MAIN ARTICLE: SpaceX: Falcon 9, on the road.
Space X is moving to have the first Falcon 9 launch vehicle fully intergrated by December 31st for it's 09' maiden flight.
Poll Results: Yesterday's poll showed a rare strong support for a space issue. A deep space internet.
Star Trek: In the News. Star Trek Online introduces the NX91001. Scroll down to read the latest, click subscribe to get the news.
Yesterday's Comments: "Aliens need myspace too" - the3Cs
Today's Poll: Should NASA have it's own LEO launch system.
'Americans in Space' recently ran a story about SpaceX: NASA awards $3.5 billion for COTS - ISS resupply. SpaceX and the Falcon 9 were awarded $1.6 billion for future cargo supply launches to the International Space Station.
The CEO and founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk, was also founder of paypal, which he later sold and used the proceeds to start his space venture:
BACKGOUND:
"In 1995, Musk went on to a graduate program in high energy physics at Stanford, in which he stayed exactly two days before dropping out to start Zip2,[2] which provided online content publishing software for news organizations. In 1999, Compaq's AltaVista division acquired Zip2 for US$307 million in cash and US$34 million in stock options.[5]
In March 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and email payments company.[2] One year later, X.com acquired Confinity, originally a company formed to beam money between Palm Pilots,[6] and the combined entity focused on email payments through the PayPal domain, acquired as part of Confinity. In February 2001, X.com changed its legal name to PayPal. In October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for US$1.5 billion in stock.[7] Before its sale, Musk, the company's largest shareholder, owned 11.7% of PayPal's shares.[8]
Elon Musk (left) at Tesla Motors. Photo by Erik CharltonIn June 2002, Musk founded his third company, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), of which he is currently the CEO and CTO. SpaceX develops and manufactures space launch vehicles, with an emphasis on low cost and high reliability. The company's first two launch vehicles are the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets.
In addition to his business activities in entrepreneurial space, Musk is the principal owner and CEO of Tesla Motors, which builds a high-end luxury electric sports car and plans to produce a more economical four door electric sedan.[9] He is also the primary investor and Chairman of the Board of SolarCity, a photovoltaics products and services startup company.[10] The underlying motivation for funding both companies is to help combat global warming."Elon Musk - wiki
RECENT ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Originally planned for a launch in 2008 it has been pushed back unitl the first quarter of 2009. A new update was released on their plans for the intergration of the first launch vehicle.
"Yesterday we lifted the first stage off the shipping truck and lowered it onto the integration assemblies (shown below). With all of the F9 hardware currently at or on its way to the Cape, we are on track for a fully integrated launch vehicle by year's end.
Barring any unforeseen delays, the second stage and fairing are expected to arrive at the Cape by December 28th and will be mated on December 31st, just in time for the New Year.
The erector is also on track towards operational status in early January, with the base assembly to be aligned and tacked by December 26th and welding to be complete early in the New Year. Hold down assemblies are expected to arrive shortly after the New Year and with our ground control system at SLC-40 currently operational, it's just a matter of days before F9 is vertical at the Cape." - Falcon 9 update:
The update also has great images of the various parts being unloaded. The Falcon 9 is the launch vehicle that will put the new human rated cargo capsule, Dragon, into orbit.
Musk believes that the COTS-D funding should be started sooner than later. Obital Sciences, the other COTS, winner, who is not as far advanced as SpaceX for a human crewed option thought funding for COTS-D should be held off for awhile.
POLL RESULTS:
Sunday's poll "So let it be written, so let it be done." was about NASA's recent test for the creation of an internet for space. There was very strong support for this plan (75%) with (15%) prefering that funding go to other programs.
STAR TREK: In the News.
Last August Leonard Nimoy unveiled Star Trek Online (STO) and the website has been gaining strong support. STO reported in a new ship design: NX-91001
(image - Star Trek Online)
"A starship designed to carry Federation influence throughout the Alpha Quadrant and beyond, the NX-91001 is one of the first multi-role starship designs since the Sovereign class was commissioned in the early 2370s. Able to function as a deep-space explorer with extensive sensors and laboratory facilities for scientific research, the NX-91001 also is outfitted as a heavy cruiser armed with some of the latest in Starfleet weapons technology for deployment in hostile areas."
YESTERDAY'S COMMENTS:
Yesterday's main article: "NASA wants an Internet for Deep Space?"
"For a little more on the subject ... the concept for a space internet is this. The current space communications infrastructure is designed for point-to-point communication. You aim a dish on the ground at what you want to talk to, it aims its dish back, and the link begins.
The Internet concept is to allow for more robust exploration by leveraging pre-positioned assets (like the Lunar Recon Observer, the already orbited Mars Recon Observer and Odyssey, and many others) to serve as nodes in a space network. So rather than having to have high-power communications point-to-point and only during certain parts of the day, the Internet concept is to make communications happen at all times of the day.
So, it is a bit more useful for current operations than one might think at first blush." - OdinsEye2k
"This, Of Course, Is Inevitable ...and would no doubt lead to advances in other areas of communication, perhaps even at the quantum level. In any event -- what science or human effort is not wholly dependent on the evolution of communication? It is singular.
As for NASA or the US, in general -- I wouldn't hold my breath there. I pay attention to the Chinese space program. Their moon project, alone, will usher in deep space "internet" since their aggressive and committed goals cannot come into existence without the basics of this infrastructure.
Maybe they'll rent us some bandwidth" - Pluto
Scipio had a great link with his comment:
"Deep-Space Internet Would be, I assume, a continuation and expansion of the existing deep-space network.
As for developing a deep-space internet, I don't think it's something whose value should be considered in isolation. While it would be an interesting research project and all (as a good system of disruption-tolerant networking would have some seriously useful applications on earth), the real value comes in what it allows us to do in the future, and how it will facilitate further exploration and science"
TODAY'S POLL:
The last poll, on COTS-D, received a few comments that suggested even if America has a Commercial Astronaut Launch Services NASA should have it's own independant launch system to Low Earth Orbit for astronauts.
Today's poll is whether NASA Astronauts should just buy a ticket from a commercial provider or have their own system.