May 3, 2019: Weekly Spatial Resolutions

Why China launches its rockets inland, while everyone else sticks to coastlines The answer in this article may not surprise those following China’s launch activities, and it makes sense. With enemies pretty much a stone’s throw away, Xichang, Jiuquan, and Taiyuan were all located inland, as far from those borders as practical. While Wenchang on […]

February 22, 2019: Weekly Spatial Resolutions

American Enterprise Will Beat China in Outer Space I tend to subscribe to this premise. Not just for China, but for the United States in the space industry generally. This is not to say our system is perfect. But by soliciting for and sponsoring new companies through contracts, NASA, with a paltry budget, fostered SpaceX’s […]

February 15, 2019: Weekly Spatial Resolutions

Australia: well placed to join the Moon mining race … or is it? The article talks about the reasons why Australia might want to mine the Moon. Even though the country does not have its own launch vehicles, launch pads, or other sorts of infrastructure useful to spacefaring nations. Not saying that Australia shouldn’t try, […]

May 11, 2018: Weekly Spatial Resolutions

Word of the day: Bangabandhu The satellite on SpaceX’s first Block 5 Falcon 9 launch seems to be named after Bangladesh’s founding father. It supposedly means “friend of Bengal.” Budget 2018: space agency details still scant – but GPS and satellite imagery funded Okay, the Australians are so serious about space, they’re spending millions to […]

Weekly Spatial Resolutions

Stories I happened upon during the past week. “…the Government Accountability Office warned that costs for national security space launches are rising…” Aand, here we go again: http://spacenews.com/congressional-auditors-raise-red-flags-on-eelv-costs-national-security-launch-industrial-base/. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released an annual report and noted AGAIN concerns about excessive costs surrounding the United States Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program […]