Maarva got it, too

All I heard was “credible.”

This is why they call it a dogfight

Turret Toss champion on a technicality?

They made the Coke Freestyle machine into its own store?

They made the Coke Freestyle machine into its own store?

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.

Copa Cabana

And neither will we

Only if the Polish trucker convoy lets you through

Calum makes great videos! I love his stuff

NASA paid for it, and ITAR restrictions mean they’re probably pretty dang American.

I don’t think this is true anymore. The cost of a rideshare with SpaceX is super accessible. Companies can launch for <$1 million. This has been huge for a lot of companies trying to launch a proof of concept or one-off, and even for some operational constellations.

AstroForge thinks they can close the business case for asteroid mining. Their concept is to launch mining satellites to near-Earth M-type asteroids to mine platinum group metals. These would go on 2 year missions to bring back $100 million+ in metal at a time. With launch and satellite costs dropping, it might just work. Their forge demo sat has been struggling but moving forward. Their asteroid flyby demo sat should launch later this year.

Redwire 3d printed a meniscus in space last year. That’ll take awhile to get worthwhile scale and cost, but it’s another interesting avenue.

Varda hit regulatory trouble, but their orbital drug manufacturing demo did its job.

Dang, I got super excited about a Montanitoba joke, but neither of those provinces are Manitoba

The mass to orbit isn’t the hard part. A reusable Falcon 9 can put 18,400 kg in low Earth orbit. That should cover two rods, plus hardware to hold and deploy them.

Yup, low earth orbit (LEO) still has some thin atmosphere that slows things down a tiny bit and makes them deorbit over time. That’s why, for example, the ISS has to reboost to stay up and can chuck garbage bags overboard and not really worry about them. The deorbit time depends on a lot of factors including the mass and surface area. Starlink sats are supposed to passively deorbit in about 5 years.

Seriously, the Starlink and Falcon 9 production is unlike anything else. Amazon and China will try to copy it, but it’ll take them way more time and money.

Only downside is that it makes ones cup at a time if that matters to you.

I mean, you can make 4 cups at a time if you use the OG instructions instead of the French press type methods.