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Post by swamprat on Jul 17, 2011 12:58:25 GMT -6
The video shown below is a "TED" speech by Jeff Greason of XCOR Aerospace. It is almost 16 minutes in length; however, if you can invest the time, I think it is worth watching. www.wimp.com/rocketscientist/As the shuttle era ends, and as NASA moves away from manned space activity (at least for the time being), it is gratifying and exciting to see private enterprise step up to the plate. The list of private space companies is large and growing: ARCA Armadillo Aerospace Bigelow Aerospace and Boeing Blue Origin Copenhagen Suborbitals EADS Astrium Excalibur Almaz Interorbital Systems Kawasaki Orbital Sciences Corp. PlanetSpace Reaction Engines Ltd. Scaled Composites (The Spaceship Company) Space Adventures and Myasishchev Design Bureau SpaceDev SpaceX Starchaser Industries Virgin Galactic XCOR and RocketShip Tours
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Post by skywalker on Jul 17, 2011 19:18:57 GMT -6
I'm all in favor of private space exploration. I think that private businesses will find ways to explore space much more efficiently and inexpensively than the government ever could. I'm sure all of those companies will do very beneficial work except for that one that starts with Bigelow.
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Post by swamprat on Jul 26, 2011 17:32:12 GMT -6
Private Spacecraft Plans Landmark Docking With International Space StationPublished July 26, 2011 FoxNews.comSpaceX An artist's illustration of SpaceX's Dragon space capsule in Earth orbit. Fly me to the moon? Sure thing.Private spaceflight company Space Exploration (SpaceX) has received tentative approval from NASA to send its Dragon cargo craft on a landmark first mission to the International Space Station on November 30, which would make it the first private company to dock with the space station. A successful docking on December 9 would be a dramatic validation of NASA's plan to replace the now-retired space shuttle fleet with cheaper, private vehicles -- though how the space agency would send astronauts to space remains an open question. The Dragon capsule, one of several vehicles competing to haul cargo for NASA into space, had planned two test missions for this winter. One would gauge the capsule's ability to do a "drive-by" of the space station, where it would approach close enough to test navigation and communication gear. A second mission would test the craft's ability to dock. But SpaceX is ready now, the company argues. Why not combine the two and hit the milestone earlier? “We technically have agreed with SpaceX that we want to combine those flights,” William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, said at a July 21 media briefing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “We are doing all the planning to go ahead and have those missions combined, but we haven’t given them formal approval yet.” If approved, SpaceX would deliver cargo to the space station in early December. And if successful, it would validate NASA's plan to replace the shuttle with dramatically cheaper private spacecraft. SpaceX will charge NASA at least $1.6 billion for 12 cargo shipments to the ISS, or $133 million per flight. The space shuttle costs exceed $1 billion per flight. SpaceX is not alone, however: Orbital Sciences Corp. also has a contract with NASA to supply cargo ships. And it plans to launch the Cygnus resupply ship into space in February 2012. SpaceX's craft consists of two parts: the Falcon 9 rocket, a multistage reusable rocket capable of lifting significant amounts of cargo, and Dragon, a reusable space capsule that will carry the cargo, dock and parachute back to Earth, ultimately splash-landing in the ocean. The first and second stages of the Falcon 9 rocket for SpaceX's cargo flight are already at the company's Cape Canaveral launch pad. The Dragon spacecraft is due to arrive in August or September, the news site noted. Read more: www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/07/26/private-spacecraft-plans-first-docking-with-international-space-station/#ixzz1TFy0Zmfc
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Post by swamprat on Aug 2, 2011 8:20:59 GMT -6
SpaceX Founder Elon Musk Wants Man to Be a Multi-Planet Species
