Events in Spaaaace!

In the news...

Blue Origin's spacecraft failed during a test launch on September 2.  It didn't get a lot of news, in part because Blue Origin isn't being especially public about its endeavors yet.  The spacecraft was to go suborbital on this flight, and at 45,000 feet started going unstable and they had to destroy it.  Blue Origin is one of the commercial space industries vying to supply the ISS and to promote manned spaceflight.  It was founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.  (Glad to see those millions are going to something.)  http://www.space.com/12824-blue-origin-private-spaceship-rocket-failure.html

Sometimes a cigar...is a rocket?

NASA Astronauts to return today:  (Note, this was written on 9/14).  So there will be three astronauts on the ISS until the Russians send up a crew on November 12.  I'm not sure when the next three are going up, but the remaining crew is supposed to come down in the end of November.  http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Three_ISS_crew_members_scheduled_to_return_on_Friday_999.html

(From right) Commander Andrey Borisenko and Flight Engineers Alexander Samokutyaev and Ron Garan

Star Ripping Its Planet Apart.  'K, the "Death Star" reference is a stretch, IMHO, but it's very cool that we can see so far so well that we can tell that this star's magnetic field is tearing the planet apart.  Check out the video:  http://tv.ibtimes.com/real-life-death-star-found-frying-nearby-planet/1899.html

Oh, Look.  NASA isn't getting out of the rocket business after all:  The Obama Administration has unveiled its plans to build a huge liquid fueled rocket.  http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2011/sep/14/nasa-unveils-giant-new-rocket-design-ar-1308453/  Now NASA says they want this to get to Mars and the asteroid belt, but I'm going to have to get some explanation on this because...

1.  Didn't Obama cancel a rocket program already in development?
2.  Didn't Obama say they were going to leave the space lift side to commercial interests and let NASA concentrate on developing technologies and furthering space exploration?  (Note this rocket is going "back to the future" with current technology.)
3.  Given NASA's track record on cost overruns and, well, the history of CANCELING programs in motion, is it really a good idea to have the government start producing a rocket that is, by nature, even more complex than the one they just scrapped because of production trouble and cost overruns?  Especially when it's "scheduled" to begin TEST launches in 6 years--plenty of time for the next president to come in and slash it.

Chicks dig giant rockets...but not government programs!

I'll be doing some research on solid, liquid, and hybrid fueled rockets for the blog later.

Yes, Virginia, There is a Space Industry

What could be more representative of the American space program? Yet  it is so much more!

When I told one of my friends that I was creating a blog about the space industry, she asked, "Is there a space industry after Obama killed NASA?"


First, let's assume for this article, we're talking about manned space and exploration, rather than the thriving industry of putting satellites into orbit so we can get better cell phone reception.


She's referring to Obama's 2010 budget proposal that cancelled the Constellation program, which was supposed to replace the space shuttle and eventually get us to the moon (2020.)  Here's an article in Discovery about it.  And another in Scientific American.  This might indeed seem a death knell for space, or at least for manned space, but there are several things to consider.


First, the Constellation program was already overbudget and experiencing a lot of technical problems.  (Universe  Today reported in Feb 1, 2010, "Also, its estimate costs through 2015 have risen from $28 billion in 2006 to $44 billion today.")  There was also doubts about it being able to meet its deadlines of manned flight by 2015 and the moon by 2020.


What about the shuttle?  It was simply at the end of its life.  The technology was so old, that to repair the shuttle, NASA was having to search the Internet for spare parts.  President Bush actually canceled the shuttle program because we couldn't physically support the craft any longer.  


However, at the same time that President Obama called for the cancellation of the program, he recommended increasing NASA's budget for it to concentrate on other things--increasing the life of the ISS, promoting innovation and technologies, and exploring further on.   As columnist Phil Plait said, "NASA can concentrate on what it should: innovation, pushing the limits, paving the road. Once the road is laid, let others use it."


So, are there others to use the road?  Let's start with the fact that the ISS is International, and other nations have been servicing it, including the European Space Agency and the Russians, who are--or rather were--flying the astronauts to the station when the Shuttle wasn't.  (They recently had trouble with their Soyuz capsules, and now we're not sure we will keep astronauts on the station--weep!--but that's another story.)  So the space industry as a whole will continue, even if NASA died, which it isn't.


In addition, American commercial space is growing--and Obama has given it a nice void to fill.  There are already many companies striving to fulfill the dream of manned space:

• Armadillo Aerospace (suborbital focused)


• Bigelow 


• Blue Origin (suborbital focused)


• Boeing


• Orbital


• Sierra Nevada Corp


• Space X


• United Launch Alliance (serves the military; not sure they're looking at manned)


• Virgin Galactic (suborbital focused)

(Rob gave me this list.  If we missed any, let me know.)  There are also a lot of budding industries to build the craft, make the fuel, create the engines, etc.


Later this week, I'll share an article about how some of these companies are already moving into Cape Canaveral (or negotiating to).  But for now, the answer to my friend's question is, "Yes, Virginia, there still is a space industry."

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft after its test mission.

* Since I have a follower named Virginia, I'd like to state for the record that she did not ask this, but I could not resist the play off the title.