Category Archives: COTS

Paging Senator Shelby

Posted on June 8, 2009 by Jonathan Goff

…I know there’s sometimes some confusion about names, but I’m pretty sure NASA isn’t short for Northern Alabama Space Administration. Someone ought to point that out to our Mr. Shelby.

Posted in COTS, NASA, Politics | 3 Comments

Regarding “Lunar COTS”

Posted on May 26, 2009 by Jonathan Goff

I’ve been busy a lot lately (between this, this, this, and having friends in from out of town for the holiday), so I hadn’t had a chance until now to reply to Mark Whittington’s correspondence with me (found here).  A … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Space, COTS, ESAS, Launch Vehicles, Lunar Commerce, NASA, Space Development, Space Policy, Space Transportation | 22 Comments

COTS Thoughts

Posted on February 25, 2009 by Jonathan Goff

I think most in the commercial space industry would agree that COTS is one of the best things the government has done to help promote commercial space in a long time.  While I think that overall this program has been … Continue reading →

Posted in Bigelow Aerospace, Commercial Space, COTS, NASA, Space Development, Space Policy, SpaceX | 10 Comments

Fun SpaceX Paper and Presentation

Posted on November 29, 2008 by Jonathan Goff

I just saw two interesting SpaceX documents linked to on NASASpaceflight.com. The first is a paper that was presented at the Fourth Asian Space Conference back in October, and the second is a presentation from the von Braun Symposium, also … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Space, COTS, Launch Vehicles, SpaceX | 13 Comments

ULA Propellant Depot Paper (Updated)

Posted on November 6, 2008 by Jonathan Goff

Here’s one other interesting paper, which was presented at the SPACE 2008 conference a few months ago. As I mentioned in a previous post, I was given a copy of a few of the ULA papers before the conference, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Space, COTS, ESAS, International Space Collaboration, Launch Vehicles, Lunar Commerce, MSS, NASA, Propellant Depots, Space Development, Space Transportation, Technology | 14 Comments

Interesting Paper on Shuttle Alternatives

Posted on November 6, 2008 by Jonathan Goff

Someone was digging around the ULA publications section, and stumbled on a very interesting paper I hadn’t heard about yet discussing a shuttle alternative for resupplying the space station. While I don’t agree with everything in it, it’s worth a … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Space, COTS, International Space Collaboration, NASA, Space Transportation | 15 Comments

Air-Launch Paper

Posted on September 25, 2008 by Jonathan Goff

Clark Lindsey has already commented on this paper, but I figured it was worth a little further discussion here, since I’ve already written a few articles about air-launched RLV ideas.  Air launch is definitely an idea I am warming up … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Space, COTS, Launch Vehicles, Space Transportation, Technology | 6 Comments

Gap Math

Posted on April 7, 2008 by Jonathan Goff

I’m somewhat curious about the math behind some of Griffin’s comments at the Senate Hearing today: “we are focusing initially on cargo because, I just want to be clear with everybody, we already have a mechanism for getting crews to … Continue reading →

Posted in COTS, NASA | 10 Comments

Pay As You Go

Posted on December 23, 2006 by Jonathan Goff

One of the cutsie phrases that the current NASA Administration likes bandying about regarding their approach to exploration is “Pay As You Go“. Kind of like O’Keefe’s “spiral development”, this pithy phrase is the latest fad at NASA. The basic … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, COTS, NASA, Space Development | 15 Comments