Published August 01, 2011 FoxNews.comSpace may be the final frontier, but Mars should be the next one. At a spaceflight propulsion conference held by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics on Tuesday, Elon Musk -- the billionaire founder of PayPal and the man behind leading private spaceflight company SpaceX -- spoke about just how to get humanity there. "Are we on the path to becoming a multi-planet species or not?" Musk asked the crowd at the event. "If we're not, it's really not that exciting after all." The challenge to getting to Mars is transporting significant tons of cargo and people, Musk noted, a task that will require what he described as a rapidly and fully reusable rocket. "There's a reason no one has invented a fully reusable rocket before," Musk explained. "It's super-damn hard." Musk described several of the recent advances made by his company's Falcon 9 rockets, which were tested successfully for the first time June 4, 2010. The rocket is designed to generate 3.8 million pounds (1,700 metric tons) of thrust -- making it easily capable of carrying satellites, cargo, and even humans to other planets, he said. The Dragon capsule is designed to work in concert with the company's multistage Falcon 9 rocket, either on short range resupply trips to the International Space Station or on longer range missions to other planets. This so-called "Red Dragon" mission, which could be ready to launch by 2018, would carry a cost of about $400 million or less. And the Dragon capsule clearly fits Musk's description of "rapidly and fully reusable." Read more: www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/08/01/spacex-founder-on-how-to-get-to-mars/#ixzz1Tsae4L4p
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Post by skywalker on Aug 2, 2011 18:56:38 GMT -6
I'm glad we are privatizing space exploration. With a lot of different companies getting involved and more people making decisions on what they want to do and which direction they want to go I think we will make a lot more advancements in the near future. Somebody needs to try to go to Mars sooner or later to verify whether or not there is life there. It's obvious the government isn't going to do it. They want to spend money on every stupid thing in the world except things that are useful. As usual, it is up to private industry to lead the way.
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Post by swamprat on Jan 5, 2012 20:03:28 GMT -6
Space Station Crew Excited for 1st Private Spaceship Visitby Clara Moskowitz 05 January 2012 "First look: Dragon Spacecraft in final processing, getting ready to head to the ISS." CREDIT: SpaceX The astronauts living on the International Space Station (ISS) are gearing up for a milestone event in February — the first visit of a commercial spaceship to the orbiting outpost. The private spaceflight company SpaceX plans to launch its unmanned Dragon capsule to orbit Feb. 7 atop the firm's Falcon 9 booster from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida. The capsule will carry a load of food, clothing and other supplies for the six-man crew of the space station. "We're excited about that," NASA astronaut Don Pettit told SPACE.com in an interview Wednesday (Jan. 4) from the station. "Anytime you have a visiting vehicle coming by, that's an exciting day." Dragon's flight is partially funded by NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, which aims to stimulate the development of private spacecraft to carry cargo to the station now that NASA's space shuttle fleet is retired. Dragon is due to make an automated rendezvous with the International Space Station at about 240 miles (386 kilometers) above the Earth. Once it approaches within a few meters of the laboratory, astronauts inside will use the station's robotic arm to grab hold of the capsule and attach it to the outpost. After being docked for about a week, Dragon will depart the space station, carrying cargo back down to Earth, where the capsule will be retrieved after landing in the Pacific Ocean. "One of the neat things about the SpaceX vehicle is it will allow us to take significant payloads down, which is a real important thing," Pettit said. "Since we no longer fly shuttles, we can't take anything sizable back down from space station without it just burning up. SpaceX will be our route to getting all these scientific samples and broken pieces of hardware that need to be refurbished and things like that to the ground." While Dragon has so far flown only unmanned missions, the capsule is eventually designed to carry people as well. NASA has also awarded funding to SpaceX under its Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program to develop Dragon as a ferry for its astronauts, who must ride Russian Soyuz spacecraft now that the shuttles are grounded. SpaceX successfully flew Dragon on its first orbital test flight on Dec. 8, 2010. The craft became the first commercial vehicle ever to launch to orbit and then be recovered safely back on Earth. www.space.com/14146-space-station-astronauts-private-spaceship-excitement.html
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Post by swamprat on Jan 16, 2012 14:34:50 GMT -6
