In article ,
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On 2019-08-06 18:20, Jeff Findley wrote:

Both Arianespace and SpaceX have just announced that they will sell
dedicated smallsat launches. These are ride-shares organized directly
by Arianespace and SpaceX.


If I want to send my iPhone in orbit as a "small sat", wouldn.t I get a
better deal going with NASA which likely subsidizes such endeavours for
people it likes vs having to buy a launch from SpaceX or ArianeSpace?

That's my point. Why should the US Government be subsidizing the
smallsat industry? NASA should be working on innovating and pushing
bleeding edge tech. Smallsat launch is not that.

It is easier to pack such a device in a box/pallets to be launched to
ISS on Dragon/Cygnus/Progress, and then launchy it out of that airlock
rather than having to deal with SpaceX/Ariane to get the specs for the
luanch interface and do all the paperwork for a single little device.
(if you're sending 60 cobesats, things would be different).

If you think NASA paperwork would be a picnic, I've got a bridge to sell
you.

Actually, the size of cubesats have been standardized for quite some
time. There are also standard cubesat launchers as well. Atlas V
announced its entry into this space years ago:

ULA Making Cubesat Dispenser Standard on all Atlas 5 Rockets
by Mike Gruss - November 23, 2015
https://spacenews.com/ula-making-cub...andard-on-all-
atlas-5-rockets/

As for Cygnus, you can hitch a ride directly on the Cygnus. No need to
go inside ISS:

External Cygnus Deployment
http://nanoracks.com/products/extern...us-deployment/

And I haven't even mentioned the dedicated smallsat launchers like
Elektron and the like.


Again, I see *zero* reason for NASA to be doing this on ISS. It's not
pushing tech in any way and it's clearly directly competing with private
industry.

Jeff
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