SpaceX

[Grendal]

Article on NASA's budget where SpaceX funding is included:

NASA 2015 Budget: $17.5 Billion Proposal Focuses On Asteroids, ISS, Mars And Space Exploration

"NASA has proposed a $848 million for Commercial Spaceflight. According to NASA, the space agency is working with the Boeing Company, SpaceX and and Sierra Nevada Corporation as part of the Commercial Crew Program. NASA hopes to bring human spaceflight launches, such as ISS shuttle mission, back to the United States by 2017. Part of the Commercial Spaceflight budget will also go to ISS cargo resupply mission contracts with SpaceX and Orbital Sciences."

The interesting thing about this is the fact that the shared $848 million is one of the smallest amount in the entire budget. $2.784 billion is going to the SLS and the Orion crew vehicle. SpaceX will have the SLS beat with the Falcon Heavy and will beat the Orion with the Dragon Crewed Version. More is better but it is obvious the advantage that SpaceX has over NASA itself.

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Subdivision as in adjacent lots of property, not as in a corporate division. But still, cool name

Rush - Subdivisions (with lyrics) - YouTube

Rush: Subdivisions

 

[palmer_md]

Cool! SpaceX, Tesla and Rush fans all in one place. I like it here!

 

[claytorj]

Brief Steve Jurvetson interview about SpaceX;

Space-for-All at HobbySpace March.6.14

 

[ggies07]

Brief Steve Jurvetson interview about SpaceX;

Space-for-All at HobbySpace March.6.14

Nice, short vid. Thanks!

 

[Grendal]

Near-term Pool of Competitively Awarded U.S. Military Launches Shrinks for SpaceX | SpaceNews.com

The 14 launches are now 7 due to new budget constraints.

 

[claytorj]

Nice article on SpaceX and Reusability.

The Space Review: Rocket reusability: a driver of economic growth

 

[claytorj]

Nasa considering using SpaceX "Red Dragon" to return samples from Mars:

DailyTech - NASA Considering SpaceX "Red Dragon" for Returning Mars Samples to Earth

 

[VolkerP]

There is a big incentive to hand over the collected mars sample in Mars orbit: you don't have to land and re-launch the return vehicle including its fuel on Mars. And Elon rarely shies away from more efficient solutions just because of complexity.

 

[aronth5]

SpaceX gets $4.2M from the USAF for "Early Integration Studies"

"An early integration study was awarded to SpaceX for integration between a satellite vehicle with SpaceX's launch vehicle the Falcon 9 v1.1. An option for an additional study was also included.
This award is the result of a sole source acquisition with only one offer solicited and received"

https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=c96ab2b2207c202c03bcf92a6226fdbb&tab=core&_cview=1

Probably means the USAF is pretty serious about putting Falcon 9 in real completion for EELV launches, but that is already known. Let the guessing begin!

 

[Grendal]

SpaceX gets sued, but not for anything they did wrong. NML is just trying to recover down-payment money from Argentina which SpaceX received from the country to put a couple of their satellites in orbit. Argentina is at fault and SpaceX might have to give the down-payment up.

Singer’s NML Sues Musk’s SpaceX Over Argentina Contracts (1) - Businessweek

 

[Mario Kadastik]

With the Eastern range radar being out of commission up to 45 days that delayed the ULA and SpaceX flights this weekend, then does anyone have a clue how this may impact the whole launch manifest of 2014? I know SpaceX can use two launch sites so if Cape is out of order for 1-2 months (is it really that dependent on all of those individual radars?), then can they launch the intermediate launches from their secondary location? And any clues how far SpaceX is in securing more launch sites, I think I understood they were contemplating a few as trying to launch far more than 10 vehicles a year kind of pushes them to have a bunch of them

 

[voidptr]

With the Eastern range radar being out of commission up to 45 days that delayed the ULA and SpaceX flights this weekend, then does anyone have a clue how this may impact the whole launch manifest of 2014? I know SpaceX can use two launch sites so if Cape is out of order for 1-2 months (is it really that dependent on all of those individual radars?), then can they launch the intermediate launches from their secondary location? And any clues how far SpaceX is in securing more launch sites, I think I understood they were contemplating a few as trying to launch far more than 10 vehicles a year kind of pushes them to have a bunch of them