1st Private Rocket Launch to Space Station Delayedby Denise Chow, SPACE.com Staff Writer Date: 16 January 2012 The first test flight of a privately built robot space capsule to the International Space Station has been delayed to allow more time to prepare the vehicle, the spacecraft's builder announced today (Jan. 16). The unmanned Dragon space capsule, built by the California-based Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), was scheduled to launch toward the space station on Feb. 7, but the company has decided to postpone the flight to accommodate more engineering tests. "In preparation for the upcoming launch, SpaceX continues to conduct extensive testing and analysis," SpaceX spokesperson Kirstin Grantham said in an email statement. "We believe that there are a few areas that will benefit from additional work and will optimize the safety and success of this mission." A new launch date for the mission has not yet been announced, but SpaceX officials said the company is working with NASA to determine the best time for the test flight. "We are now working with NASA to establish a new target launch date, but note that we will continue to test and review data," Grantham said. "We will launch when the vehicle is ready." Last month, when NASA announced the original launch date, William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, said that SpaceX would need to satisfy all of the agency's safety requirements before being allowed to perform the demonstration flight. www.space.com/14251-launch-delay-spacex-dragon-spaceflight.html
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Post by swamprat on Jan 20, 2012 20:48:54 GMT -6
With Dragon delayed again, ISS crew reflectsJanuary 20th, 2012 Space Station Commander Dan Burbank and Flight Engineer Don Pettit spoke with CNN's John Zarrella on Friday.When I spoke with international space station commander Dan Burbank and flight engineer Don Pettit on Friday, they should have been talking a lot about the upcoming arrival of the first ever commercial space craft called Dragon. But the date of that arrival is now uncertain. “I suppose on a personal level it’s maybe a little bit disappointing,” Burbank told me during our interview. The Dragon vehicle built by SpaceX was to launch in early February. That won’t happen. The unmanned craft would have rendezvoused with the space station very much like the Japanese HTV cargo vessel does. “One of the unique things about SpaceX,” says Pettit, “is it flies up like HTV and just gets close to the space station and we kind of lasso it with the robotic arm and bring it in.” But the launch of Dagon has run into problems. CNN has learned the launch will be in late March at the earliest. SpaceX spokeswoman Kirsten Grantham says, “we need more time to check out and test the systems.” Grantham added, “Its an incredibly challenging mission.” “Space flight is tough,” Burbank told me. “It’s really, really hard, and to think that anybody could just roll into this and very quickly field a system that’s gonna be ready to go on the first day planned, and be absolutely reliable, is a little bit unrealistic,” he said. Space flight can be tough on the body as well as machinery. Ten astronauts have come back from Space Station missions with changes to their eyesight, which are sometimes permanent. Burbank says, “The kinds of problems that have happened in a fairly small subsection of people that have flown here before seem to isolated. Some people have it, many people don’t have any at all.” After a couple months into flight, some astronauts start getting far-sighted. The problem only shows up in male astronauts. NASA flight doctors say it is right now their top priority. There’s little chance that a two- or three-year Mars mission could take place without resolving the issue. The six-member crew of the station is participating in studies to help doctors and researchers on the ground figure out the problem. They have imaged the backs of their eyes and the optic nerve. They are taking high-resolution images of the retina and measuring the pressure in their eyes. All the data is sent back to doctors on the ground. “I think we came through, and our eyes look very good,” Burbank said. While Burbank and Pettit are in space, an important anniversary will take place. February 20 will mark the 50th anniversary of John Glenn’s historic flight, when he became the first American to orbit the earth. “Amazing,” said Pettit, “a short flight in a capsule he couldn’t even unstrap from. You look at what we’re doing now and it’s just amazing in terms of the orbital operations with station and the number of people flying.” A ceremony marking the anniversary is planned for the Kennedy Space Center. It’s hoped Glenn and Scott Carpenter, the last two surviving Mercury astronauts, will attend. lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/20/with-dragon-delayed-again-iss-crew-reflects/?hpt=hp_t3
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Post by swamprat on May 11, 2012 19:38:07 GMT -6
Uh Oh. Guess who is teaming up with Elon Musk and Space-X?
