"Unfortunately, with the recent selection of Boeing/Northrop-Grumman and Lockheed-Martin as the two competing teams for the contract to build the Shuttle's successor, t/Space's future path is somewhat uncertain."
That's baloney. The US military loves the air launch thing. Back in the '70s there was a pathfinder-type mission that air launched a Minuteman. And the MDA is heavily invested in air launched targets for the various interceptor programs. There was the LRALT program and a newer target launched by Orbital Sciences.
And, of course, there's also Orbital's Pegasus space launch vehicle.
The benefit of the type of air launch method that t/Space is showing is that the LRALT and MRT programs require the extremely heavy sleds that they sit on and that they are limited by the cargo capacity of a C-17. And Pegasus has to carry that enormous wing and tail structure (not to mention its failures, such as the first X-43A flight).
I think if t/Space can show superiority over the existing air launch methods (which doesn't seem to be difficult), they will definitely fill a demand in both the small space launch and targets markets.
"they really can't decide on what they want."
This is, I think, a pretty common problem in government projects. I'm working for a minor defense contractor right now on this cluster-fuck of a project that some DoD jokers dreamed up. My co-workers and I agree that it has little chance of actually seeing the light of day, because the requirements are constantly changing and have been since I got assigned to the project 6 mos. ago.
We spend all our time re-doing stuff that we've already done to meet the ever-evolving requirements (that is, reading slashdot and not bothering with actual work). Yet, our management tells the lead engineer that he needs to get more people charging the project so that we don't miss out on any gov't money (not sure how that works...).
While I'm glad the paycheck comes in every couple of weeks, it's pretty retarded that the taxpayers are basically paying me to sit on my ass while the DoD people in charge try to decide what it is they want out of the project.
Slashdot Mirror
Hey kid, thumb a hundred bucks will ya, help save the clocktower.
That's baloney. The US military loves the air launch thing. Back in the '70s there was a pathfinder-type mission that air launched a Minuteman. And the MDA is heavily invested in air launched targets for the various interceptor programs. There was the LRALT program and a newer target launched by Orbital Sciences. And, of course, there's also Orbital's Pegasus space launch vehicle.
The benefit of the type of air launch method that t/Space is showing is that the LRALT and MRT programs require the extremely heavy sleds that they sit on and that they are limited by the cargo capacity of a C-17. And Pegasus has to carry that enormous wing and tail structure (not to mention its failures, such as the first X-43A flight).
I think if t/Space can show superiority over the existing air launch methods (which doesn't seem to be difficult), they will definitely fill a demand in both the small space launch and targets markets.
"they really can't decide on what they want." This is, I think, a pretty common problem in government projects. I'm working for a minor defense contractor right now on this cluster-fuck of a project that some DoD jokers dreamed up. My co-workers and I agree that it has little chance of actually seeing the light of day, because the requirements are constantly changing and have been since I got assigned to the project 6 mos. ago. We spend all our time re-doing stuff that we've already done to meet the ever-evolving requirements (that is, reading slashdot and not bothering with actual work). Yet, our management tells the lead engineer that he needs to get more people charging the project so that we don't miss out on any gov't money (not sure how that works...). While I'm glad the paycheck comes in every couple of weeks, it's pretty retarded that the taxpayers are basically paying me to sit on my ass while the DoD people in charge try to decide what it is they want out of the project.