Right now they have capability at LC-40 at Cape Canaveral and SLC-4E at Vandenberg. While they just signed a lease for 39A at Cape Canaveral as well, that's not ready yet, but this knocked all the sites at the Cape offline, so it doesn't really matter. Vandenberg and the Cape aren't interchangeable - the Cape is used for orbits going west-east, while Vandenberg is used for polar orbits going north/south. Everything on their manifest for this year are equatorial and need to launch from the Cape.

I don't think anyone who can talk about it knows what the status of their site in Brownsville is, but I think it's at least a year out. Even then, that may require tracking assets from the eastern range at least in the short term.

 

[JRod0802]

I don't think anyone who can talk about it knows what the status of their site in Brownsville is, but I think it's at least a year out. Even then, that may require tracking assets from the eastern range at least in the short term.

I think the current status is that they haven't decided which site they plan on building a private spaceport at. Brownsville is the leading contender though.

This article is as of March 20th:
SpaceX still buying land - Valley Morning Star : Local News

SpaceX spokeswoman Hannah Post also told the Star earlier this year that the company hopes to make an announcement on the site selection this year.

 

[aronth5]

SpaceX test-fires Grasshopper successor and gets a FAA permit to fly/hop

http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/joe_science/spacex-test-fires-grasshopper-successor/article_c5bdb272-b6d9-11e3-8acc-001a4bcf887a.html

http://www.faa.gov/data_research/commercial_space_data/permits/

 

[claytorj]

Some info about the next two SES satellite launches.

SES Books SpaceX Falcon 9 for Hybrid Satellite’s Debut | SpaceNews.com

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

May have been posted before as it looks to be an old video but, saw this Siemens ad featuring SpaceX for the first time, on CNBC today:

The extended version:

 

[HVM]

Unbelievable:

spacenews.com: european service module back on track

In a briefing with journalists, Fioraso said France nonetheless has issues with extending its participation to 2024 without an indication from NASA that its support for rocket builder Space Exploration Technologies Corp. will not permit SpaceX to proceed with “dumping, because that’s what it is” of cheap SpaceX rockets on the international market where they compete with Europe’s Ariane 5 vehicle.

Maybe it’s time to ask; how much euro-gov.-money was/is pushed dirctly to Airbus Defence and Space for R/D of the Ariane Rocket Family?

 

[Mario Kadastik]

They are worried and rightly so ... SpaceX is cutting the cost a lot and Ariane with multinational democratic building with appeasing government participants instead of cost efficiency will not be able to compete at some point. Once SpaceX can ramp up the rocket production and has enough sites to launch regularly they'll undercut the costs even more and getting the reusability on track will make it essentially game-over for the competition.

Now monopoly is never good so I do hope others keep their efforts going, but SpaceX does have a clear path towards the future with increasing cash flow and gaining better and better competitive edge.

 

[Doug_G]

Dumping LOL. The desperation is settling in. They can't compete against a profitable private company. Wonder why...?

 

[Johan]

Wow. I just read the "competitive development" and "TSLA movements" threads. In these a very clear and concise pictures if forming of Tesla wiping the floor with the competetion. Then I come to this thread and realize that this is even more so obvious with SpaceX vs. ULA and the EU guys.

I'm in the US now, flew here in one of the new Boeing Dreamliners. There was an intro movie clip on the screens where Boeing very proudly explained about all the new features of the Dreamliner: no window blinds but electrochromatic window, new design of the luggage racks, better lighting, a tad lower fuel consumption. The plane is nice but really it's not much different from a 747 built in the 70's. While I listened to the presentation all I could think was "You guys [Boeing+Airbus] don't know how lucky you are that Elon doesn't have time right now to do his electric plane". I'm absolutely 100% positive Elon/SpaceX/Tesla or a newly formed company could dominate the comercial airplane market within 10 years. These old dinosaurs wouldn't know what hit them.