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SpaceX Wins Use of NASA's Launch Pad 39A
SpaceX and NASA have reached an agreement (though negotiations on the details are ongoing) for the private space company to lease NASA's launch pad 39A. SpaceX rival Blue Origin had also sought the launch pad for its own use. From the article: "During the selection process, Blue Origin had filed a petition to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The spaceflight company was claiming that NASA was favoring single-use of the launch pad which was designed as a multi-user facility. ... The GAO decided on Thursday that the petition has no basis, which prompted NASA to proceed with its decision process. The next day, the space agency informed both companies that it is granting the exclusive lease to SpaceX."
my own little missile seems to have launched itself on hearing this news!
0.1 Earth radius !! Here we come!!
On the map generated by the BPD, most stolen license plates seemed to congregate around Dunkin' Donuts cafes. News at 11.
Gently reply
Blue Origin will almost certainly end up being an "also ran". It is essentially an extension of Jeff Bezo's ego. I expect an announcement soon that Amazon will be launching groceries at its Amazon Prime customers with Blue Origin rockets... Certainly, they will not be launching any paying payloads into space any time soon. Blue Origin is just another Amazon Pipe Dream.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
China has just landed their space craft on the moon. Just hours ago.
When will Space-X do that ?
I mean, let's start up some REAL COMPETITION !
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
When companies (Microsoft?) get into the business of doing business by hiring lawyers to hobble their competition, we all lose. Those companies spend a lot of money that could to go R&D (remember that?) on lawyers, instead, which benefits no one but said lawyers.
'Member 3 years old? "Now, Elton, it's better to share."
Don't take life too seriously; it isn't permanent.
When companies (Microsoft?) get into the business of doing business by hiring lawyers to hobble their competition, we all lose.
Nice platitude, but does not apply here.
Blue Origin is not yet in the business of launching rockets, they don't need the NASA pad. The snit is nothing more than Jeff Bezos stomping his feet like a little boy because he can't buy the deal with his huge pile of cash. Bezos has become used to being able to simply toss cash at something and - by magic! - it is his. That didn't work in this case.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
I've never heard of "Blue Origin" before. As such, I'm guessing they haven't successfully launched shit.
Space-X can actually use the pad now.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
You mean, like how Blue Origin tried to hobble SpaceX by securing a launchpad they had no use for?
SpaceX has 39 launches on their manifest, and has completed 9 successful orbital launches. They will probably get a whole bunch more once they complete the Falcon Heavy demo flight.
Blue Origin has zero launches on their manifest, zero successful orbital launches, and no firm timeline for when they might complete their first orbital rocket except that it appears to be in early development.
In short, Blue Origin had no conceivable use for the pad, except for a possible use in the long-term. I think what was actually going on there is that the United Launch Alliance, which had a near-monopoly on US launches until recently, was using Blue Origin as a proxy (co-sponsoring the bid) to try to hurt SpaceX, who is offering strong competition and forcing them to lower their prices.
Why exclusive? If anything a private entity should run the launchpad as a rental business. Of course, NASA receives a large chunk of the profits made at a decaying rate. There's plenty of space for multiple companies to operate and the pad itself can be scheduled.
Pad 39A is overkill for Space-X's Falcon 9. That's built and transported horizontally, then lifted to a vertical position for launch. The Falcon Heavy may need a more elaborate assembly process. Do they need the whole VAB/crawler-transporter rig? That seems the only justification for wanting all the Pad 39A infrastructure.
I didn't even know that NASA held a raffle.
I was going to use it for barbecue parties. You guys were all invited.
You mean, like how Blue Origin tried to hobble SpaceX by securing a launchpad they had no use for?
Did we even read the same article? The same summary?
In short, Blue Origin had no conceivable use for the pad, except for a possible use in the long-term.
We must have, because that was the point of their petition: to open up the launchpad for multiple users.
Now, with SpaceX gaining exclusive access to the pad and facilities, Blue Origin is going to have to shop somewhere else or spend megabucks to build their own launch facility.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
It actually points to something rather important that's not being mentioned in all this talk about SpaceX vs Blue Origin in the context of competition for government support.
Seastead this.
Oh, for mod points!
This article is not the only report or for that matter even news agency that has reported on this topic. Blue Origin has indeed zero customers at the moment who want to use their services, and the contract is only for five years anyway before it is up for renegotiation.... at which time Blue Origin can try to put forward something of their own that actually can fly.
Elon Musk was so cocky about the whole thing that he offered at his own expense (or the expense of SpaceX and not NASA) to accommodate Blue Origin or for that matter any other American company that might want to use this launch pad for their own projects (referring also to United Launch Alliance). Furthermore, Mr. Musk speculated that the likelihood of Blue Origin actually qualifying according to FAA-AST standards necessary for human spaceflight (which is the only point of using this launch pad as opposed to other locations that certainly are available including at the Kennedy Space Complex at Florida) in the next five years is about as likely as seeing dancing unicorns in that same flame duct.
I have to agree with Mr. Musk on this point too. It isn't just a matter of Blue Origin spending megabucks to build their own launch facility, of which SpaceX has gone through and built three launch pads besides this one and is shopping around for a fourth launch pad in addition to this launch pad (that one is likely to be in Brownsville, Texas), but that Blue Origin is also not really capable of using this particular facility at all.
The whole point of this legal action is to try and delay any potential launches that SpaceX might do at this particular launch pad. SpaceX needs it for both the Falcon Heavy rocket as well and manned launches in particular. It also can act as a back-up site if SLC-40 (the other Florida pad that SpaceX currently operates) needs to go through a period of renovation.
There are another 38 other potential launch sites in the area that are suitable to various degrees or other for spaceflight activity. Some of them certainly are not really suitable and others are in such utter state of disrepair as to be essentially carving out a new spot in the swampland of Cape Canaveral, but there are other locations if the desire was made. There is also pad 39B, but that is currently being used by NASA for the SLS/Orion program as long as that program continues to get funding.
I recommend you go read http://spaceksc.blogspot.com/ for his many articles on this very subject (39A). Summary: BO has no launch vehicle, zero mission manifest, and certainly no missions for what 39A is needed for, getting astronauts up to the ISS, for the five-year duration of this deal.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
It's true that SpaceX has managed to go where men have gone before using much of the 60's era technology.
It's also true that they have done this in a time when advances in technology have made this much easier.
To their defense, they have done this with meager resources and time compared to others with the same advantages and more.
IMHO, this is in concert with what NASA's mission ought to be. (Cheap, no big deal access to space.)
I suspect they will be good stewards of the launch complex.
WIth regards to a longer term mission, they seem to have the hots for Mars.
Perhaps a useful model for the first manned mission should be to Mars orbit
where one can remote control surface exploration with reasonable latency?
This seems about right as a goal to restart our ventures off the planet.
(smacks forehead)
Gently reply
We must have, because that was the point of their petition: to open up the launchpad for multiple users.
Ah, the real reason for BO's petition. They have no conceivable use for the pad themselves, so let's look at who they think the other users might be... How about ULA, their partner in the bid? ULA who has a near-monopoly on US launch capacity, and resents the competition that SpaceX has been causing?