SpaceX News: An F9R video and Letters from Senator McCain

Here are two little “love letters” from Senator McCain. One is to the Secretary of the Air Force, the other to the Department of Defense Inspector General (DoD IG). The gist of both is that he takes issue with the United States Air Force’s arguments for cutting down the number of available launches in the EELV contract […]

SpaceX and the ULA: Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla?

Maybe it’s more David and Goliath, but I prefer the imagery of two rocket manufacturers duking it out as Japanese Kaijin, “Pacific Rim”-style. But who is who? This latest Spacenews.com post hosts the written exchanges between SpaceX’s Elon Musk, and United Launch Alliance’s Michael Gass. These questions and answers were requested by the Senate Committee on Approprations’ […]

Smallsats, Cubesats, and Chipsats: Klein, Aber Oho!

Nope, you aren’t seeing things. There’s some German in the title there. The phrase essentially means small but mighty (like my wife). And the phrase describes, in a nutshell, the explosive growth and growing capabilities of these miniature mighty man-made moons. Nature.com has a fairly good write-up about the history and current state of Cubesats. It’s exciting […]

The Slowness of Being Government and Its Space Technology

From a Softpedia news post, a writer conjectures mainly about the United States Air Force’s (USAF) X-37B space drone and what it might mean to space warfare. It’s a decent, thought-provoking article, so you may wish to read it. But there’s an assumption made within the article: the government has the best, most sophisticated space toys. […]

Why Do DoD National Security Space Launch Programs Costs Keep Rising?

On March 5, 2014, the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee held a hearing about National Security Space Launch Programs. The hearing was a session with SpaceX’s Elon Musk, and the United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Michael Gass concerning the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program and contract with the Department of Defense (DoD) and the program’s rising […]