Rocket Report: NASA's stunning Falcon 9 bargain, Ariane 6 delayed:
Ars Technica routinely runs an infodump about all things rocket-related. Of note in this edition are details regarding the Falcon 9 and the Ariane 6, but many others are covered as well.
Welcome to Edition 2.45 of the Rocket Report! We're looking ahead to a monumental week of rocket launches with the first LauncherOne mission potentially taking flight on Sunday and the possible launch of Crew Dragon next Wednesday.
[...] NASA got a stunning value in the Falcon 9. With the first flight of humans atop a Falcon 9 rocket coming as early as next Wednesday, Ars takes a look back at the origins of NASA's commercial crew and cargo programs. As part of its initial investment of $396 million into SpaceX, NASA got development of the Cargo Dragon, Falcon 9, and a launch site at Cape Canaveral.
A cost of 50 times more ... At the same time, NASA was developing the Ares I rocket to fly crew into low Earth orbit. Independent estimates placed the cost of Ares I at about $20 billion. President Obama ultimately canceled the Ares I, projected to have a similar lift capacity to the modern Falcon 9 booster, because it was behind schedule and over budget. The agency, in turn, got a bargain.
Ariane 6 inaugural launch likely delayed until 2021. The first launch of Europe's next-generation large rocket appears all but certain to slip into 2021 because of development delays the European Space Agency and the rocket's manufacturer ArianeGroup attribute to the coronavirus pandemic, SpaceNews reports. Before the crisis, Arianespace had planned on Ariane 6 making its debut between October and December.
More clarity will come ... "ESA is working intensely, and very closely with all actors involved, industry and CNES, to stabilize and consolidate the planning," Daniel Neuenschwander, the director of space transportation at the European Space Agency, told the publication. "Today we are daily addressing the preliminary impacts and preparing to return to a stable level of activity. We will fully consolidate the planning and assess the full impact of COVID-19 on Ariane 6 once we have more clarity on how the European economy will be able to function in the coming months." (submitted by JohnCarter17, Ken the Bin, and platykurtic)
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday May 23 2020, @10:50PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_6 [wikipedia.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 23 2020, @11:08PM (3 children)
Wouldn't it be better for NASA to plan ahead and combine a few mission using one rocket? They could drop off their boy astronaut and girl astronaut on the moon, then launch a few satellites, and then continue on to Neptune.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday May 23 2020, @11:20PM
delta-v
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday May 24 2020, @06:14AM (1 child)
They could just use a Falcon XC, that'd be far cheaper than the Falcon 9. Not sure if it'd make it into orbit, maybe this one [whichcar.com.au] could?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday May 24 2020, @04:29PM
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 23 2020, @11:16PM (2 children)
> President Obama ultimately canceled the Ares I
Someone might uncancel it
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday May 24 2020, @12:19AM
(Score: 2) by tizan on Sunday May 24 2020, @02:57AM
No Ares in the cupboards...
Spaceforce to the rescue..will be filling it with black walls ...made of
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolith_(Space_Odyssey) [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by corey on Saturday May 23 2020, @11:33PM (1 child)
From the language, it sounds like Elon Musk works for Ars Technica on weekends.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Saturday May 23 2020, @11:44PM
The numbers don't lie. [arstechnica.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Snotnose on Sunday May 24 2020, @12:19AM (1 child)
2 stories. Back in '90 or so I worked on the sonar system for the Seawolf submarine. We had a week long meeting with, I don't remember, 6-8 government busybodies imported from the East coast (I'm in California) compared to the 3 of us with our manager. It was all on documentation, nothing technical. A solid week of "this 4.1.2.3 should be 4.1.2.2.4", and similar related BS. Again, there was nothing technical about this review, it was just us renumbering our fricking document. They drug this out for a solid week. We won't mention they were from Virginia in the middle of winter, we were in San Diego in the middle of winter, and their hotels, meals, and $diety knows what else was comped.
Even older, around '84 or so we made a $50k product that used a $5k laptop to program. When first release we had a huge spike in sales, then they fell off a cliff. Nobody knew why. Finally a marketing guy (actually a woman, Sandy, a married redhead every guy in engineering, um, never mind) went on a customer call and saw all our units on a shelf. Not a laptop in sight. Turns out, the military brass had to jump though a bunch of hoops and wait months to get a laptop. But they could buy one of our systems, consisting of a $5k laptop + $45k other stuff, at the stroke of a pen. So they bought our stuff, threw the expensive stuff on a shelf, and used the laptops. Never mind we used the most expensive laptop on the market at the time (Grid) because it was milspec.
I came. I saw. I forgot why I came.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 25 2020, @12:06PM
I said I'd be hiding out from a bunch of sickos in my room, and sure enough, that's what I've been doing!0
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 24 2020, @09:56PM
Are you enjoying COVID-19, Boomers? I hope you are, because your political response to the pandemic has completely destroyed the economy. Did we really need a Great Recession in 2008 caused by you, and a Great Lockdown in 2020 caused by you? Are you proud of yourselves for creating an economic depression even worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s? Are you proud of yourselves, Boomers? Your legacy will be economic ruin for all. You don't care as long as you Boomers continue to receive your pensions. You Boomers don't have jobs. You Boomers don't create jobs. You Boomers don't do anything for anyone ever. You Boomers are utterly worthless parasites. You don't care about anybody except yourselves. Everybody except you is forced at gunpoint to wear a facemask while you Boomers sit in your giant mansions laughing and waiting to die when you will be buried with your fortunes so nobody will ever touch your precious money.
Boomers did COVID-19.