Comments on: Administration opposes funding RD-180 replacement in defense bill

By: sftommy

sftommy — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 19:06:30 +0000

Bloomberg has noticed and gave Shelby’s views a little fresh air into the business community:

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-06-23/spacex-versus-senator-shelby-s-rocket-to-nowehere

By: Vladislaw

Vladislaw — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 16:27:43 +0000

When President Obama presented his NASA budget in 2010 that called for fully funding a replacement engine for the 180 and the republicans refused to fund it .. was that the republicans trying to claw back national strength by continued use of russian engines?

By: Henry Vanderbilt

Henry Vanderbilt — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 22:31:46 +0000

To extend (and perhaps clarify) the analogy, the proper thing for space advocates to do with bureaucratic dinosaurs like the SLS organization is not to waste time try to teach them new behaviors they haven’t a chance of ever usefully learning.

It’s to put the minimum necessary energy into preventing them from trampling anything useful, while focusing as much as possible on encouraging those useful things.

By: Henry Vanderbilt

Henry Vanderbilt — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 22:26:24 +0000

So, you’re advising me to apply my limited time and resources to pressuring old-guard NASA to go for reusability in the SLS first stage? (Or at least engine recovery?)

I personally think my time would be better spent trying to teach a brontosaur to roller-skate.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

By: Donald F. Robertson

Donald F. Robertson — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 21:49:46 +0000

I should have said, I wish the administration had won this battle in full, instead of the half victory they achieved.

By: Donald F. Robertson

Donald F. Robertson — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 21:47:59 +0000

Reader: Someone, somewhere in this administration has their head screwed on right in regards of kicking some life into the moribund domestic aerospace industry.

This relatively conservative Democrat has long believed that the Obama Administration is doing exactly the right thing (jumping onto the “New Space” bandwagon) for exactly the wrong reasons (to avoid having to spend any more money, political capital, or even thought than he has to on spaceflight without hurting his party’s chances in future elections). If so, more power to him indeed.

If nothing else, itâ€™s given us six years of wonderful theater as a relatively liberal Democrat fights for free market capitalism against the entrenched opposition of (wait for it) supposedly free market Republicans fighting tooth and nail for nothing less than Socialism. I don’t really care _why_ we ended up developing three human spacecraft, at least two of which are far superior to anything else on the table, only that we are. I only wish the Administration had won this battle. But, as somebody else implied above, winning political battles does not seem to be this President’s skill.

— Donald

By: Dark Blue Nine

Dark Blue Nine — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 18:18:54 +0000

“TR-107 never existed â€“ in more than viewgraphs and subsystem prototypes.”

I never claimed such. I only claimed that NG “extended” TR-106 work into TR-107, a 1Mlbf LOX/RP-1 engine design that should be scalable down to RD-180 size.

“OSC does not ‘own’ ATK, you got this backwards.”

See other reply directly above.

By: Dick Eagleson

Dick Eagleson — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 13:32:17 +0000

OSC does not â€œownâ€ ATK, you got this backwards.

No, he didn’t. The folding of ATK’s former space and defense division into Orbital was done, nominally, as a merger of equals, but the senior management of the former ATK stayed with the sporting arms and ammunition operation. Part of ATK’s second echelon were slotted in at Orbital. Orbital’s pre-existing senior management is still in place. So, yeah, as a practical matter, Orbital pretty much owns ATK.

By: amightywind

amightywind — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 13:01:26 +0000

There is an interesting story at spaceflightnow on this topic:

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1406/18ula/#.U6LdFfldW4I

Obama should have talked to the military first.

By: Ben Russell-Gough

Ben Russell-Gough — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 12:40:38 +0000

I’ve got the feeling that statement from the Administration translates to: “We’re going to keep kicking this can down the road so we don’t have to make a decision; we’re not really very good at those!”