Delta Heavy / Image Credit United Launch Alliance An Innerspace Editorial: In what seems to be becoming something of an annual affair, it was SpaceX versus United Launch Alliance Round earlier this week in Washington D.C. Last year, SpaceX’s Elon Musk and ULA’s Michael Gass squared off against each other in a highly contentious Senate […]
First and and so far only SpaceX launch from Vandenberg : Image Credit SpaceX According to a story first reported in Space News, SpaceX is now leasing a second launch pad from the Air Force at Vandenberg, Ca. Although SpaceX has not made any recent public statements, the lease of Space Launch Complex-4 West (SLC-4W) […]
Only a few days after officially entering mediation, SpaceX has agreed to drop its lawsuit against the Air Force’s block buy of 36 launch cores from ULA under the EELV program. Here a joint statement released by SpaceX the Air Force: “The Air Force and SpaceX have reached agreement on a path forward for the […]
On April 28, 2014, SpaceX filed a lawsuit in the United States Court of Federal Claims seeking to block the USAF “block buy” of 36 rocket cores from the EELV program’s sole source provider United Launch Alliance. After a series of legal maneuvers which included a temporary injunction, soon dismissed, against further purchases of Russian […]
Image Credit: SpaceX While SpaceX’s effort to break into the EELV launch market has garnered a great deal of media attention, the company has also been working quietly to earn a spot as a trusted supplier of launch services for NASA’s high profile science missions. With today’s announcement the company has officially crossed that threshold. […]
And the Award Goes To… Atlas V! Image Credit : United Launch Alliance When Orbital Sciences Chairman and CEO David W. Thompson told investors during a conference call on November 5th that his company would be awarding at least one, and possibly two Cygnus launches to another supplier in the wake of the Antares launch […]
Visions of Future Past / Image Credit NASA Following a one day delay due to weather and balky liquid hydrogen fill/drain valves, a ULA Delta Heavy launch vehicle bearing the first space capable Orion capsule lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s SLC-37. Launch, which took place right on time 7:05 AM ET, was flawless, although viewers […]
Hydrogen Piston Pump: Image Credit XCOR Aerospace XCOR has announced a new milestone in its upper stage engine program being supported by United Launch Alliance. The complete press release is below. From a big picture standpoint, ULA appears to be in an interesting state of transition, with stories coming out in a bad cop/good cop […]
Michal Gass, Former President and CEO of United Launch Alliance Following up on questions posed in a letter by U.S. Senator John McCain to the US Air Force chief of acquisitions, Reuters has been looking closer into the United Launch Alliance RD-180 issue, and the mysterious five person company RD-Amross, which serves as the Russian […]
Will Cygnus be on the Manifest? Image Credit SpaceX One week after the loss of an Antares launch vehicle carrying a Cygnus cargo vessel bound for the International Space Station, Orbital Sciences Corporation held a conference call with investors to discuss what it has learned about the accident thus far, and its plans for going […]
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