As much of Artemis as possible is already manifested on Falcon Heavy, so they must be talking about Starship and New Glenn coming up. My money is on those being operational well before Block 1B.
I’m hoping that an Artemis program still relying on Orion but flying on something else would have most of the crazy political support of the SLS+Orion pair.
Momentus … reported $299,000 in revenue for 2022, less than 1% of the $152 million it told investors to expect.
That’s dizzyingly bad. And it was predictable, unless you listened to the SPAC subreddit…
Astra and Satellogic are also rough. Virgin Orbit is dead. ASTS is another post-SPAC in this group that isn’t listed in the article and has low/no revenue.
These should not be public companies. They were just desperate for money when it was cheap.
Operating it with Amtrak on freight rail lines could be a good start (can we just Eminent Domain the ones for Boulder and Longmont already…). I hope that it eventually connects down to Trinidad or La Junta to connect to the Amtrak Southwest Chief. And up to Cheyenne. AND gets new right of way and high speed rail. That commuter corridor could be a lot more efficient than continually crying about I-25.
Sept. 30 (UPI) -- Elon Musk is under fire after publicly backing a far-right political party in Germany, suggesting the current government should not be re-elected over its position on the current migrant crisis in Europe.
Regarding the profitability - spaceflight isn’t profitable yet. Some companies are trying to do manufacturing and mining that could be profitable in the future, especially if launch costs keep dropping. Moving heavy industry off planet seems like a good goal to me. That’s also ignoring different imaging and communications companies that are doing alright.
Regarding privatization - NASA has contacted out services from their literal beginning in the Mercury program. Contracting out basic/boring launch makes sense to me and lets them focus on bigger ideas. I don’t really think SpaceX is “subsidized” vs winning contracts to deliver hardware and provide services, especially when you compare to their competition for programs like ISS commercial crew/cargo and Artemis human landing system, where their direct competitors (Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Blue Origin, etc) are more expensive.
My big gripe is that no one else has launch capacity right now, so SpaceX has no pressure to get cheaper and companies don’t have a choice. Ariane 5 retired, Atlas V is booked out, and Vulcan, Ariane 6, New Glenn, Neutron, Terran R, etc. are not flying yet.
I’m really conflicted on this one. Behind schedule and $10 billion will inevitably turn into even more behind schedule and even more money. The opportunity cost of the money is a big part of that.
I’m also still holding out hope that SpaceX will get Starship to Mars and back some time in the 2030s, but maybe that’s too naïve or optimistic of me.
I think a real key will be getting geologists on the ground there. The productivity comparison is something crazy, like, an astronaut could do a few years of rover work in a week.
It would be cool if NASA’s budget was raised, but in the meantime we have to deal with the reality that a flagship mission going way over budget takes money away from other programs.
It’ll be interesting to see which approaches companies take, like whether they opt to take a slight payload/Delta-V hit to keep prop for deorbiting or heading to a graveyard, or if tugs are more popular.
There will have to be some cost trade-offs for the big GEO sats. What is the extra fuel worth to the satellite owner? Or expedited delivery to the target orbit? Is it worth the cost of sending a separate little deorbit tug up for the 2nd stage? Or a separate refuelling mission somewhere down the line?
I think this is the last inflatable as part of a Commercial LEO Destination station now that Starlab switched away from a Lockheed inflatable? I’m not sure how much inflatables will make sense once the massive payload volumes of Starship and New Glenn come online, though.
While the individual constellations of Iceye or Planet don’t pose risks to astronomy, given the small number of satellites compared to megaconstellations like Starlink, astronomers are concerned that large numbers of such constellations could, combined, interfere with astronomy.
This is the part that really stood out to me.
It’s great that Starlink was proactive on working with the FCC on this and that’s starting to morph into a standard, even for smaller constellations that wouldn’t have a big impact on their own.
I’m hoping that something similar will start to happen for deorbit provisions.
They’re the first to go for a reentry license through Part 450, which was supposed to streamline the process. Hopefully Varda has the funding to ride out these regulatory hurdles.
Psyche on Its Way to Metal-Rich Asteroid (spacepolicyonline.com)
NASA should consider commercial alternatives to SLS, inspector general says (arstechnica.com)
Firefox tests a built-in checker for fake reviews (www.theverge.com)
Solar System missions as of October 2023
How wrong were space SPAC projections? (spacenews.com)
Polis wants to land billions for Front Range rail. He’s looking to local leaders for help (www.cpr.org)
Elon Musk angers German government with post backing far-right party - UPI.com (www.upi.com)
Sept. 30 (UPI) -- Elon Musk is under fire after publicly backing a far-right political party in Germany, suggesting the current government should not be re-elected over its position on the current migrant crisis in Europe.
Chandrayaan-3: Indian space agency Isro says no signal yet from Moon lander (www.bbc.com)
Mars Sample Return Scientifically Critical, But Eye-Poppingly Expensive (spacepolicyonline.com)
"Climate-friendly" beef could land in a meat aisle near you. Don’t fall for it. | Tyson Foods and the federal government refuse to show their math for a new sustainability label. (www.vox.com)
The Patriot: How General Mark Milley protected the Constitution from Donald Trump (www.theatlantic.com)
FAA proposes rule to limit lifetime of upper stages in orbit (spacenews.com)
FCC directing more satellite constellations to mitigate effects on astronomy (spacenews.com)
USAF and FAA Deny Varda Reentry and Recovery Permission (payloadspace.com)