SpaceX News

[ladajo]

This is what the Law Suit is about:

Dmitry Rogozin, deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation, was among the senior Kremlin officials targeted by the White House's sanctions announcement of March 17. Included in Rogozin's broad portfolio of duties, by virtue of a special order from Russian President Vladimir Putin issued two years ago, is oversight of the Russian space sector, in which capacity Rogozin supplies sophisticated hardware used in the Pentagon's launches of satellites into space.

This past January, the U.S. Air Force awarded a "blockbuster" sole-source contract to a private-sector firm called United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, for the purchase of 36 of the rockets, or "booster cores," that the Pentagon uses in its Delta IV and Atlas V space-launch systems. The contract was the most recent in a series that the Air Force has recently finalized with ULA, collectively valued at $2.5 billion.

ULA, however, does not manufacture the engines used in the Atlas V system; for that, the Boeing-Lockheed consortium turns to NPO Energomash, a majority Kremlin-owned company directly overseen by Rogozin. Energomash's engines, specifically the RD-180 model, are fueled by kerosene and liquid oxygen, and fetch an estimated $15 to $20 million apiece.

United Space Alliance and Sanctions

[Skipjack]

Press conference video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_rnija1nOA

[Betruger]

Today's presser thread at NSF mentions (argues) many more aspects to the suit, besides that Russian angle.

[mvanwink5]

A key E. Musk comment on 1st stage recovery extra success was that SX now hopes to return land 1st stage on land at Canaveral by the end of this year (2014), whereas before they were shooting for early 2015. Further, by 2015 they hope to implement quick turn around (relatively, ~1 month).

[mvanwink5]

"Today's presser thread at NSF mentions (argues) many more aspects to the suit, besides that Russian angle."
Crony battle on "Trough" Hill.

[jcoady]

Soft Splashdown picture from first stage rocket

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/sp ... est-n92961

[hanelyp]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/461279062837968897

Elon Musk ‏@elonmusk
Sounds like this might be a good time to unveil the new Dragon Mk 2 spaceship that @SpaceX has been working on w @NASA. No trampoline needed

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/461283368693669888

Elon Musk ‏@elonmusk
Cover drops on May 29. Actual flight design hardware of crew Dragon, not a mockup.

via http://www.transterrestrial.com/?p=5469 ... ent-335856

[hanelyp]

Videos of the first stage landing released, http://www.spacex.com/news/2014/04/29/f ... ding-video

They need a better data link for video, very bad image data corruption. A long range drone circling the landing zone might help there.

[Skipjack]

Videos of the first stage landing released, http://www.spacex.com/news/2014/04/29/f ... ding-video

They need a better data link for video, very bad image data corruption. A long range drone circling the landing zone might help there.

It was below the horizon and the weather was really, really bad. All that makes the transmission a lot worse. Next landing will be closer to the coast and thus the transmission will be better. Also note that the telemetry was more important than the video.

[mvanwink5]

Any idea if the May 10, Orbcomm OG2 launch will be legged?

[Maui]

SpaceX will include landing legs to the next Falcon 9 mission, scheduled for May. That flight is to deliver six next-generation satellites for Orbcomm.

http://www.sen.com/news/spacex-falcon-r ... ded-intact

[ladajo]

I poked around the SpaceX website but coul dnot determine anywhere that they post a Falcon-9 recovery test plan for future missions.
Nor could I find an overview in general about the recoverablity plan.

[Skipjack]

I poked around the SpaceX website but coul dnot determine anywhere that they post a Falcon-9 recovery test plan for future missions.
Nor could I find an overview in general about the recoverablity plan.

It was stated by Elon Musk and other SpaceX references on various occasions. Orbcomm launch May will include legs and will try a water landing closer to the shore and with more precision than last time (they did not aim for precision landing this time, they just wanted to get a soft touch down).

[ladajo]

It would be nice if they just went ahead and posted the Stage Recovery testing plan. They can also update it if they need to.
It is not like they are a publically traded company (yet).

[Skipjack]

It would be nice if they just went ahead and posted the Stage Recovery testing plan. They can also update it if they need to.
It is not like they are a publically traded company (yet).

Musk said in a press conference that they are planning on slowly improving their aim and so convince the range that they are clear to try brining the stage back to land. They hope to do so before the end of the year and reflying a stage next year. It does not only depend on their success with hitting the mark, it also depends on the range being sufficiently convinced that this is safe. They are already looking at a few potential landing sites at or near the cape.