Comments on: Senate appropriators to hear from SpaceX and ULA on military space launch issues

By: Coastal Ron

Coastal Ron — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 20:45:49 +0000

Heck of a hearing today – not your usual bland hearing. Musk (SpaceX) and Gass (ULA) were throwing punches back and forth, and the Senators were egging them on.

I think Musk came out ahead, mainly because he was advocating for competition, lower prices, and buying 100% American. Hard to argue against that…

By: DocM

DocM — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 10:50:43 +0000

Typo: initial Raptor ~660,000 lbf, not klbf.

By: DocM

DocM — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 10:48:59 +0000

Re: SpaceX’s Raptor methane engine,

Raptor was initially speced at ~660,000 klbf, but recently Tom Mueller (SpX’s VP of Propulsion) stated it will deliver 1 million lbf. Kinda big for an F9/FH upper stage don’t you think?

He also explicitly said it’s for a 10 meter core, 9 Raptor lower stage, so it’s not just the fan boys opinion that it’s for a BFR.

Component tests start at Stennis this year.

By: Robert G Oler

Robert G Oler — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 09:08:15 +0000

The GOP has something right now that helps with that…a fan base that more or less believes what they are told on Fox News. today black is green tomorrow it is white…no problem. RGO

By: Gary Warburton

Gary Warburton — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 04:42:44 +0000

Hurrah, It`s has been said at last, said at last. Now, how are these republican congressmen going to squirm their way out of this one, without looking silly?

By: Neil Shipley

Neil Shipley — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 01:34:17 +0000

Fred. In case you weren’t aware of it, SpaceX just picked up an SES satellite weighing in at about 5,300kg to BEO so the published figures are conservative.

F9v1.1 to leo is calculated at some 16mt so again published figures are conservative. This could be due to SpaceX reservations for reuse of the first stage. Elon recently stated that he was very happy with the vehicle and that they were flying at 85% thrust levels on the Merlin 1D so that also could be the reason.

Either way, the vehicle is very capable and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see it pick up payloads around the 5,500kg to BEO. In addition, it seems to be very reliable as well.

By: josh

josh — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 22:40:42 +0000

in an open and free market, undistorted by favors from bought and paid for politicians and corrupt dod officials ula would have long vanished from the scene. their prices are simply obscene. this is corporate welfare at its worst, i.e. ula enriching themselves at the cost of the taxpayer.
old space can’t wither and die soon enough.

By: josh

josh — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 22:36:11 +0000

ridiculous and inept attempts to defend crony capitalism and corporate welfare. you’re pathetic.
got to keep that 1 billion dollar a year subsidy going, eh?

By: josh

josh — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 22:34:09 +0000

are you surprised? windy’s job is on the line. he is relying on the taxpayers to pay his salary for the undproductive, unneeded ‘work’ he does atk.

By: josh

josh — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 22:32:34 +0000

the dod is not nearly lean enough yet. prepare to get your feathers ruffled a lot more from now on, windy. the good old days of pork unlimited are over.