First Falcon 9 now getting assembled for launch

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
dakotatelephone...


Alan Erskine wrote:
"Bob S." barto
There's less than a dozen Delta II's left; no more will be built.

I think that's a dumb move.
The Delta II is a very well-proven and fairly economical launch vehicle
whose solid boosters give it a lot of options for mission type and payload
weight.

Pat

I agree, but it's happened. The Delta IV has a fair amount of payload
capacity, and the D-IV-S would be at the upper end of the D-II's payload
capacity, so not a lot of difference from a payload mass perspective; launch
costs could end up being lower if the number of D-IV's launched increases.

Seems the last couple of NASA payloads have launched on the Atlas V
though....

On Dec 23, 3:36*am, Pat Flannery wrote:
Pat Flannery wrote:
It's supposed to be fully stacked at KSC by New Year's Day:
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=27259

Whoops; correction there - it will be all in one piece, but still
horizontal...until the erector is ready for it in early January.
It will be interesting to see how fast the first launch attempt follows
getting it on the pad.
Knowing SpaceX, not long at all.

Pat

It is not a flight vehicle being assembled

On Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:55:16 GMT, in a place far, far away, "Alan
Erskine" made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
...
P&W can manufacture the engines in the US if need be, within a couple
years.

Within a couple of years....

It will still have the 'not-made-here' tag to deal with - at least it's
development.

Who cares? We won't be dependent on the Russians for it, and it will
be made in USA.

In article , Bob S.
wrote:


I wonder how Boeing and LockMart are feeling about all this. If this thing
actually works than Atlas and Delta are cooked, Falcon 9 launches are
one-third their price.

My guess is that in the end, one or the other will simply try to buy SpaceX.
Will the authoritiet allow this, you guys reckon?

Why would Elon Musk sell it?

--
David M. Palmer (formerly @clark.net, @ematic.com)

On Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:11:13 -0700, in a place far, far away, "David
M. Palmer" made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:

In article , Bob S.
wrote:


I wonder how Boeing and LockMart are feeling about all this. If this thing
actually works than Atlas and Delta are cooked, Falcon 9 launches are
one-third their price.

My guess is that in the end, one or the other will simply try to buy SpaceX.
Will the authoritiet allow this, you guys reckon?

Why would Elon Musk sell it?

To make a lot of money with which to start another space company, and
move on to the next steps?

h (Rand Simberg) wrote in
:

On Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:11:13 -0700, in a place far, far away, "David
M. Palmer" made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:

In article , Bob S.
wrote:


I wonder how Boeing and LockMart are feeling about all this. If this
thing actually works than Atlas and Delta are cooked, Falcon 9
launches are one-third their price.

My guess is that in the end, one or the other will simply try to buy
SpaceX. Will the authoritiet allow this, you guys reckon?

Why would Elon Musk sell it?

To make a lot of money with which to start another space company, and
move on to the next steps?

In other words, exactly what he did during the dot.com era, right?

Jorge R. Frank wrote:
To make a lot of money with which to start another space company, and
move on to the next steps?


In other words, exactly what he did during the dot.com era, right?


Ah-ha.. you're catching on to the whole concept, aren't you?
It's not what you can _really_ make; it's what your competitors think
you _might_ be able to make, isn't it?
Here come the mega-bucks, don't they? :-)

Pat

On Wed, 24 Dec 2008 22:26:28 -0600, in a place far, far away, "Jorge
R. Frank" made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:

(Rand Simberg) wrote in
:

On Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:11:13 -0700, in a place far, far away, "David
M. Palmer" made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:

In article , Bob S.
wrote:


I wonder how Boeing and LockMart are feeling about all this. If this
thing actually works than Atlas and Delta are cooked, Falcon 9
launches are one-third their price.

My guess is that in the end, one or the other will simply try to buy
SpaceX. Will the authoritiet allow this, you guys reckon?

Why would Elon Musk sell it?

To make a lot of money with which to start another space company, and
move on to the next steps?

In other words, exactly what he did during the dot.com era, right?

Yup. It's just a matter of being offered the right price. And that's
the easiest, lowest-risk way for BoLockGrum to get into new businesses
and markets. And being large public companiees, risk aversion is
their middle name.

Jorge R. Frank wrote:
h (Rand Simberg) wrote in
:

On Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:11:13 -0700, in a place far, far away, "David
M. Palmer" made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:

In article , Bob S.
wrote:

I wonder how Boeing and LockMart are feeling about all this. If this
thing actually works than Atlas and Delta are cooked, Falcon 9
launches are one-third their price.

My guess is that in the end, one or the other will simply try to buy
SpaceX. Will the authoritiet allow this, you guys reckon?
Why would Elon Musk sell it?
To make a lot of money with which to start another space company, and
move on to the next steps?

In other words, exactly what he did during the dot.com era, right?

Perhaps. Perhaps not. From my own (much, much less lucrative)
experience, these kinds of buy-outs often come with "no competition"
clauses for senior management. In order to get the $$$, Musk might have
to refrain from any other space-related venture for several years.

When/if he does start a next-next generation space venture, he might
well be under contract not to hire any of the people from the previous
ventures. Starting a new company is hard. Starting a new company while
not being able to hire the people you know are capable of starting the
new company is hard^2.

He might even be under contract to not say anything bad about acquiring
organizations. At one point in my career, I walked out of a acquisition
bonus of several hundred dollars because I wouldn't agree to not
bad-mouth the company that acquired the start-up where I worked.
--
Kevin Willoughby lid

It doesn't take many trips in Air Force One
to spoil you. -- Ronald Reagan

"kevin willoughby" wrote in message
...
Jorge R. Frank wrote:
h (Rand Simberg) wrote in
:
On Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:11:13 -0700, in a place far, far away, "David
M. Palmer" made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:

In article , Bob S.
wrote:

I wonder how Boeing and LockMart are feeling about all this. If this
thing actually works than Atlas and Delta are cooked, Falcon 9
launches are one-third their price.

My guess is that in the end, one or the other will simply try to buy
SpaceX. Will the authoritiet allow this, you guys reckon?
Why would Elon Musk sell it?
To make a lot of money with which to start another space company, and
move on to the next steps?

In other words, exactly what he did during the dot.com era, right?

Perhaps. Perhaps not. From my own (much, much less lucrative) experience,
these kinds of buy-outs often come with "no competition" clauses for
senior management. In order to get the $$$, Musk might have to refrain
from any other space-related venture for several years.

All good points.

So he'll sell out here and move into gene technology. :-)


--
Greg Moore
Ask me about lily, an RPI based CMC.