Comments on: Retiring senator says NASA in a “good position” for the future

By: Pat

Pat — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:36:28 +0000

With businesses choosing no taxes, how can any one nation afford the luxury (which some see as technological necessity) of space exploration and the multitude of product innovations made possible by such efforts?

Business has virtually chosen to be the American enemy in this regard despite the years of innovation they have captured because of past years of discovery and effort. That is truly a shame, and shows why, today such a headstart on the future should not so easily be dismissed regardless of whether corporates and lobbyists have the foresight to appreciate the past in order to have a future.

America doesn’t need the blind leading the blind; it needs leadership with inspiration, hope, foresight, and courage, and has benefited much from those attributes in the past. Deep diving into technological poverty is not the way, or wave of the future.

By: Vladislaw

Vladislaw — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 23:35:21 +0000

I believe it may be that most of the sat launch orders on the manifest might have room for secondary payloads. The margins would look better hauling it as secondary payload and allows a more concentrated effort on the Falcon 9 line.

By: Coastal Ron

Coastal Ron — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 18:34:18 +0000

Paul wrote @ June 18th, 2012 at 1:09 pm

“I wonder why Falcon 1 didnâ€™t grab some of this market. It could put 670 kg in LEO.”

Apparently Falcon 1 didn’t attract enough orders, which likely is because there isn’t much demand for these types of small payloads.

The other factor is that SpaceX wants to concentrate on the aspects of their business that reinforce their core service, which is Falcon 9, it’s three-core derivative Falcon Heavy, and the reusable versions of Falcon 9. Falcon 1 production tooling would likely take up too much room in their packed Hawthorne manufacturing building, and it wouldn’t make sense to add a new building for a product that suffers from a lack of orders.

Falcon 1 was a learning product for them, but their ultimate product is the bigger Falcon 9 (which is getting even bigger in it’s v1.1 configuration).

By: common sense

common sense — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 18:20:38 +0000

@ Paul wrote @ June 18th, 2012 at 1:09 pm

“I wonder why Falcon 1 didnâ€™t grab some of this market. It could put 670 kg in LEO.”

Not enough of a market, not a priority.

FWIW.

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 17:09:00 +0000

$80,000 dollars a kilo is a bit of an insane price to pay for launching 450 kilograms. The next flight is going to cost even more. No wonder people want to do secondary payloads with SpaceX â€¦ they will be dirt cheap compared to this.

I wonder why Falcon 1 didn’t grab some of this market. It could put 670 kg in LEO.

By: Egad

Egad — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 16:42:37 +0000

> Kay Bailey Hutchison published an opinion column Sunday in the Houston Chronicle:
> â€œAmerican Taxpayers Must Invest in NASAâ€

The first sentence of which is

Since it first became a possibility for man to reach the stars, America has been the leader in space exploration.

Moon, stars, whatever.

By: Stephen C. Smith

Stephen C. Smith — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:10:53 +0000

Kay Bailey Hutchison published an opinion column Sunday in the Houston Chronicle: "American Taxpayers Must Invest in NASA"

By: Doug Lassiter

Doug Lassiter — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 15:19:03 +0000

Coastal Ron wrote @ June 16th, 2012 at 12:00 am
“Pegasus XL may be shut down for lack of orders, especially after the cancellation of the NASA GEMS program. I think you jinxed them.”

The SLS advocacy community is ready for it. SLS will be able to loft 200 NuStars in one launch! The science community is overwhelmed with delight. That’s a lot of black holes. Why, to build and operate all those satellites should only cost, er, $15 billion. Tack on another $1B for a launch and hey, you’re good to go.

By: Vladislaw

Vladislaw — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 13:09:06 +0000

From Coastal Ron’s link:

“NASA paid Orbital approximately $36 million for the just-completed NuSTAR launch. Next yearâ€™s IRIS launch, which was put under contract in 2010, will cost about $40 million.”

By: Coastal Ron

Coastal Ron — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 04:00:21 +0000

amightywind wrote @ June 13th, 2012 at 4:36 pm "Congratulations to the space entrepreneurs at Orbital Sciences and their historic launch of NuSTAR. It is a new era. Pegasus XL is a game changer." And you wonder why no one believes your predictions... Pegasus XL may be shut down for lack of orders, especially after the cancellation of the NASA GEMS program. I think you jinxed them.