Gary Miles

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• Commented on SpaceX Gives a Preview of Falcon X and XX

  OK. So we have seen the eye candy. So what is the business model for heavy lift and super heavy lift rockets? Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 both have business models based on the satellite launch market neither of which...

• Commented on A HotFire for Falcon 9

  BTW, per Emily Shanklin over at SpaceX, the material coming off of Falcon 9 halfway up was in fact ice....

• Commented on A HotFire for Falcon 9

  Mike, Aerojet purchased a license to produce the NK-33 rocket engines under the name AJ26-58 designation. They will be manufacturing the new engines here in the US. These rocket engines still have the highest thrust to weight ratio in the...

• Commented on Where Next?

  Excellent perspective of overall space development and NASA provided by Paul Spudis....

• Commented on Bolden Meets The Press

  According to Charles Bolden: 1) Constellation program was within its funding profile. 2) Constellation was not over budget. 3) The greatest significant factor in Constellation schedule delay, timeline, was level of funding. 4) The reason for cancellation of Constellation program...

• Commented on A Less Than Perfect Rollout

  Did anyone watch the press conference Q&A this morning with Charles Bolden? He came right out and said the decision to cancel Constellation and Ares I was purely budgetary and not due to technical issues. That the level of funding...

• Commented on Stealth NASA Space Commerce Meeting

  Keith would you a agree that NASA has been less than open and transparent in the decisions that were made? For a President who ran on a platform of open government and transparency, the dealings at NASA does not fit...

• Commented on Preview of Official NASA Budget/Policy Events - 2nd Update

  Here is what Paul Spudis had to say about the term exploration: Have We Forgotten What Exploration Means?. While Paul Spudis and I disagree as to the path to be taken, we do agree as to the real purpose of...

• Commented on Preview of Official NASA Budget/Policy Events - 2nd Update

  Who says human spaceflight has anything to do with space exploration? NASA has the most advanced, comprehensive space exploration program in the world. The US currently has probes traveling beyond the solar system and exploring the heliosphere. New Horizons...

• Commented on OSTP Launch Vehicle Report Quietly Released

  Missing from the report is any assessment of impact ITAR has had on launch industry. Such analysis could have strengthen calls for ITAR reform....

• Commented on Jumping The Gun

  John Logsdon, back on Dec 11, stated that NASA would be getting a budget increase. He said it would not be the full $3 billion, but something more than the current budget. So that part of the story appears to...

• Commented on Obama Backs New Launcher and Bigger NASA Budget

  A heavy launcher by 2018? I am not biting. With no identified source for this story, Andrew Lawler is spinning little more than rumors....

• Commented on Bolden Meets With Obama

  1. President will propose additional funds to accelerate the development of J-2X engine. For Ares I 2nd stage. 2. Provide additional funds to accelerate development of Ares I launcher in order to meet 2015 launch date. 3. Extend one additional...

• Commented on Will White House Speak Soon About NASA?

  Frank, Over the last month two large delegations from Florida and Texas of which over half the members were Republicans signed letters urging to President Obama to increase NASA funding. So I am not sure how you can portray this...

• Commented on Will White House Speak Soon About NASA?

  At the forum held at MIT, John Logsdon was of the view that President Obama was planning on increasing NASA's budget, particularly in the human spaceflight program, which would seem to directly contradict the Orlando Sentinel story....

• Commented on Video: Avatar, Augmented Reality, and NASA

  Keith, I wonder to what purpose should NASA engage in mass media and culture in order to accomplish its goals of space exploration, normalizing human spaceflight, and expanding US economic base in both LEO and beyond. What level of funding...

• Commented on Is There A 10% Budget Cut In NASA's Future?

  Another nonstory from the desks of doom and gloom NASA obit writers Robert Block and Mark Matthews. The fact that the story lacks any reference to dates and times suggest that this article is a rehash from stories last spring...

• Commented on Is There A 10% Budget Cut In NASA's Future?

  Er...I meant Robert Block and Mark Matthews. My bad....

• Commented on One-Off Rockets

  Considering that the Ares 1-X launch was planned for several years before the HSF Review was a blip in anyone's sypnapses, the claim that the launch was a political stunt to save the program rings hollow. The launch and flight...

• Commented on Ares 1-Y is Toast

  Thanks dbooker, for some reason I could not see some of the last comments yesterday. I went back through the report and found the reference. I still find that cost number hard to believe, especially given the enormous amount of...

• Commented on Ares 1-Y is Toast

  Well to answer my own question I found the reference in Section 6.4.4 on p. 90 of the report. But the high recurring cost is not with the Ares I first stage but the Orion spacecraft according to this statement:...

• Commented on Ares 1-Y is Toast

  Dennis Wingo, Where are you coming up with this $1 billion per launch of the Ares I/Orion from the Augustine report? Please cite section and page number. Thanks. Gary...

• Commented on Ares 1-Y is Toast

  Au contraire, I chose SpaceX because I consider that company to be the stronger, more innovative company than big aerospace defense contractors like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, ATK, Northrop Grumman, or Lockheed & Boeing subsidiary United Launch Alliance. When commercial aviation...

• Commented on Ares 1-Y is Toast

  Keith's 29 October note: Given that the Constellation Program's Control Board decided last Friday to cancel Ares 1-Y, reality seems to be descending upon the Ares 1 effort. This is a misleading statement. Control Board was wanting to revise the...

• Commented on Ares 1-Y is Toast

  The operational costs of an Ares I launch with development costs included are estimated somewhere between $150 - $250 million per launch. The estimated cost as of 2009 for the Gerald R. Ford class aircraft carrier (1 carrier) currently slated...

• Commented on Video: Aerial View of Ares I-X Flight Test

  After reviewing several different videos of Ares 1-X, there appear to be no recontact. There is no significant debris field which would be evident if recontact was made at that velocity. There is also no damage found in the area...

• Commented on Ares 1-X Launched

  @dbooker The term SRB is usually used to refer to the space shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB). While Polaris, Poseidon, and Taurus, and Trident utilize solid rocket fuel, they do not use SRBs. Polaris, Poseidon, and Trident were/are manufactured by...

• Commented on Ares 1-X Launched

  @Miles and Frank Yes the SRBs were designed and built 35 years ago for the space shuttle system as a booster. This is the first time that the SRB was used as the primary first stage in a rocket design....

• Commented on Ares 1-X Staging Issue

  NASA had a successful launch and test flight with Ares 1-X. Data from over 700 sensors was received and compiled which will take several months to analyze. The Ares I team deserves congratulations for all their hard work and dedication....

• Commented on Ares 1-X Launched

  The launch of the Ares 1-X was awsome! Sigh. Glad to see NASA can still engineer good rockets despite all the naysayers....