I think my next campaign needs a pawn shop that’ll consider buying anything but will seriously low-ball it if they can’t move it easily. And maybe need to talk to an expert they know.
I think my next campaign needs a pawn shop that’ll consider buying anything but will seriously low-ball it if they can’t move it easily. And maybe need to talk to an expert they know.
This has some great shots (boosters in the megabay, tons of engines, and the scale in the factory) but the interview questions didn’t really feel worth the time. I’m sure they had to cut some good stuff, but there was a lot of the usual reusability talk and too much of Tim’s “joke” ideas. The nuggets about their manufacturing philosophy, icing, and Raptor 3 upgrades were cool, though. Post-flight part 2 coming soon?
Imagine if they didn’t have to play political games and spend $5 billion (20% of their budget) on SLS+Orion. That’s TEN Discovery Class missions per year.
I think NASA should focus on scientific research and exploration, then buy commercial when it makes sense. Rockets are “solved” and they don’t need their own. Space suits… they really should have finished xEMU.
They should start launching Alpha more in the first place!
It’s cool to see growth at launch sites other than the Cape and Vandenberg.
They’re losing money in the satellite business and have to admit to it in their public facing financials, so they’re posting a big ole negative line item.
SpaceX has saved NASA a ton of money on launch and ISS cargo/crew services. Rocket Lab and some CLPS providers are also shaping up to do so. I’d be down with getting Boeing and Lockheed out of space, though.
The SpaceX ones are privately funded, so who cares if the first generation of them sucks? At least they’re trying and might have a path to success.
At least these are “only” the ISS suits, not the Lunar surface suits from Axiom, so this doesn’t make the Artemis situation worse. Hopefully SpaceX can evolve their new suits enough to be useful for space station EVAs for Vast or whoever.
Setting this up as a task order contract never made sense to me. Firm fixed price for this also doesn’t make sense to me. It’s a development program with 0 commercial customers and no ability to lease them to private customers. What a weird, late, mess.
They can thank CASC for the upcoming acid rain. Yeesh.
I just want to point out that the acronym for this analog is “FMARS”.
It’s cool to see it up and running again after it was out of commission for years.
The ISS has always been a source of soft diplomacy, and it’s cool to see the short private missions expand that. It’s cool that Dragon is available and able to make these possible.
Regarding Gaganyaan to the ISS- their first crewed flight is NET… late 2025? Their timeline could work to get one to the ISS. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them book a flight to a Vast station. They also signed something or other with Blue for Orbital Reef, so that could be their target, too.
200 modules in the backlog is pretty good! They must have hit on some constellation contracts, but I’m not seeing much from a quick search. This is that growth of the industrial base that the different three letter agencies were talking about.
Elite name
Crewed Dreamchaser is so far from being real
And while ABL and Firefly can’t hit any kind of cadence
Between the EV3, EX30, R3, and little Jeep EV, I’m hoping that small EVs change some American minds about car size and reverse some of the arms race. They still aren’t small small, but at least they aren’t an F150 or Suburban.
A purpose built skateboard chassis is still good for a low center of gravity, bigger battery capacity, and ease of manufacturing, but I would gladly pass on a lot of bells and whistles and “luxury” features.
Rocket Lab, Stoke, and Relativity are all trying!
I’m a Blue Origin hater, too. They pretend to be an old space prime by buying their way into a market but not having done anything. They don’t have the drive, efficiency, or fun redeeming qualities of startups.
For rockets, I would rather see Stoke pull off Nova and Rocket Lab build Neutron.
For space stations, I’m rooting for Vast and Gravitics.
For space tugs, go Impulse.
For moon landers, BO copied SpaceX’s homework, so go Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic.
Just when I thought I was going to bed… Thanks for the link!