Category Archives: YHABFT

Random Thoughts: First Pass Analysis of a White Dragon/Xeus Lunar Sortie Mission

After yesterday’s SpaceX announcement of having booked two customers for a Apollo-8 style mission around the Moon and back, using Falcon Heavy and Dragon V2, I got thinking about ways to take the next step in lunar tourism–surface missions. Now, … Continue reading

Posted in Commercial Crew, Launch Vehicles, Lunar Exploration and Development, Propellant Depots, Random Thoughts, Space Exploration, Space Transportation, SpaceX, ULA, YHABFT | 51 Comments

YHABFT: The Danger of Insider Euphemisms: “Shooting the Puppy” Edition

I’ve noticed that business people and engineers tend to use a lot of jargon and insider euphemisms in their conversations, sometimes with rather humorous results. I had a recent example occur that was too funny not to share (but too … Continue reading

Posted in Humor, YHABFT | 8 Comments

YHABFT: Perspective and Probability Estimation (SpaceX Edition)

I had a quick thought about SpaceX that I wanted to blog about instead of doing a bunch of tweets. Basically, I think that how you judge SpaceX’s probability of success probably should depend strongly on whether you’re thinking as … Continue reading

Posted in SpaceX, YHABFT | 7 Comments

YHABFT: RD-180 Sales Ban Rumor, A-Com, and FY11 Budget Request HLV Propulsion

The RD-180 Sales Ban Rumor As some of you probably saw on twitter last night, Russia Today ran a piece claiming that Russia was mulling a sales ban on the RD-180 rocket engine to the US (h/t Jeff Foust). For … Continue reading

Posted in NASA, Space Policy, Space Transportation, YHABFT | 14 Comments

YHABFT: 3D Printing + Centrifugal Investment Casting

One of my employees at Altius Space Machines recently bought a $600 3D printer (A SolidDoodle 3D Printer, 2nd Generation, Pro Model), and we’re hoping in a few months to add a ~$3k B9 Creator as well. I’ve been following … Continue reading

Posted in YHABFT | 15 Comments

YHABFT: 2013 NewSpace Business Plan Competition

[Note: As those of you who follow me both on this blog and on twitter (@rocketrepreneur) have probably noticed, my tweeting hasn’t been as negatively impacted by the stresses of running a startup as my blogging has. Unfortunately a side … Continue reading

Posted in Business, Commercial Space, Space Development, YHABFT | 1 Comment