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US Military Told To Move From 'Expendable' To 'Reusable' Rockets (arstechnica.com)
schwit1 shares a report from Ars Technica: The conference report from the U.S. House and Senate calls for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program of the Department of Defense, commonly known as the EELV program, to be named the "National Security Space Launch program" as of March 1, 2019. No longer will the military rely solely on expendable rockets. Moreover, the report says the U.S. Air Force must consider both expendable and reusable launch vehicles as part of its solicitation for military launch contracts. And in the event that a contract is solicited for a mission that a reusable launch vehicle is not eligible to compete for, the Air Force should report back to Congress with the reason why. The U.S. House has already agreed to the conference report, and it should be taken up in the Senate next week. After that, it will need the president's signature to become law. [...] It is quite a change from the state of play just 13 years ago, when ULA was dominant and SpaceX was roundly dismissed by the courts and the broader aerospace community.
*Froth froth*. It's political correctness gone mad. *Froth froth*.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Why the rush to rapid, responsive?
Do entire networks of existing satellites all need replacing in the same year?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
...the ICBM will become reusable ?!?
SpaceX's recent launch of a Tesla vehicle as proof of concept was cool, perhaps poetic and arty even, but not the most impressive part: I have to admit that my jaw dropped open when I saw 2 of the 3 rockets returning and landing again (3rd one was lost). I found it a triumph of good engineering, really impressive that it actually worked considering the rocket shape and gigantic powers involved.
Bullets are a major consumable expense - they should be reusable. Or, you know, create a long-lasting peace the world over.
Requiem for the American Dream
Well, those are Ballistic Missiles, but it is a bit of a misnomer: The Missiles are not Ballistic, Ballistic warheads are put on their trajectories using missiles during the ascent phase. So, the rockets could be as well reusable, but war situation requires very quick reload (and refuel), and I don't think the state of the art in reusable rocketry allows it.
It's for space launch and not for ballistic missiles which are actually used surface-to-surface (with a bit of space in between).
It is pretty funny though to see the big rusty and spoiled old fat-and-lazy-on-cost-plus-contracts defense contractors that benefitted so well from an earlier such government mandate (the one that created the EELV program) now on the other end of such a mandate. Given that none of the overpaid morons managing these firms took SpaceX seriously, none will be on an even footing with SpaceX for future contracts. If the clowns pretending to be CEOs of these firms do not wise-up and order a major shift to reusability then it's likely Blue Origin will be ready with a reusable wile the big3 old school firms are still debating a course of action. Can it be that we are about to see a colossal abuse of taxpayers finally get punished? It probably depends on how many corrupt members of congress the big old firms can buy and whether its enough to defeat the policy change.
LockMart is currently designing their non-reusable Vulcan launch vehicle as their next-gen replacement for the Russia!Russia!Russia!-engined Atlas launch vehicle.
Boeing seems to be prepping to retire the Delta launch vehicle with no replacement.
NothrupGrumman (who have recently absorbed Orbital ATK) is home to the non-reusable Russian-engined Antares launch vehicle and they are currently designing a newer non-reusable solid-motor-based launch vehicle (the Omega) for the future.
Here is a story about a reusable rocket-plane using a modified Space Shuttle main engine, designed for DARPA, to launch medium sized military satellites (a bit over two tonnes.) It is intended to have 24 hour turnaround.
Like Falcon 9, the booster stage is reusable but the second stage is not. Unlike Falcon 9, the booster will glide back to a runway like a shuttle. First flight is targeted for 2021.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
And Elon Musk for proving the concept works.
This was in the news over a week ago!
They everyone can use them to kill and maim for cheaper!
are now being replaced by "The Reusables"
Not sure but it is old news about the development of reusable rockets instead of expandable once.
Can the NRO hand craft the needed observation systems at that rapid rate from bespoke 100% made in the USA parts?
