Category Archives: Commercial Space

RLV Markets VII: Four Models for Commercializing Reusable Launch

Posted on July 25, 2026 by Jonathan Goff

It’s been almost a decade since the most recent post in this series, but I’ve had a lot of different things pushing me to want to do a writeup on potential business models for RLV developers. I think that fully-reusable … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Commercial Crew, Commercial Space, Economics, Entrepreneurship, Launch Vehicles, MSS, RLV Markets, Space Development, Space Transportation, SpaceX, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Manned Circumnavigation of the Inner Solar System

Posted on April 27, 2026 by Kirk Sorensen

In 1969, a Bellcomm engineer named A. A. VanderVeen published a paper describing a family of trajectories so elegant they seem almost accidental. Fifty-five years later, the most attractive instance of that trajectory family departs Earth in August 2034. This … Continue reading →

Posted in Bigelow Aerospace, Commercial Space, Mars, Orbital Dynamics, Space Exploration, Space Tethers, Variable Gravity | 7 Comments

Starliner Reponendum Est? (Part II): Why Boeing’s Troubled Capsule Still Needs to be Replaced

Posted on March 4, 2026 by Jonathan Goff

[Note: I started writing this almost a year ago, but got stalled out. I wanted to finish writing this while it was still potentially relevant.] I’ll be honest, I was hoping to not have to write the rest of this … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Crew, Commercial Space, COTS, Launch Vehicles, NASA, Space Safety, SpaceX, ULA | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ambition, Resources, Competence: Why SpaceX Doesn’t Yet Have Many Competitors

Posted on August 30, 2025 by Jonathan Goff

I read a tweet today that kind of rubbed me wrong, about SpaceX’s current market dominance: At least one friend asked him if he really thought that nobody else had tried, and he pointed to how both ULA and Arianespace … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Commercial Space, Launch Vehicles, Space Transportation, SpaceX | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Starliner Reponendum Est? Boeing’s Troubled Capsule Needs To Be Replaced

Posted on August 24, 2024 by Jonathan Goff

[Note: I started this blog post in June of 2023, and was hoping I would never have to finish it. But given the recent decision to return the CFT crew members on Dragon Crew-9 due to technical issues with its … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Crew, Commercial Space, NASA, Space Policy, SpaceX | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

NASA’s Selection of the Blue Moon Lander for Artemis V

Posted on May 25, 2023 by Jonathan Goff

Last week, when NASA announced that they were picking Blue Origin’s National Team to develop a sustainable human lander for the Artemis V mission, what surprised me wasn’t the selection, but the fact that I’ve come around to really liking the decision. Continue reading →

Posted in Blue Origin, Commercial Space, Lunar Exploration and Development, Propellant Depots, Reusable Lunar Landers, Space Transportation, SpaceX | Tagged , , , , , | 12 Comments

Random Thoughts: A Joint International Debris Remediation Effort

Posted on October 22, 2021 by Jonathan Goff

As humanity’s ambitions in space increase, one of the biggest potential risks to to those ambitions is the dangers caused by the debris we’ve left on orbit over the first half century of space development. Since Sputnik’s launch in October … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Commercial Space, International Space Collaboration, International Space Competition, Orbital Debris Remediation/Mitigation, Random Thoughts, Satellite Servicing | 3 Comments

An Updated Propellant Depot Taxonomy Part VI: Roving Depots

Posted on February 22, 2021 by Jonathan Goff

In the last post in this series, I discussed the idea of large-scale depots for human spaceflight applications, which operate in fixed, low-orbits. While the final post in this series will investigate human spaceflight depots that operate in fixed higher … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Space, ISRU, Launch Vehicles, Lunar Exploration and Development, Mars, NASA, NEOs, Orbital Dynamics, Propellant Depots, Space Development, Space Exploration, Space Transportation, ULA, Venus | 10 Comments

An Updated Propellant Depot Taxonomy Part V: Human Spaceflight Fixed Depots (Low-Orbit)

Posted on February 16, 2021 by Jonathan Goff

For this next depot taxonomy post, we’ll finally be talking about what people usually think about when they hear the term orbital propellant depot — larger, cryogenic refueling facilities, focused on enabling large-scale human spaceflight missions, performed by a diverse … Continue reading →

Posted in Blue Origin, Commercial Space, Launch Vehicles, Lunar Commerce, Lunar Exploration and Development, Mars, NEOs, Orbital Dynamics, Propellant Depots, RLV Markets, Space Development, Space Exploration, Space Transportation, SpaceX, ULA, Venus | Tagged , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

An Updated Propellant Depot Taxonomy Part II: Distributed LEO Nano-Depots

Posted on September 16, 2020 by Jonathan Goff

For this first type of propellant depot, we have an idea that several of us seem to have independently realized. My company is developing a family of servicing tugs focused on servicing customers in Low Earth Orbit. We realized pretty … Continue reading →

Posted in Altius Space Machines, Commercial Space, Propellant Depots, Satellite Servicing | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments