn,
too. And eventually, the whole industry could adapt. (1/7)
Arianespace Confident Current and
Future Launchers Will Meet Needs (Source: Space Daily)
Building on its record year of mission operations in 2014 - and
supported by European decisions to develop the heavy-lift successor
Ariane 6, as well as an enhanced lightweight Vega C vehicle -
Arianespace is looking to the future with confidence as a leader in the
launch services marketplace. Click here.
(1/7)
Is American Free Enterprise Poised to
Rule Space (Source: American Specator)
For better or worse, NASA and the Obama administration ceded low Earth
orbit (LEO) access to U.S. commercial operations for delivering both
cargo and crew to the International Space Station (ISS). Since 2013,
the United States has been paying U.S. commercial companies to delivery
cargo to the space station and will continue to do so with follow-on
contracts.
We are not dependent upon the Russians to bring groceries and science
experiments up to ISS even after 2016. Incumbents Orbital and SpaceX,
along with new entrants Boeing and Sierra Nevada, have all submitted
bids — another sign of a healthy commercial market. NASA is also in the
process of bringing manned commercial flight to the fore. (1/7)
Orion Spacecraft in Post-Mission
Processing at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: SpaceRef)
Bearing the marks of a spacecraft that has returned to Earth through a
searing plunge into the atmosphere, NASA's Orion spacecraft is perched
on a pedestal inside the Launch Abort System Facility at Kennedy Space
Center, where it is going through post-mission processing. Click here.
(1/7)
Nayak Named Interim Chief at ISRO
(Source: Space News)
Shailesh Nayak, secretary of India’s Ministry of Earth Sciences, has
been given the extra charge as secretary of the Department of Space
following the retirement of Koppillil Radhakrishnan Dec. 31.
Nayak will hold the additional responsibility for one month effective
Jan. 1, or until a new candidate is appointed or pending a
further order, according to an announcement by the Indian cabinet’s
appointment committee. Typically, the secretary of the Department of
Space also serves as chairman of the Indian Space Research
Organization. (1/6)
China Leads Race to the Moon
(Source: The Diplomat)
In October 2014, China’s Chang’e 5-T1 lunar probe, known as Xiaofei or
Little Flyer, successfully completed an orbit around the Moon. This was
the first time that a trip around the Moon and back of this sort had
been made since the USA and Russian trips in the 1970s. The Little
flyer is a precursor to Chang’e 5 which will bring back lunar soil
(regolith) containing the nuclear fuel helium-3 that can be used for
baseload energy production and the next generation of nuclear weapons.
Click here.
(1/7)
Japanese Space Tourist Training for
Spot on ISS (Source: Japan Times)
A Japanese entrepreneur plans to train as a cosmonaut in Russia for a
possible mission to the International Space Station. Space tourist
Satoshi Takamatsu will fly in the event that another tourist cannot
make it: British singer Sarah Brightman. Takamatsu, 51, is president of
Space Travel, a Japanese startup that aims to offer space tourism
services. (1/7)
Why Space Is Popular Again
(Source: Space.com)
These days, the perception of space in our collective dialogue seems to
resemble a roller-coaster Wall Street stock, racing up and down from
every new development. For those of us who love outer space and what it
represents for both the scientific and spiritual progress of humanity,
it can test us to endure the whipsawing twists. It's like watching
someone we love being grabbed onto a bandwagon one day, and then
dragged toward the gallows the next. Click here.
(1/7)
SpaceX Talks Plans for 2015 in South
Texas (Source: KVEO)
It's been a few months since SpaceX founder Elon Musk decided that Boca
Chica Beach would be the perfect site to launch rockets. But since
then, there's been a few major updates on the company's next move, and
many people in the Valley are wondering what's next?
"That 'next' is already here, which is, they've already posted some
jobs," said Brownsville Economic Development Council Executive Vice
President Gilbert Salinas. "It's a few jobs, I mean nonetheless, they
are looking for some talent, in the region and the region being the Rio
Grande Valley."
Over a ten-year period, SpaceX plans to hire at least five hundred
people. As the launch site and command center move closer to
completion, more jobs will open up. As of right now though, the launch
site is still in the planning and design phase. "As far as moving dirt,
pouring foundation, that will not happen until a few months down the
road,:" said Salinas. (1/6)
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