Space-X May 10, 2012 SpaceX and Bigelow Aerospace Join Forces to Offer Crewed Missions to Private Space Stations Hawthorne, CA, and Las Vegas, NV– Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and Bigelow Aerospace (BA) have agreed to conduct a joint marketing effort focused on international customers. The two companies will offer rides on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, using the Falcon launch vehicle to carry passengers to Bigelow habitats orbiting the Earth. According to Bigelow Aerospace’s President and Founder, Robert T. Bigelow, “We’re very excited to be working with our colleagues at SpaceX to present the unique services that our two companies can offer to international clientele. We’re eager to join them overseas to discuss the substantial benefits that BA 330 leasing can offer in combination with SpaceX transportation capabilities”. The BA 330 is a habitat that will provide roughly 330 cubic meters of usable volume and can support a crew of up to six. Bigelow Aerospace plans to connect two or more BA 330s in orbit to provide national space agencies, companies, and universities with unparalleled access to the microgravity environment. “SpaceX and BA have a lot in common. Both companies were founded to help create a new era in space enterprise,” said SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell. “Together we will provide unique opportunities to entities -- whether nations or corporations -- wishing to have crewed access to the space environment for extended periods. I’m looking forward to working with Bigelow Aerospace and engaging with international customers,” Shotwell explained. SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft will be capable of carrying seven passengers to orbit. With the company’s Falcon family of rockets, SpaceX is working to create the world’s safest human spaceflight system. The companies will kick off their marketing effort in Asia. Representatives from Bigelow and SpaceX will meet with officials in Japan shortly after the next launch of the Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft.
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pigswillfly
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Post by pigswillfly on May 11, 2012 19:46:57 GMT -6
It was only a matter of time. Why am I not surprised?
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2012 22:03:35 GMT -6
I think it's exciting. !! But for a minute there, I thought it was being admitted that Bigelow ALREADY HAD habitats in orbit around the Earth ;D . What "you people" need to say "uh oh" about is the continued union with Japan. Not that it's Japan, mind you, but that it's NOT China. I'm concerned with our continued deterioration of satisfaction from that country; we have been so supportive. And forget the idea of having "space relations" with the Middle East . This Bigelow "thing" makes perfect sense to me. The dude has government ties, and people are out to exploit that. Good. Because if he continues to only be private sector $caching!$, who's going to monitor the guy? His peers? Wait, another idea! All this interest in the UFO topic for Bigelow, has been to get permission from E.T. to be in Space! ok, and after Bigelow gets his habitats in space, we are going to find out next that he is a type of policeman. The good kind . I think it's great that every one thinks this guy "Bigelow" is so sinister. But every "bad guy" has to have a series of henchman. Not devoted henchman. Paid henchman or prisoners. Granted, he looks suspicious right away. And for someone to be government and then break ties to escape public scrutiny over use of funds, well, he's still getting a lot of scrutiny. Come on guys. Compare all this to "stem cell research" is voted against and discontinued by our government. You and I both know that then stem cell research is continued somewhere else, privately. Find me some real dirt on Bigelow, please? Is he "hiding" mysterious UFO cases because it benefits him in some way? Of course us NOT KNOWING certain UFO information is forseeably detrimental to us. But this was established long ago with the C. report being done by muffin. Who does Bigelow join up with?? This dude is not stupid. . . .whhy is he "showing his hand"?? Can't he finance someone else to own and run his property? I digress.
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Post by skywalker on May 12, 2012 10:59:44 GMT -6
Bigelow has said that the reason he is interested in UFOs is because he wants to figure out the technology that they use so that he can apply it to his own aerospace company. I don't have any problem with that. What I do have a probelm with is the way he uses people to get what he wants and then throws them away like they are garbage. He buys up all of the information he can get his hands on and then keeps it only for himself...which in my opinion makes him no different than the government with their constant need for excessive secrecy. Some people have suggested that Bigelow is working with the government in order to help them achieve their goals...if so he is almost certainly doing it in order to achieve his own goals as well. Whether or not there is actually an connection between the two is open to debate but in the end I don't think it really matters. They both want the same thing and they are willing to do whatever it takes to get it.
As for what type of person Bigelow really is, I can't say because I don't know him personally. He may actually be a nice guy for all I know. I'm just basing my conclusions on what he has done and so far he is not making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2012 12:33:40 GMT -6
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