Comments on: Administration responds to one pointed column

By: E.P. Grondine

E.P. Grondine — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:16:46 +0000

Hi DL –

I seem to remember that the first rule of reporting is to spell the names right, and clearly I’m no longer capable of doing that reliably.

My guess is that Goldin proposed 8 meters based on the NLS fairing.

By: Coastal Ron

Coastal Ron — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 06:20:51 +0000

Hey MrEarl, what do you think of the excitement generated by Planetary Resources, Inc.?

John Stewart on the Daily Show was pretty jazzed by the announcement, and used his entire lead segment last night to talk about it – ahead of talking about Willard Mitt Romney sweeping five states (admittedly not too surprising). Elon Musk was on his show last week.

Even DCSCA’s current 21st Century heartthrob (Neil deGrasse Tyson) popped in on John Stewart to say that Planetary Resources asteroid mining plan was “No Bullsh*t”.

Sounds like America is excited about stuff going on with commercial space. Does that ease your anxiety any?

By: Dark Blue Nine

Dark Blue Nine — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 02:22:51 +0000

“LOL you donâ€™t know much about James Cameron.”

I wasn’t talking about Cameron.

Try to keep up.

By: Fred Willett

Fred Willett — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:58:40 +0000

Up to now SpaceX has been in the development phase of it’s business where every flight is testing something new. This makes slips inevitable.
The only flight they’ve had to date where everything was unchanged was the Falcon 1 flight 4 where the total difference beween flight 3 and 4 was a difference of 2 seconds in the timing of stage sep to 2nd stage engine fire.
It’s worth noting that in this case the time between launches was just 8 weeks.
So if SpaceX can do regular launches (or not) is not going to be known until the COTS 2 (and COTS 3 if needed) missions are flown. Once they are flown we will see if SpaceX can start to work through its CRS and commercial launches in a timely, smooth and mostly slip free manner.
Till then Tick, tock, tick, tock comments by some posters here are just noise from empty vessels.

By: DCSCA

DCSCA — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:41:56 +0000

Dark Blue Nine wrote @ April 24th, 2012 at 3:47 pm

These citizens are risking wealth and careers to mine asteroids:

LOL you don’t know much about James Cameron.

By: BeancounterFromDownunder

BeancounterFromDownunder — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:50:06 +0000

In addition, it’s a test flight in case some of you have forgotten that fact. There’s nothing hard and fast about test programs. Slow and steady wins the day, everytime.

By: Dark Blue Nine

Dark Blue Nine — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 03:43:16 +0000

“I find the repeated slips so close to launch day to be amateurish.”

Yeah, because real rocket men ignore what their contractors and technical experts are telling them, or fail to test in the first place, consequences be damned!

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/51-l/docs/rogers-commission/table-of-contents.html

http://caib.nasa.gov/

Why avert potential disaster with days to spare when you can blow years of schedule, multi-billion dollar assets, and over a dozen human lives?

By: DCSCA

DCSCA — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 00:56:15 +0000

@Stephen C. Smith wrote @ April 24th, 2012 at 7:19 pm

“SpaceX just sent out an announcement that they, NASA and CCAFS have agreed to set a new launch date/time of 9:38 AM EDT on Monday May 7.”

Don’t bet the ranch on it. The most reliable thing about the content of Space X press releases is their unreliablity, particularly when it comes to prognostications about schedules.

By: Doug Lassiter

Doug Lassiter — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 23:52:38 +0000

E.P. Grondine wrote @ April 24th, 2012 at 11:24 am
“In regards to Golden and the NGST, what was the payload fairing size for the NLS?”

It’s Goldin, with an “i”. Just take it from Boldin, Griffen, or O’Keife.

The fairing size doesn’t matter. The 4m version of NGST would presumably have fit cleanly and unfolded with shielding in a 5m diameter (ELV-H) fairing. Larger versions would have been folded. Probably still in a 5m fairing. Bigger telescope, more folds, more actuators, more hinges, lots more $$.

Re the topic, Goldin didn’t make many mistakes. His faster, cheaper, better wasn’t a mistake, just a mantra that wasn’t carried out that well. It too was a noble challenge that the agency couldn’t handle. Sensebrenner’s comments about NASA’s “crown jewel” are hilarious, given his distaste for NASA projects that went over budget.

By: Stephen C. Smith

Stephen C. Smith — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 23:19:09 +0000

SpaceX just sent out an announcement that they, NASA and CCAFS have agreed to set a new launch date/time of 9:38 AM EDT on Monday May 7.