Note: The house is sold, so we’re in the middle of moving out. This means (as I’ve noted before) sporadic posting of analyses to Ill-Defined Space during the next couple of weeks--and why there was no post last Thursday. The post might be shorter during this time, too. Nearly a month ago, I wrote up… Continue reading Vizzini’s Values, OneWeb, and DoD Protectionism in a Startup Marketplace
Month: May 2020
AAC Clyde, Planet, and Cubesat Manufacturing
AAC Clyde Space released its 2019 Annual Report last week. The information within the report gives a peek at the priorities the cubesat manufacturing company is pursuing. One company goal is for it to become the “... most admired company in the small satellite sector...” To do this, the company notes in the report it… Continue reading AAC Clyde, Planet, and Cubesat Manufacturing
An Embarrassment of Pitches: A short history of USAF/SF commercials
It’s time for a little fun at the expense of my former service. This is inspired by the latest release of the U.S. Space Force’s latest advertisement. I’ll get to that in a few paragraphs. I’m just going to state it flat out: the Air Force advertising campaigns have been a mess since at least… Continue reading An Embarrassment of Pitches: A short history of USAF/SF commercials
Based in Fiction: A Closer Look at a Heavy-Lift Market Report
Problem: What do you do if an organization that informs public/defense policy seems to be making suggestions based on inaccurate/irrelevant information? Especially if that information is repeated through several different media outlets without question? That’s what I’m faced with when I look at RAND’s “Assessing the Impact of U.S. Air Force National Security Space Launch… Continue reading Based in Fiction: A Closer Look at a Heavy-Lift Market Report
Virgin Galactic 1Q20: Company Keeps Moving Right Along
Virgin Galactic’s earnings call for the first quarter of 2020 contained no surprises: it lost money. But without an operational service yet, and COVID-19 impacts, how would it have ever made money this last quarter? On the bright side, it gained 400 more reservations for a seat on its SpaceShipTwo rocketplane. And the company's talking… Continue reading Virgin Galactic 1Q20: Company Keeps Moving Right Along
China’s CZ-5B, Hand-wringing, Capabilities, and Credibility
I forgot to select the proper categories for yesterday's article, "Lunar Lander Contracts--Some Dependent on SLS," so I've republished the article with the correct categories. If you couldn't get to it yesterday, I apologize. China’s successful launch of the Long March 5B (Chang Zheng 5B--CZ-5B) early Tuesday morning certainly presented good news for China’s human… Continue reading China’s CZ-5B, Hand-wringing, Capabilities, and Credibility
Lunar Lander Contracts–Some Dependent on SLS
NASA’s announcement last week that it will be paying three contenders to work on lunar landers (NASA calls them human landing systems) for its Artemis program may turn out to be interesting. Of the three--Blue Origin, Dynetics, and SpaceX--not one has a working launch vehicle that is intended to be used to launch these landers.… Continue reading Lunar Lander Contracts–Some Dependent on SLS
Help/Hindrance–U.S. Government is here to Help Commercial Launch “Market”
An opinion piece from Kirk Pysher was published last week. In “Will commercial and military launch programs ever be truly complementary?,” Pysher contends that it would be risky for the Department of Defense (DoD) to “leverage benefit from commercial launch.” In fact, he goes on to say that DoD activities can benefit U.S. commercial launch… Continue reading Help/Hindrance–U.S. Government is here to Help Commercial Launch “Market”
Space Industry Analysis | Ill-Defined Space 