Tag: Falcon Heavy

SpaceX Reaches Merlin Milestone

SpaceX Reaches Merlin Milestone

100: Image Credit SpaceX SpaceX has announced via website update a milestone in the production of its Merlin 1D engine. “Less than two years after SpaceX began producing the Merlin 1D engines that power the Falcon 9 rocket, the 100th Merlin 1D engine is complete. SpaceX is currently the largest private producer of rocket engines […]

Posted in: SpaceX
The Mars One Plan: Bleak? or Needs to be Tweeked?

The Mars One Plan: Bleak? or Needs to be Tweeked?

Not so “bleak.”  Image Credit: Mars One Last week at the International Astronautical Congress, a team of graduate students from MIT presented a paper entitled, “An Independent Assessment Of the Technical Feasibility Of The Mars One Mission Plan.” This week, space media began reporting on the study with headlines such as this:  “MIT Analysis Paints […]

Posted in: Mars
Blue Origin, ULA Announce New Engine Project

Blue Origin, ULA Announce New Engine Project

The Times They Are A Changin Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance held a news conference at the National Press Club today entitled “Igniting the Future.” The purpose was announce the joint development of a new main engine to replace the Russian built RD-180 which powers the Atlas V booster. Called the BE-4, the new […]

SpaceX: More Orders, a New F-9R, but No Legs

SpaceX: More Orders, a New F-9R, but No Legs

A general roundup of SpaceX news as the latest launch week begins. Tweets from Aviation Week coming from a conference in Paris relay that SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told an audience that the company had signed 9 new launch orders including possibly “2 to 3 Heavies”  Once confirmed, it would would be solid counter to […]

Posted in: SpaceX
Ariane V Scores 61st Consecutive Successful Launch, But Does it Have a Future?

Ariane V Scores 61st Consecutive Successful Launch, But Does it Have a Future?

Image Credit: Arianespace Industry leader Arianespace reached a historic milestone yesterday, conducting the 75th launch of the Ariane V rocket. It was also the 61st consecutive successful flight for booster, which lifted off in its traditional duel payload configuration, carrying two satellites, MEASAT-3b and Optus 10. In typical fashion, Arianespace was not shy about touting […]

Posted in: Arianespace
Highlights From SpaceX FISO Presentation

Highlights From SpaceX FISO Presentation

SpaceX lead astronaut Garrett Reisman gave a presentation to NASA’s Future In-Space Operations (FISO) working group on Wednesday. The presentation, entitled “Commercial Spaceflight” is available here in PDF on the FISO archives. The audio is here. While the talk does not reveal any significant new developments, it did shed a little more light on a […]

Posted in: Uncategorized
Space Launch System First Flight Slips Nearly By Nearly a Year

Space Launch System First Flight Slips Nearly By Nearly a Year

NASA issued a press release (below) and then held a press conference today regarding the Space Launch System. The ostensible reason was to announce the completion of a program go/no go threshold called a Key Decision Point C (KDP-C.)  The real reason was to announce a slip in the first launch date by nearly a […]

Posted in: NASA, SLS / Orion
SpaceX Lands Falcon Heavy Order with Inmarsat, Two More Possible

SpaceX Lands Falcon Heavy Order with Inmarsat, Two More Possible

Note: This marks a substantial order for SpaceX, and a strong vote of confidence by one of the blue blood players in the ComSat industry.  Thus far, and despite the ground breaking potential of the Falcon Heavy, commercial orders have been somewhat slow in coming.  If today’s order ultimately results in three Falcon Heavy missions, […]

Posted in: SpaceX
FAA Report Shows SpaceX is Almost Clear to Land in Texas

FAA Report Shows SpaceX is Almost Clear to Land in Texas

Based on an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) released by the FAA today, it appears that SpaceX is on the threshold of officially declaring what has seemed inevitable for some time, the Lone Star State is about to get its own spaceport. Based on the report, SpaceX envisions up to 12 launches per year from the site, […]

SpaceX Dragon V2: What it Might Mean

SpaceX Dragon V2: What it Might Mean

As much of the space world counts down to the 7:00 PM PT “reveal” of the SpaceX Dragon V2, (or DragonRider if you prefer) and executives at other aerospace companies reach into the desk to reassure themselves that the bottle of Xanex isn’t completely empty yet, a lot of the discussion has been regarding how […]

Posted in: Dragon, SpaceX
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