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An interview with Alan Bond:

A heatshield you say? Will this do?

The next step? Oh my...

NASA Details Commercial Crew Strategy (Parabolic Arc)

NASA released the CCiCap solicitation today, so I suppose this deserves its own thread. Proposals are due by the 23rd of March with the winners to be announced in August. The goal is for orbital crewed demonstration flights from multiple providers by the middle of the decade. Links to synopsis...

This should be starting in about 25 minutes. Links to the webcast and the presentation.

On the topic of Launch Abort Systems for NASA's Commercial Crew Program, Launch Aborts Challenge Rocket Engineers.

A whole bunch of photos of the MMSEV analogue testing. Might be helpful.

This thread here.

A very nice presentation on Reaction Engines' progress (pdf): Progress on the SKYLON Reusable Spaceplane 7th Appleton Space Conference, 8 December 2011 Alan Bond, Managing Director

Completely unexpected, my Aunt gave me this: I haven't had chance to read it yet, but it's filled with absolutely beautiful photographs!

A couple of things: I don't think that's going to work, the James Cook doesn't have a heat shield. I'm not sure what the Mars robotic landers are, but aerocapture makes sense for them. I don't think that's a good idea at all. The payload penalty would more than cancel out any possible benefit...

Um, let me see if I can explain in a way that makes sense. You need to launch when the target's orbital plane crosses your launch site. But for a quick rendezvous you also need to launch when the target is about to pass overhead, so that after you reach orbit the target is very near. For...

Yes, if you can vary your launch location you can minimise that time to within one or two orbits.

I could be mistaken, but I was under the impression that the BSO remained attached to the VA during re-entry providing attitude control, then was jettisoned to reveal the parachutes which were contained within the lower portion of the BSO. I think the diagram on this page has it mostly right...

A very interesting paper (pdf) and presentation (pdf) with some very nice images, including several of the internal structure and how it has evolved during the project.

The funniest comment I've seen about this so far: "Who would want to spend 2+ hours in an "eyeballs down" position??" :lol: It's as if some people see Mike Griffin's name and have some sort of uncontrollable reflex. And there seems to be some sort of strange backlash against Paul Allen for...

Sounds good, best to place them up on OrbitHangar for simplicity. On a related note, could you please post a list of all required addons so people can get them all installed and tested early on. Thanks.