Launching satellites is getting cheaper?

Last year was pretty good for small satellites weighing less than 10 kg (22 lbs). 46 percent of all satellites launched in 2014 weighed less than 10 kg. A LOT of satellites were launched in 2014. Heck, just one Russian Dnepr rocket deployed 37 satellites during one launch last year. Many were deployed from the International […]

Three Guys, Three Shovels, One Launchpad

Let’s continue the whole SpaceX/Texas spaceport theme a little bit more. Last week there were a few posts on this site about SpaceX’s move of launch operations near Brownsville, Texas. According to The Register, SpaceX broke ground on the future launch site Monday, 22 Sept 14. Texas is giving SpaceX a little over $15 million to build […]

SpaceX’s Own Spaceport Will Not Affect NASA or DoD Operations, Part 2

This post is the completion of a short analysis I started yesterday about why NASA’s and the DoD’s launch operations will not be affected by SpaceX’s choice to build and use a launch operations center in Brownsville, Texas. It was prompted because of a post The Space Review put up on their site Monday, which suggested […]

SpaceX’s Own Spaceport Will Not Affect NASA or DoD Operations, Part 1

Yesterday, I expanded on a Space Review post of the possible reasons Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) is moving launch operations to Texas. The company believes it will conduct about 12 launches a year from its own space launch complexes near Brownsville, Texas. Such a launch rate is more than triple SpaceX’s 2013 launch rate of 3 […]

Lone Star Rising

According to this Bloomberg Businessweek article, it looks like SpaceX just bought itself a spaceport. Their planned launch facility looks to cover nearly 50 acres of Texas land on the coast. The specific area might be near Boca Chica Beach. Why would SpaceX want a launch complex in this area? First of all, if they […]