It is definitely space themed weekend in the Lone Star State. After meeting with a Texas House of Representatives committee yesterday to discuss a potential commercial spaceport in Cameron county, SpaceX founder Elon Musk delivered a keynote address at the South By Southwest Festival in Austin. But that wasn’t all, during the speech Musk showed new footage of a Grasshopper test flight, […]
As spaceship Earth embarks on another trip around the Sun, it’s an appropriate occasion to take a look ahead at the New Year and consider what developments might take place which could change the fundamental cost basis of reaching orbit. Suborbital Space: After seemingly endless delays, 2013 is poised to be the breakout year for the reusable suborbital launch industry. (but […]
If for some reason you weren’t looking forward to next year, here is a reason to reconsider. This video comes from a December 17th test flight of the SpaceX Grasshopper reusable test vehicle conducted at the company’s McGregor, Tx rocket development facility. Propelled by a Merlin 1D engine using deep throttling capability and closed loop vector control, the craft […]
The recently reported split between SpaceX and Stratolaunch Systems raises some interesting questions regarding the future of Paul Allen’s project. The inclusion of SpaceX and its Falcon launch vehicle always seemed to make more sense for Stratolaunch than it did for SpaceX, which after all, is doing quite nicely on its own. According to reports, Stratolaunch, which has yet to […]
The SpaceX Grasshopper makes another small leap in the pursuit of first stage reusability in this video tweeted by Elon Musk on Saturday, November 3. While there are a number of efforts to develop reusable launch vehicles underway, most, like Blue Origin, are taking an incremental, scaled approach to the issue starting with subscale, suborbital systems and working their way up. […]
Only a day after the Boeing 747 carrying Space Shuttle Endeavour touched down in California, bringing the last orbiter to ever experience flight, albeit only captive carry for this final trip, Elon Musk tweeted this brief glimpse into what may be absolute dawn of a new era of fully reusable spaceflight. Announced roughly a year ago, the SpaceX Falcon Grasshopper is […]
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