> In reaction to the sanctions, Rogozin tweeted: “After analyzing the sanctions against our space industry, I suggest the U.S. delivers its astronauts to the ISS with a trampoline.” In Russian there's an expression - to scare a hedgehog with a naked ass - which is exactly the case here, except it's really a shame that it's the space exploration that ends up suffering because of some bullshit political games.
I'm not quite following: exactly which sanctions prompted Rogozin's snide response?
SpaceX granted injunction in rocket launch suit against Lockheed-Boeing
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Re: SpaceX granted injunction in rocket launch suit against Lockheed-Boeing
#32> In reaction to the sanctions, Rogozin tweeted: “After analyzing the sanctions against our space industry, I suggest the U.S. delivers its astronauts to the ISS with a trampoline.” In Russian there's an expression - to scare a hedgehog with a naked ass - which is exactly the case here, except it's really a shame that it's the space exploration that ends up suffering because of some bullshit political games.
Elon's response to that tweet was more than a little bit epic: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/461279062837968897 followed by: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/461283368693669888 Not sure what Rogozin thought about them apples, but this sure isn't boring!
Re: SpaceX granted injunction in rocket launch suit against Lockheed-Boeing
#33> In reaction to the sanctions, Rogozin tweeted: “After analyzing the sanctions against our space industry, I suggest the U.S. delivers its astronauts to the ISS with a trampoline.” In Russian there's an expression - to scare a hedgehog with a naked ass - which is exactly the case here, except it's really a shame that it's the space exploration that ends up suffering because of some bullshit political games.
Re: SpaceX granted injunction in rocket launch suit against Lockheed-Boeing
#34Re: SpaceX granted injunction in rocket launch suit against Lockheed-Boeing
#35Given the circumstances, why would the USAF not bid out the launches? My thought is that they see Lockheed and Boeing as American companies and don't really care where the parts come from. In the end, SpaceX has shown a competive price and should have a chance to bid these launches. On another hand, the US/Russian space programs and teamwork with the ISS is largely separated from the political issues in Ukraine. Ther…
Even if SpaceX's prices go up with EELV launches, and even if they would never incorporate reusability into EELV launches, they would still be able to offer launches for every possible EELV payload at prices far below ULA's. Anything ULA could launch on any of their vehicles SpaceX could launch on the Falcon Heavy, and many launches (like GPS birds) could happen on the even cheaper Falcon 9.
With reusability, which SpaceX seems to have a good handle on, those costs get slashed, especially the cost of the Falcon Heavy. Any EELV payload could be launched on a reusable Falcon Heavy, even if it meant forgoing crossfeed. Even if the first stages could only be reused twice (a paltry amount) that would lower the cost of a reusable Falcon Heavy to around the cost of a Falcon 9, around $50 million.
Keep in mind that every ULA launcher uses an RL-10 in the upper stage, and that's a $40 million engine. Even at discounted prices simply having an engine that expensive (to say nothing of the rest of the vehicle) on every launch makes it impossible to offer launches as cheap as SpaceX could.
Re: SpaceX granted injunction in rocket launch suit against Lockheed-Boeing
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
>some random canadian company got the healthcare website contract Whose backs were being scratched in that case?
CGI Federal had some interesting ties to the Obamas. http://www.factcheck.org/2013/12/michelle-obama-and-cgi-fede...
Conclusion
There is no evidence that Townes-Whitley’s connection to the first lady,
or CGI’s campaign contributions, had anything to do with the contract being
awarded to CGI Federal as viral emails suggest.
Company and government officials say the contract was awarded through a competitive
— yet limited — process, and that Townes-Whitley was not involved.Re: SpaceX granted injunction in rocket launch suit against Lockheed-Boeing
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Space exploration always had political motivation driving it or inhibiting it. The great progress done during last 40-50 years wouldn't have as much without cold war and its associated factors. In this case, even if you exclude the Russian factor, the point that ULA was awarded such a huge contract without any competition, most probably didn't happen without political (and/or financial) influence.
The history behind the engines we are talking about is just crazy. Basically they were incredibly superior to the american ones but politicians lost interest in them (because the race to the moon was lost), and they scrapped the program and asked the engines to be destroyed. They were hidden in the middle of nowhere in Siberia. After the cold war, some Russians in the know wanted to sell them to US companies, the spe…
Re: SpaceX granted injunction in rocket launch suit against Lockheed-Boeing
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Elon's response to that tweet was more than a little bit epic: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/461279062837968897 followed by: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/461283368693669888 Not sure what Rogozin thought about them apples, but this sure isn't boring!
It takes a lot of discipline to keep something like that under wraps until the exact right time to bring it out.
Re: SpaceX granted injunction in rocket launch suit against Lockheed-Boeing
#39Given the circumstances, why would the USAF not bid out the launches? My thought is that they see Lockheed and Boeing as American companies and don't really care where the parts come from. In the end, SpaceX has shown a competive price and should have a chance to bid these launches. On another hand, the US/Russian space programs and teamwork with the ISS is largely separated from the political issues in Ukraine. Ther…
For the same reason a company that sells a CRUD app might only support Oracle and not other databases. Always working with the same vendor each time reduces technical complexity. People will knee-jerk and say "corruption" but an engineer should be able to at least see where the USAF is coming from.
Given that this is national-security grade stuff, there's also some political and practical considerations. The DOD can't really allow a true market for defense equipment and services. Markets are messy, they go through transition and disruption. That's not acceptable in a national-security context.
Re: SpaceX granted injunction in rocket launch suit against Lockheed-Boeing
#40https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_azyt1JhI0
Elon basically going head-to-head with Michael Gass from the ULA and holding his own quite well.