The $62 million (and higher) question

This site contains my opinions and ideas only, not the opinions or ideas of any organization I work for. It’s my idea playground, and I’m inviting you in. Welcome! Which is worse? An advertised price many folks say can’t be true? Or an unavailable published price taxpayers are normally on the hook for? The second […]

Amazoom? Blue Origin launches a rocket

Blue Origin is one of those rocket companies that’s been fairly secretive in its activities. But it’s very difficult, unless you’re Russia or China, to secretly shoot a rocket 307,000 feet (58 miles) into the sky. But launch is just what Blue Origin did last week, on 29 April. The company not only tested the rocket, […]

Another False Step for Mankind?

The Orion capsule was successfully tested last week. For those who don’t know, the Orion is NASA’s future crew capable capsule, which will hopefully be used to explore to the moon and beyond. The capsule was tested on December 5, 2014, lofted into space for a very short time and then reentered the Earth’s atmosphere […]

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 […]