If they have a brain in their skulls they already have backups sitting on the ground on standby in a launch ready (or nearly so) condition. If they are already building one it saves a lot of money to build a second (or more) at the same time. Heck even commercial companies like SiriusXM build backup satellites that are ready for launch should one of their orbiting satellites experience a problem. It would be almost criminally stupid for a government agency tasked with defense to not do the same thing.
Now if there was only a company who had the reusable rocket technology that the gov't could pilfer/commandeer in the name of national security.....
I think the idea of reusable rockets is the way they should be built! I am old enough to remember The Polaris (Buzz Corbit's rocket) landing tail first and have always thought that is the way it should be! However, one thing I very quickly learned a long time ago and far away in a tropical jungle was that .....
In combat EVERYTHING is considered expendable. It is something you learn very early. Everything and EVERYBODY IS expendable.
Headline on the summary immediately above this one:
Dads Pass On More Than Genetics In Their Sperm
Headline on this summary:
US Military Told To Move From 'Expendable' To 'Reusable' Rockets
Coincidence? I think not!
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Is to kill people and break things. NOT to be politically correct.
Space X ate the ULA's lunch leaving the ULA with existing contracts and the DoD. Now Space X just ate their dinner leaving the ULA to survive on rations. I wouldn't be surprised if the ULA evaporates in the next year.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
The GAO is pushing for the Army to start using reusable grenades.
> Wow 2021 before they can produce something that might work? Hope they can compete with Elon; he'll be pimping discount rocket launches on Amazon by then.
Yep, he'll be taking payment by Visa in 202. In 2031 he'll be announcing that it'll be just a few more years until you can actually get what you paid him for, years before.
RPGs are single use rockets. What?? Make them reusable so the enemy doesn't need to pay the full cost of launching them back? How PC of them.
It's the next step. You know it makes sense.
On y va, qui mal y pense!
Musk bought congress. It's that simple. The congress told us that spaceX will get certified in door off not having the engineering rigor, do it was done. Congress told USD today spaceX will win contacts, so we tried the system against ULA and screwed the small launch companies to make spaceX win. That wasn't, apparently, enough, so now we specifically must use spaceX boosters.
SpaceX isn't cheaper, they just bill the integration separately and pass the blame for their shitty engineering artifacts to someone else. Not impressed, but keep cheering for they guy who had the working class subsidizing rich people's sports cars, suckers.
Congress did not get bought by musk, the guy barely had any lobbyists back when this got rolling, whereas the traditional defense contractors had enormous collections of lobbyists.
What really happened was actually quite impressive (and I'm generally not much of a Musk fanboy). summary follows:
1. Musk was working on NASA cargo missions and went to compete for Air Force launch contracts and the Air Force (nudged by the big boys) said "you're not certified to carry our stuff".
2. Musk asked "what do I have to do to be certified"
3. The Air Force admitted "Golly, we don't know. We just grandfathered-in all your competitors. We've never actually written any rules or standards for this certification thingy". And while mulling this over, they made a huge block-buy for rockets from ULA for billions of dollars.
4. Urged-on by the old contractors, the Air force took the time to write very complex and difficult certification requirements.
5. Musk asked "Hey, are those Russian engines ULA uses on the Atlas certified?"
6. Senator John McCain awoke from decades of slumber and said "Russians?!?!? What Russians?" and wrote a law saying "no more Russian engines"
7. The big boys panicked and bought a few more legislators and got that law changed to buy some time and they started to design a replacement for the Atlas that would not use Russian engines.
8. Musk, working his way through the new complex certification that nobody else had ever had to pass, asked "Hey, is that new non-Russian engined Atlas replacement going to need to be certified?"
9. Panic ensued at LockMart and in congress and in the Air Force... and the Air Force suddenly found out that SpaceX was certified.
I dislike Musk on Tesla (which makes middle class people subsidize virtue-signalling e-cars for the rich) and Solar city, am neutral on him on the Boring Company and slightly positive on SpaceX (where he always over-promises and runs years late but does finally deliver) bot on this one I say: "Well played, Mr Musk"
...in writing the requirements!