I wonder what its main purpose is. I’m pretty sure all Gateway modules and visiting vehicles dock together, so they don’t need an arm to help berth them the way ISS modules, Cygnus, and Dreamchaser do. So this is mainly for moving external payloads around? And holding astronauts during EVAs?
I brought up Northrop because I’m guessing they bid a Cygnus derived deorbit vehicle.
How is this a handout? They bid for a contract and won it vs competitors.
I’m hoping we get a source selection statement soon where they spell out why companies like Northrop and Blue didn’t win.
They just announced Wallops, too. They must be getting ready to really scale up.
Luckily this was already in a low orbit and these pieces will come down within a year or two. I do still want to see some debris bounties for deorbiting big dead stuff.
Underrated shout-out to the DOD for getting satellites built and ready faster than Amazon and Sierra Space?
ULA’s manufacturing pictures of Atlas and Vulcan have been cool to see. “It’s in the high tens of millions” isn’t great, but hopefully that comes down.
Copa Cabana
They’ll still prop up a domestic launcher for national security and pride reasons. It would be cool to see a cheaper startup break into the market and unseat Ariane and Vega.
NASA should let private companies do the “easy” stuff so they can focus on bigger and better things. And use the flow of private development money coming from venture capital or share offerings as a multiplier for their budget.
The numbers for Falcon and Dragon don’t back up what you’re saying. They were developed for less money than it would have taken NASA and are cheaper than other options. They’re also sold to non-NASA customers, which means a reduced unit cost from increased volume.
There’s also the issue of availability and readiness for all of those, where SpaceX wins handily.
Another example is the CLPS providers, which are expected to cover some of the development money and find more customers to make up that difference. They’re doing entire Lunar lander missions for less than the cost of an Atlas V launch.
I think my next campaign needs a pawn shop that’ll consider buying anything but will seriously low-ball it if they can’t move it easily. And maybe need to talk to an expert they know.
Imagine if they didn’t have to play political games and spend $5 billion (20% of their budget) on SLS+Orion. That’s TEN Discovery Class missions per year.
I think NASA should focus on scientific research and exploration, then buy commercial when it makes sense. Rockets are “solved” and they don’t need their own. Space suits… they really should have finished xEMU.
They should start launching Alpha more in the first place!
It’s cool to see growth at launch sites other than the Cape and Vandenberg.
They’re losing money in the satellite business and have to admit to it in their public facing financials, so they’re posting a big ole negative line item.
SpaceX has saved NASA a ton of money on launch and ISS cargo/crew services. Rocket Lab and some CLPS providers are also shaping up to do so. I’d be down with getting Boeing and Lockheed out of space, though.
The SpaceX ones are privately funded, so who cares if the first generation of them sucks? At least they’re trying and might have a path to success.
At least these are “only” the ISS suits, not the Lunar surface suits from Axiom, so this doesn’t make the Artemis situation worse. Hopefully SpaceX can evolve their new suits enough to be useful for space station EVAs for Vast or whoever.
Setting this up as a task order contract never made sense to me. Firm fixed price for this also doesn’t make sense to me. It’s a development program with 0 commercial customers and no ability to lease them to private customers. What a weird, late, mess.
They can thank CASC for the upcoming acid rain. Yeesh.
I just want to point out that the acronym for this analog is “FMARS”.
It’s cool to see it up and running again after it was out of commission for years.
The ISS has always been a source of soft diplomacy, and it’s cool to see the short private missions expand that. It’s cool that Dragon is available and able to make these possible.
Regarding Gaganyaan to the ISS- their first crewed flight is NET… late 2025? Their timeline could work to get one to the ISS. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them book a flight to a Vast station. They also signed something or other with Blue for Orbital Reef, so that could be their target, too.
Suni is about 20 days from hitting a year total in space, which would be a cool milestone.