Category Archives: COTS

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

On Avoiding Some of the Mistakes of Apollo

Posted on July 21, 2019 by Jonathan Goff

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. With a blog named Selenian Boondocks, I figured it probably made sense for me to say something. Earlier this year, thanks to some good advice from several friends, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Space, COTS, Lunar Commerce, Lunar Exploration and Development, Propellant Depots, Space Development, Space Exploration, Space Policy, Space Settlement | 21 Comments

Random Thoughts: Throwing the Moon a Bone

Posted on November 18, 2016 by Jonathan Goff

[Note: This blog post was originally planned to be something significantly longer, triggered by one of Eric Berger’s recent Ars Technica articles. But running a bootstrapped startup gave me the choice of waiting until this was totally irrelevant, or saying … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Crew, Commercial Space, COTS, Lunar Commerce, Lunar Exploration and Development, Random Thoughts | 9 Comments

SpaceX Amateur Business Case Study

Posted on April 21, 2016 by Jonathan Goff

There have been several times in recent weeks that people either in person or on the internet have speculated about SpaceX’s finances and business model. In some cases the speculations have been that SpaceX is pricing their Falcon 9 below … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Commercial Crew, Commercial Space, COTS, Launch Vehicles, SpaceX | 45 Comments

A Modest Proposal: the COTS Approach to SLS/Orion

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Jonathan Goff

I came up with an interesting new idea based on the recent press conferences about the successful completion of NASA’s COTS program, Bigelow’s report on the study they did on commercial lunar development, and the SLS/Orion developers discussion of “Removing … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Crew, COTS, Launch Vehicles, NASA, Politics, Space Exploration, Space Policy, Space Transportation, Technology | 22 Comments

Crew Safety Perspective

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Jonathan Goff

There’s been a lot of discussion over the past year or two on a few blogs (this one, Transterrestrial Musings, and also Wayne Hale’s blog, among several others) about the proper level of emphasis on crew safety for commercial crew … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Crew, Commercial Space, COTS, NASA, Space Policy, Space Safety, Space Transportation | 28 Comments

Some Blog Post Topics for 2013 (Updated 1/2/13)

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Jonathan Goff

Last month, while in the middle of a technical writing project for work, I tweeted a list of a few blog posts I wanted to write sometime in the near future, and asked some friends to nag me occasionally until … Continue reading →

Posted in Administrivia, Altius Space Machines, Bigelow Aerospace, Commercial Space, COTS, Excuses for Light Blogging, ISRU, Launch Vehicles, Lunar Exploration and Development, MHD Aerobraking and TPS, Space Settlement, Space Transportation, SpaceX, Technology, Venus | 9 Comments

Random Thought: Should Safety be the Top Priority?

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Jonathan Goff

[Note: I just wanted to share a quick semi-baked opinion, and it was long enough that if I broke it up into a series of tweets, Ben Brockert and Will Pomerantz would probably remind me of this blog thing I … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Space, COTS, NASA, Space Policy | 10 Comments

Why Not Just Fund the Program of Record?

Posted on December 14, 2009 by Jonathan Goff

Amid all the recent discussion of the Augustine Committee’s results, Mark Whittington asks a question that a lot of people in Congress seem to be asking: “Why not just pay for the current program since any new program is going … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Space, COTS, ESAS, International Space Collaboration, Lunar Commerce, Lunar Exploration and Development, NASA, NEOs, Politics, Space Development, Space Policy | 31 Comments

Comment on Brett Alexander’s Congressional Testimony

Posted on December 3, 2009 by Jonathan Goff

I didn’t have a chance to watch either of the House subcommittee hearings today, so I’m grateful that Clark linked to the testimonies of the various witnesses.  I really enjoyed reading Brett’s testimony, and thought one of his points in … Continue reading →

Posted in Bigelow Aerospace, Commercial Space, COTS, ESAS, Launch Vehicles, NASA, SpaceX | 13 Comments