Tag: Spaceflight

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Off the table?

Well, somebody’s going to go to Mars. Just maybe not NASA.

“In its first 16 months, the Trump administration has reset NASA’s goals toward exploring the Moon and is planning significant investments in a “Gateway” in lunar orbit to serve both as a station for humans to live in deep space and as a way station for vehicles to cycle between the Moon’s surface and orbit.

“The simple answer is that space exploration is not a priority for this administration in spite of the rhetoric,” Grunsfeld said. “Mars is off the table as far as I can tell. The Gateway is the asteroid mission without the asteroid and is primarily to give the aerospace contractors something to do for the next decade while we wait for some real leadership.””


NASA budgeting reveals dim hopes for humans going to Mars

NASA budgeting reveals dim hopes for humans going to Mars

“Mars is off the table as far as I can tell.”

Ars Technica Ars Technica
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BFR in California

“The rocket company has already begun to move hardware into temporary facilities at the site, including a tooling that will be used to make carbon-fiber composites for the rocket’s upper stage, also known as the Big Falcon Spaceship. SpaceX intends to manufacture the BFR components beside the water for easy shipping to test sites and launch pads.”


It’s official: SpaceX will build its monster rocket in California

It’s official: SpaceX will build its monster rocket in California

“This vehicle holds the promise of taking humanity deeper into the cosmos.”

Ars Technica Ars Technica
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Beyond dollars and cents

“He noted that space exploration had a benefit beyond dollars and cents, and pointed to the example of his own children. Muilenburg said his daughter was thrilled to try on a Boeing Starliner spacesuit during a recent family visit to Florida, while his son was entranced by the work being done on SLS.

“The inspiration quotient is very high,” Muilenburg said.”

Attention Required! | Cloudflare
Attention Required! | Cloudflare
www.geekwire.com
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Making Life Multi-planetary

A new paper from Elon Musk (written before the Falcon Heavy launch, but published this month) with lots of detail on the BFR.

“Our updated design leverages a smaller vehicle, still pretty big but a single vehicle that can do everything that’s needed for greater Earth orbit activity. Essentially we want to make our current vehicles redundant. We want to have one system—one booster and one ship—that replaces Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon. If we can do that, then all the resources that are used for Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon can be applied to this system.”

Just a moment...
Just a moment...
www.liebertpub.com