The week in review 7 (fortnightly edition)

Been an eventful week here in the UK (to put it mildly!)

Furthermore as I messed up last week today am covering the big news of the past two weeks. Thankfully this week has been a bit quieter than the previous one.

Biggest news then this past fortnight were the successful launches by SpaceX and Blue Origin. I followed the first launch with some speculation on Falcon 9v2.

Also Virgin posted an update, and Stratolaunch released more info (still nothing on their rocket though),

Jeff Bezos was awarded a prize (which Elon Musk has also won, maybe they could have a duel with the swords presented to them!),

Thoughts on Aerospace planes,

NewSpace 2016 conference took place (have watched some of the coverage but been a bit preoccupied)

Finally in related news, Tesla Motors (Biggest shareholder Elon Musk) is attempting to take over Solar city (Biggest shareholder Elon Musk)

The week in review 6

After catching up from the previous week on Monday, has been a bit of a quiet week.

I posted a bit of speculation on future suborbital tourist vehicles, then a video Masten, practically the last firm standing that's not backed by a billionaire. I have a post I'm still drafting on this which hopefully will be done next week...

In other news, BAE systems showed yet again how they are unable to build anything on time, budget and that actually works with a type 45 destroyer breaking down in the gulf. This editorial has more details on the MOD's inability to old contractors to account and get value for money.

In addition more details are coming out on SpaceX's Mars plans:

By the next launch window, in 2020, Musk said the company would aim to fly at least two Falcon Heavy rockets and Dragon spacecraft, loaded with experiments. “By that time there will be quite a few organizations … that are interested in running experiments on Mars,” he said.

Then in 2022, Musk said he hoped to launch what the company now sometimes refers to as the Mars Colonial Transporter, designed to bring a colony to Mars.

Linking was this piece on the long term issues we need to resolve for colonisation to become a reality,

A good update on the small launcher scene and what this means for Orbital ATK,

A good summary of suborbital research's new renaissance,

Finally, making spacecraft out of asteroids? Paging Greg Bear....

The week in review 5

Busy week for me, the school term ended and with and my contract at the school I'd been at for the last 5 weeks. I did work as a different school for 3 days and was hoping to be booked until the school year ends but it was not to be.

Was a busy week in space too, with a number of events, including;

India's suborbital  RLV test,

Orbital ATK's plans,

an update from Blue Origin,

and more info on XS-1 (and additional details here)


An additional positive story was the Expansion of Bigelow' BEAM module at the ISS (on the second attempt),

I also found another new UK Small launcher, Horizon's Black Arrow 2 (Should really be using High Test Peroxide-HTP-  with that name!),

and an interesting article from Space New's magazine on Red Dragon.

Speaking of SpaceX, one he biggest stories this week was of course was latest launch, making a total of 3 barge landings in a row.

In sadder news it appears XCOR's Lynx space plane is dead (for now, but am not optimistic it will every fly at this date. XCOR has been going pretty much since I first started to follow RLV development so it a real shame.

Also this week Planetary Resources cancelled their Kickstarter funded space selfie telescope (which I had donated to. In more positive news they did raise money for a new Earth observation system.

And fnally, a cool poster showing every vehicle in the US military.

The week in review 4

This weeks round up of interesting links in the aerospace world;

More info on DARPA's XS-1 program,

Vector Space making progress,

Buzz dis's SLS,

Orbital ATK show off plans for a lunar orbital station, while LM are working on a Mars orbital mission- lots of info in this video:

Old jets being used for training modern pilots,

A close look at recovered SpaceX booster in the Observer, and also from the UK news on domestic spaceports.

The week in review 3

Biggest story this week was the delays in Boeing's CST-100.

Only other links of interest this week was this piece on the V-280 Valour, which I hadn't heard of before.

Very short list this week, so to finish this cool pic of SpaceX's used rocket hanger:

(c) SpaceX

Quick thoughts:1), there going to need a bigger hanger soon, 2) maybe they should paint black in future to hide the scorch marks, 3) enough now for a Falcon heavy! 

The week in review 2

This week turned out to be busier than expected for me, with a bank holiday, 2 job interviews and a seminar on property investing leaving me little free time. Thankfully there were only 2 major news items this week, which I have already mentioned; SpaceX's third successful first stage landing (more commentary here regarding their ability to takes risks), and an update on Textron's Scorpion jet. (more here on whether it will actually get any sales)

Other interesting articles/pieces I came across this week:

A series on Avweek on the next 100 years of aerospace, featuring opinions from Burt Rutan and Norm Augustine,

More news from Textron, this time a UAV,

A cool concert from ESA for a personnel VTOL transport,

An update on Virgin Galactic,

And finally, I came across this cool old promo video for the X-20 Dyna-soar programme from the 60's. (which I came across on this page), Enjoy!

The week in review 1

Due to various circumstances, I now have a lot more free time and have decided to start a new blog. This is the third time (I think) I have tried this out in the last 15 years, and my main aim with this one is to focus on my interests in space, aviation, military and other advanced technology. It is the 21st century after all, and I'd like this site to be a log of new developments with a bit of commentary and speculation of what may come.

And to so to start what I plan to be a weekly feature, a round-up of the biggest developments of the past week that have caught my eye. In future I'm also planning on linking back to my own posts, but today will just be external links.

Space flight

The biggest news this week has to be SpaceX's announcement that they plan to land a Dragon capsule on Mars in 2018. I have been dwelling on this a lot and have some thoughts I'd like to share soon on a near tern manned mission using this technology.

Additionally we saw a new very small launch vehicle unveiled by Vector Space. I'm not sure how much demand there will be for launchers in this payload range but will be the more competition the better. It will also be interesting to see how far this design can be scaled up. More info here.

Blue Origin posted (by email) some information on the development of their BE-4 engine. Here's a summary.

Finally, a good piece on Buzzfeed on the SLS and its lack of uses, and an Economist article on Billionaire philanthropists that mentions Elon Musk and Jeff Bezo's space projects. 

Aviation:

Saw this week about the Cobalt Valkyrie on Popsci. Is a very pretty plane and will be following its future development with interest.

Also this week Japan's' X-2 5th generation fighter prototype made its first flight, and while slightly older news I saw this article on Lockheed-Martins' return to the civil aviation market with the LM-100.

Military:

Australia orders 12 subs from France. Compared to the problems with the Royal Navy's Astute program seems a good deal.

That's it for this week! Check back for more news and commentary.