Main Engine Cut OffBehind the Scenes at the Eastern Range
Absolutely fascinating read about the work done by the 45th last week in response to the Amos-6 incident.
224 results for “ULA”
Weekend Watchlist: Mighty Atlas
If you need something good to watch this weekend, I suggest an Atlas-themed weekend, in honor of the launch of OSIRIS-REx, and ULA’s 111th straight successful launch.
Blue Origin to Test New Shepard In-Flight Abort
A full transcript of Jeff Bezos’ email is at the link above, and they posted a nice animation of the flight on YouTube. They’ll be live-streaming the test in the “first part of October.”
OSIRIS-REx Reaches Launch Under Budget
They’re around $30 million under budget. It’s great to see a New Frontiers mission come in that far under budget.
Arianespace Focuses on Faster Horses
That’s a fine strategy for the here and now, but it isn’t a viable long-term strategy by any means. SpaceX isn’t the only one coming for Arianespace’s market share by way of reusability.
Antares Waiting on Launch Date
We’re still about a month out from OA-5, but it’s a good sign that Orbital ATK made any comment. The radio silence has been deafening after their static fire.
T+19: SpaceX’s Manifest, Flight-Proven Hardware, Blue Origin Updates, and Antares’ Engines
SpaceX has a busy manifest as they close out 2016, including SES-10 which will fly with a “flight-proven” first stage. A few bits of info have come out regarding Blue Origin’s future plans—including flying diverse payloads on New Shepard, and construction of their factory in Florda. Antares’ return-to-flight launch date is still a mystery, and I have a theory about its future engines.
First Batch of Iridium NEXT Satellites at Launch Site
The first launch is just under a month away. It’ll be the first launch for SpaceX from Vandenberg since January. I’m particularly interested in the flight pattern and recovery of this first stage. Last we heard, SpaceX was working on RTLS clearance for Vandenberg flights, and was constructing what looked like their west coast landing zone.
New Video on ACES from ULA
ULA posted a new video about the Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage over on YouTube. They spend a lot of time talking about on-orbit refueling, distributed lift, and Integrated Vehicle Fluids. The video even shows a little sneak peek of Xeus, the Masten-ULA lunar lander collaboration.
Some More Details on NanoRacks’ Centaur Wet Workshop Concept
I like how NanoRacks is approaching this—looking objectively at hardware that’s in use today to put things together in interesting ways.