Monthly Archives: January 2008

Where do we go from here?

Posted on January 29, 2008 by lunadyne

by guest blogger Ken. Howdy all! I hope everyone is hard at work in the new year, bringing space ever closer to Earth. Keep up the good work at Politico! The last couple of weeks have certainly been eventful. Not … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Giuliani and Space

Posted on January 26, 2008 by Jonathan Goff

While I am glad that it’s looking less and less likely that he’ll ever sit behind the desk in the Oval Office, I do have to commend Mr Giuliani for specifically bringing up COTS and commercial space transportation today in … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Discussion of Dr. Griffin’s STA Comments on ESAS

Posted on January 25, 2008 by Jonathan Goff

I’ve had several people in several places ask me if I was going to do a point-by-point rebuttal of Mike Griffin’s comments to the STA this week (for reference the text of his comments is available here). While I don’t … Continue reading →

Posted in ESAS, Launch Vehicles, Lunar Commerce, NASA, Politics, Space Development, Space Law, Space Policy | 4 Comments

Mass Confusion and White Knight 2 Kremlinology

Posted on January 23, 2008 by Jonathan Goff

For those of you who have been following my Orbital Access Methodologies series, you’ll remember that I talked about the potential of using White Knight Two as the carrier plane for a small “assisted SSTO”, or a “TSTO with glideforward … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 19 Comments

Orbital Access Methodologies Part II: The Key Challenge of TSTO RLVs

Posted on January 19, 2008 by Jonathan Goff

Before I go into detail on any of the two stage to orbit (TSTO for the uninitiated) approaches that I mentioned in my post last week, I’d like to briefly discuss what I think is the key issue that drives … Continue reading →

Posted in Launch Vehicles, Orbital Access Methodologies, Space Transportation, Technology | 22 Comments

It’s The Journey That Matters, Not The Destination

Posted on January 19, 2008 by Jonathan Goff

The story broke yesterday that a group of scientists, astronauts, and other space enthusiasts is going to be meeting at Stanford next month to discuss an alternative to the Vision for Space Exploration. Clark and several others have already commented, … Continue reading →

Posted in Lunar Commerce, NASA, Space Development, Space Policy | 8 Comments

An Insane, But Interesting Idea: Fleet Launched Orbital Craft

Posted on January 12, 2008 by Jonathan Goff

Ok, before I go into this latest blog post, I want to put a disclaimer up front: This idea is crazy. I’m not posting this because I think it’s the greatest idea since sliced bread. I don’t think that this … Continue reading →

Posted in Launch Vehicles, Technology | 28 Comments

Patience

Posted on January 7, 2008 by Jonathan Goff

I’m glad to see that my first “orbital access methodologies” post has received as much attention as it has already. As I mentioned in my original post last month, I intend to talk about a few other promising approaches that … Continue reading →

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Orbital Access Methodologies Part I: Air Launched SSTO

Posted on January 4, 2008 by Jonathan Goff

As I mentioned last month, I would like to briefly discuss in a series of blog posts some of the more promising potential approaches for reusable orbital transportation. There is often a tendency among engineers to completely dismiss any idea … Continue reading →

Posted in Launch Vehicles, Orbital Access Methodologies, Space Transportation, Technology | 79 Comments

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Posted on January 3, 2008 by Jonathan Goff

I know that Clark and Keith have already mentioned this, but I have to congratulate NASA for finally obeying the law and purchasing commercial services from ZeroG instead of just running their own in-house NASA proprietary Vomit Comet. Whoever pushed … Continue reading →

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