Comments on: Brief notes

By: Beancounter from Downunder

Beancounter from Downunder — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 01:41:42 +0000

A bit OT but:
you know, just a thought. I wonder if there are any organisations who would be willing to fly as crew on a SpaceX Falcon/Dragon to a Bigelow space station (Sundancer due for launch 2014 but with slip, say 2015/16) without a LAS of any sort.
With Dragon Cargo just about ready to go, and say it’s successful (no reason why not), there will be a dozen or more launch and returns before it’s called on to do crew. Suppose it’s 100% succcessful. All you need is an upgraded life support and seats to handle crew. Nothing else since Dragon Cargo does everything autonomously. The LES; actually for Dragon it’s more than just launch since it’s all the way to orbit; is the long timeframe and expensive item holding Dragon Crew up.

Shuttle flys without one!!
Well!!? Any takers??

By: Rand Simberg

Rand Simberg — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 18:36:32 +0000

t/Space was never a “business.” It was an alliance of companies flying in loose formation. It could be reassembled quite easily.

By: common sense

common sense — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 23:15:55 +0000

@ Martijn Meijering wrote @ October 30th, 2010 at 7:07 pm

“Maybe they went into hibernation as a paper business for a while, with the owners employed elsewhere?”

Yep could be.

By: Martijn Meijering

Martijn Meijering — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 23:07:18 +0000

Maybe they went into hibernation as a paper business for a while, with the owners employed elsewhere?

By: common sense

common sense — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 22:36:47 +0000

@ Martijn Meijering wrote @ October 30th, 2010 at 6:03 pm

“t/Space is on the list of companies expressing interest in CCDev 2.”

Okay then. Good for them! I thought they went out of business but maybe I just misunderstood.

By: Martijn Meijering

Martijn Meijering — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 22:03:58 +0000

t/Space is on the list of companies expressing interest in CCDev 2.

By: common sense

common sense — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 21:47:35 +0000

@ Vladislaw wrote @ October 30th, 2010 at 12:30 pm

I believe t/Space is out of business after losing the CEV but I am not sure. I also doubt they will go this route. But just a hunch. Don’t know.

By: Coastal Ron

Coastal Ron — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 19:30:59 +0000

eh wrote @ October 30th, 2010 at 2:45 pm

“Sounds like Congress was anticipating the stretched tank given the language.”

I think all Congress was anticipating was how to keep certain constituents (people and companies) in the loop after the end of Constellation. We’ll see soon if that worked…

By: eh

eh — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 18:45:10 +0000

100mt first stage is listed in the HEFT chart as a stretched tank with 5 segment. That will get them to 130mt in the chart with a J2x second stage. Sounds like Congress was anticipating the stretched tank given the language.

By: Vladislaw

Vladislaw — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 16:30:45 +0000

Burt Rutan and T.space had proposed an air launched system for the CEV program. It required a large launch plane. Virgin has the large launch plane now. The two companies Branson refers to is probably these two companies.