Main Engine Cut OffT+80: DARPA Launch Challenge
The DARPA Launch Challenge has been officially unveiled, so I spent some time breaking down the competition and speculating about who will enter and what DARPA wants out of it.
224 results for “ULA”
BE-4 Updates
Alan Boyle, for GeekWire, with a handful of BE-4 updates, including some behind-the-scenes insight on ULA’s decision and the testing issue last year.
Lockheed Martin Selected to Build Low-Boom Flight Demonstration Aircraft
Quieter than the SEPTA buses that drive by my front door here in Philadelphia. I’ll be keeping an eye on this.
Eschewing Cost-Plus, Lacking Vision
In the Flexible Path era, NASA has always been flexible on both the vision and the details. That is why the human exploration program is floundering.
T+75: March Roundup
A few interesting documents have been released: the late-but-final 2018 appropriations, NASA’s lunar cargo lander request for information, and the public summary of the NASA Independent Review Team’s investigation into the CRS-7 mishap. And a few interesting announcements were made: NASA Acting Administration Robert Lightfoot is going to retire, and the Air Force awarded contracts for another round of EELV Phase 1A launches.
GEM 63 Boosters to Fly on Atlas V in “About a Year”
Forgot to post this until now, but last week after the GOES-S launch, I asked ULA CEO Tory Bruno when we’d see the new Orbital ATK GEM 63 solid boosters on Atlas V. He responded: “About a year or so.”
The Regulatory Scapegoat
While I admit that companies like Moon Express do need regulatory clarity before spending too much time and money on a project in a regulatory gray area, there are not many projects held up purely because of regulatory uncertainty.
James Webb Space Telescope Problems Continue
This mission gives me such agita. Always.
NASA’s Launch Vehicle “Stable Configuration” Double Standard
This requirement grew out of concerns about SpaceX and how frequently they update the design of Falcon 9. And from where NASA stands, it’s a totally valid concern and requirement. The problem is that it has very blatantly only ever been applied to SpaceX.
Canaveral’s Polar Express
This will only get really interesting when someone books a launch to use such a path, and any thoughts of consolidating all US launch infrastructure to a single location are nonsensical, but the possibility does enable some fun discussions for those working on Falcon Heavy and New Glenn, specifically.