Monthly Archives: March 2010

NASA Needs to Develop an HLV Right Now…

Posted on March 31, 2010 by Jonathan Goff

…Like it needs a hole in the head. I was going to write a blog post on this earlier, but Jeff Greason beat me to the punch in comments over on SpacePolitics.com (emphasis mine): Both the Phase I and Phase … Continue reading →

Posted in Launch Vehicles, NASA | 16 Comments

Falcon 9 and Ares I

Posted on March 22, 2010 by Jonathan Goff

I just saw something this morning that amused me. Both ESAS and Falcon 9 were formally announced within about a week or two of each other (in September 2005). Four and a half years later, a fully-orbital Falcon 9 is … Continue reading →

Posted in ESAS, SpaceX | 82 Comments

Visit to SpaceX

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Kirk Sorensen

While attending the Responsive Space Conference in Los Angeles, I had an opportunity along with many others to visit the SpaceX facility in Hawthorne on the evening of March 9th and I had a wonderful time. We were given a … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Space, Launch Vehicles | 17 Comments

VTVL Airlaunched

Posted on March 10, 2010 by johnhare

guest blogger john hare I had an interesting conversation with Jon last month about the problems with air launching rocket ships. The various flavors of air launch involve some form of altitude and velocity loss as the rocket ship drops … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 46 Comments

SpaceX Prediction

Posted on March 2, 2010 by Jonathan Goff

I predict that regardless of the outcome of SpaceX’s inaugural Falcon 9 launch, nobody is going to change their opinion. If it’s successful, Ares-huggers will suddenly begin to understand the concept that a single successful flight doesn’t prove anything about … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Space, Politics, Snark, SpaceX | 75 Comments

Payload Fraction Calculation for Reusable Vehicles

Posted on March 1, 2010 by Kirk Sorensen

When I was learning how to use mass-estimating relationships (MERs) at Georgia Tech, our focus was on reusable launch vehicles, and most of our MERs came from NASA Langley, where my professor had once worked. When it came to much … Continue reading →

Posted in Rocket Design Theory | 7 Comments