Main Engine Cut OffThings are starting to heat up surrounding Blue Origin’s orbital plans, and I expect to hear more sometime soon—especially with the BE-4 nearing its full-up test. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Blue Origin enter the competition for the next round of NASA cargo and crew contracts.
Sad to see Nexø I plunge into the Baltic Sea, but they recovered the rocket successfully so it looks like they should get some good data out of this launch.
This kind of autonomy is going to be hugely beneficial, especially when you consider the signal delay between Earth and Mars which is between 4 and 24 minutes.
Elon forgot to add “Build a rover for the Mars colony” to this list. After all, Bioweapon Defense Mode sounds like a pretty good thing to have on a planet filled with air that isn’t yet breathable.
A former resident talks about SpaceX’s plans for—and construction of—their own commercial spaceport near Brownsville, Texas. Pretty interesting to read about the social and economic collision that is happening straight from someone with great perspective on it. The new spaceport will be launching Falcon 9 and Heavy, and presumably the insanely huge Mars rocket—often called the Mars Colonial Transporter—that SpaceX is due to unveil in September.
Hidden in this article about the Mars 2020 budget is a piece about a potential sample return mission that I find particularly interesting.
A good bit of insight into the changes going on over at ULA that I had not heard before. I still have concerns about the roadmap to get Vulcan up and operating, but there are clearly some good strides being taken to get there.
The crowdfunded, nonprofit, amateur (in operation—not in spirit!) space program is preparing to launch the Nexø I rocket this weekend. They’re currently targeting Saturday, July 23rd.
Describing Spaceport America as “fully operational” isn’t untrue, but still somewhat of an overstatement.