NASA and the Private Sector - Page 77

On January 21 2016 12:22 misirlou wrote:
e: the new planet theory sounds pretty cool, not sure if the researchers got really lucky to find the orbital anomaly on those smaller bodies or if it exists in several other bodies that weren't noticed/found. Hope they can find the planet to prove it, now that we have an idea of it's orbit it shouldn't take very long

On January 22 2016 19:44 ApocAlypsE007 wrote:


Keep in mind that the distance from the sun is VERY large, so it will not get alot of light making it incredibly hard to spot, especially if it is colored dark blue like Neptune. Space mechanics are pretty rigid, so scientists should have a rough idea where the planet is now.

On January 22 2016 19:44 ApocAlypsE007 wrote:


Keep in mind that the distance from the sun is VERY large, so it will not get alot of light making it incredibly hard to spot, especially if it is colored dark blue like Neptune. Space mechanics are pretty rigid, so scientists should have a rough idea where the planet is now.

On January 21 2016 10:00 oBlade wrote:
Dream Chaser should be a neat vehicle. Spaceplanes are a lot more sensible without cargo bays.

On January 23 2016 22:26 JimmyJRaynor wrote:


it has a cargo capacity of 5500 KG. i suspect its a lot less than the space shuttle given how small it is. the dream chaser is still in development so i wouldn't be surprised to see that 5500 kg limit change in the next 3 years.

On January 24 2016 06:11 oBlade wrote:

The spacecraft does not have a cargo bay that has doors that open directly to space like the Space Shuttle did. That is what I'm saying is a bad idea. The unmanned cargo version of Dream Chaser would ferry the amount of cargo you're talking about. For reference, you could probably fit two Dream Chasers head-to-tail inside an Orbiter payload bay if you only cut the wings off.

On January 24 2016 07:08 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
Heat Shield tiles were a big issue with the space shuttle so it'll be interesting to see how SNC tackles a problem that plagued the space shuttle for decades. In many ways the story of SNC's space plane's development is interwoven with the evolution of heat shield technology since the 1960s.

One of SpaceX's competitors made a risky move last year that could now cost it a multi-billion dollar contract with the US Air Force.

At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said that Air Force staff were currently investigating the repercussions of prematurely ending its contract with the launch services provider United Launch Alliance.

Under the contract — called the EELV (Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle) Launch Capability (ELC) contract — the US Air Force agrees to pay ULA $800 million per year from 2006 to 2019 to ferry national security satellites to space.

There's just one problem: SpaceX, the private spaceflight company owned and founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Last year, when Google and Fidelity invested $1 billion into Elon Musk’s SpaceX, one of the company’s earliest backers also wanted to get in on the latest round of funding.

But SpaceX ever-so politely asked Steve Jurvetson’s Silicon Valley venture capital firm to kindly hold off. SpaceX, one of the hottest enterprises in the rising commercial space industry, suddenly could afford to turn money away.

“There’s so much interest, they can’t take it all,” Jurvetson said. So they decided to “just bring on one new investor to make life simple.”

With some significant breakthroughs, led by high-profile billionaires such as Musk, Amazon.com founder Jeffrey P. Bezos and Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson, the commercial space sector has started to capture the public imagination and make space travel cool again.

Now the investment community, which typically has viewed space as far too risky and dangerous a bet, is courting the industry. High-profile breakthroughs, such as the spectacular rocket landings that SpaceX and Bezos’s Blue Origin recently pulled off, show that ventures aimed for the stars are making revolutionary advancements. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

There are many milestones in the life of a space-launch company: developing rocket technology; enduring the rigors of test flights; launching successfully and reliably. But getting investors to place a bet is perhaps one of the greatest hurdles of all, especially considering the risks inherent in spaceflight.

The new space investors are catching up with the slow, but growing development of the commercial space sector, which NASA has been fostering for years. With the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, NASA has awarded billions of dollars in contracts to commercial companies so that they could develop rockets to fly cargo — and, eventually, astronauts — to the International Space Station.

till, the industry is diverse, and different sectors are more advanced, and profitable, than others. Cubesats, the tiny satellites that can swarm around the Earth beaming back images of the planet, are already in high demand. Launching commercial and government satellites is also big business. But the emergence of other sectors, such as space tourism and asteroid mining, is still in the future.

And it could give SpaceX, which is already scheduled to launch more than half of the world's commercial satellite missions this year, [...].

On February 04 2016 18:24 zatic wrote:

This is real? SpaceX already has more than half of the commercial launch market? Wow didn't realize that.