Category Archives: RLV Markets

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

Random Thoughts: RLVs and Megaconstellations

Posted on April 14, 2017 by Jonathan Goff

Last month I was out in Washington DC for a satellite industry conference (the 2017 Satellite Show). My startup has been working on a cool satellite servicing related project that I need to blog about soon, and we were out … Continue reading →

Posted in Blue Origin, Business, Launch Vehicles, MSS, Random Thoughts, RLV Markets, Space Transportation, SpaceX | 12 Comments

RLV Markets V: Additional Thoughts on Passengers–Divisibility and Elasticity

Posted on June 4, 2015 by Jonathan Goff

[Note: While digging through unfinished blog post drafts, I found this one from April 2009. I think this was originally supposed to be the third in the series, but is now the fifth. While the series doesn’t exactly flow, and … Continue reading →

Posted in RLV Markets | 11 Comments

RLV Markets Part IV: Why Small May Be Beautiful

Posted on May 30, 2015 by Jonathan Goff

With the progress SpaceX has been making with trying to recover their F9R first stage, and their concepts for Mars Colonial Transport, BFRs, and 4000 satellite constellations, a lot of the industry has been fixated on very larger RLVs. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Launch Vehicles, RLV Markets | 8 Comments

Space Access 2010 Propellant Depot Presentations

Posted on April 29, 2010 by Jonathan Goff

It’s been a rather interesting month so far, and I’ve been under a bit too much stress lately to blog much, but I wanted to put up some of the presentations from the Propellant Depot panel I was on at … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Space, Launch Vehicles, Lunar Commerce, Propellant Depots, RLV Markets | 39 Comments

Depot-Centric Human Spaceflight

Posted on July 30, 2009 by Jonathan Goff

In light of how well today went at the Augustine Committee, I felt that it would be worthwhile to post the propellant depot white paper that a group of us submitted last week. I was originally planning a much longer … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Space, Launch Vehicles, Lunar Commerce, Lunar Exploration and Development, Propellant Depots, RLV Markets, Space Transportation | 17 Comments

Shameless Self-Promotion: Depot Article on New Scientist

Posted on July 29, 2009 by Jonathan Goff

Last week, right after I finished sending my propellant depot white paper in to the Augustine Committee, I got contacted by David Shiga of New Scientist with some questions for an article he was writing.  The article is now available … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Space, NASA, Propellant Depots, RLV Markets | 3 Comments

RLV Markets III: Counter-Intuitive Ramifications of RLV Passenger Transportation

Posted on April 25, 2009 by Jonathan Goff

One of the most common metrics used in discussing new launch vehicles and particularly RLVs is the price in $/lb delivered to LEO. You almost can’t have a discussion about the Space Shuttle, Saturn V, SpaceX, new commercial RLVs, or … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Commercial Space, Launch Vehicles, RLV Markets | 32 Comments

RLV Markets Part II: The Black Aluminum Analogy

Posted on April 22, 2009 by Jonathan Goff

[Editor’s Note: It’s been too long since I wrote the first article in this series, and I wanted to write some more on this topic.  My tendency to try to cram everything into one ginormous ominbus post has been almost … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Space, Launch Vehicles, RLV Markets, Space Transportation, SpaceX, Technology | 37 Comments

RLV Markets Part I: The Importance of High Flight Rates

Posted on October 9, 2008 by Jonathan Goff

Now that I’ve wrapped up my Orbital Access Methodologies series, I wanted to share some thoughts about the business and market development side of reusable space transportation.  Some of this may be old-hat for many of you, but I figured … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Commercial Space, Launch Vehicles, RLV Markets, Space Development, Space Transportation | 14 Comments