Total Members Voted: 123
Voting closed: 03/31/2019 06:29 pm
1) This pic was taken in the 60's at Michoud Asembly Facility and shows a lineup of at least 2 Saturn V SI-C 1st stages.
https://www.blueorigin.com/news/new-glenns-progress-towards-maiden-flightQuote NEWSFEB 25, 2021NEW GLENN’S PROGRESS TOWARDS MAIDEN FLIGHTAs major progress is being made on the New Glenn launch vehicle and its Cape Canaveral facilities, the schedule has been refined to match the demand of Blue Origin’s commercial customers. The current target for New Glenn’s maiden flight is Q4 2022. The Blue Origin team has been in contact with all of our customers to ensure this baseline meets their launch needs.This updated maiden flight target follows the recent Space Force decision to not select New Glenn for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 Launch Services Procurement (LSP). New Glenn is proceeding to fulfill its current commercial contracts, pursue a large and growing commercial market, and enter into new civil space launch contracts. We hope to launch NSSL payloads in the future, and remain committed to serving the U.S. national defense mission. Recent milestones include completion of a New Glenn first stage mockup simulator, completion of a structural test facility, and hardware milestones for tanks, stage modules, and composite fairings.In addition to program progress, more than 600 jobs have been created in the region. Blue Origin has invested more than $2.5 billion in facilities and infrastructure at all sites, including $1 billion invested in the rebuild of historic LC-36, which is nearing completion.
NEWSFEB 25, 2021NEW GLENN’S PROGRESS TOWARDS MAIDEN FLIGHTAs major progress is being made on the New Glenn launch vehicle and its Cape Canaveral facilities, the schedule has been refined to match the demand of Blue Origin’s commercial customers. The current target for New Glenn’s maiden flight is Q4 2022. The Blue Origin team has been in contact with all of our customers to ensure this baseline meets their launch needs.This updated maiden flight target follows the recent Space Force decision to not select New Glenn for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 Launch Services Procurement (LSP). New Glenn is proceeding to fulfill its current commercial contracts, pursue a large and growing commercial market, and enter into new civil space launch contracts. We hope to launch NSSL payloads in the future, and remain committed to serving the U.S. national defense mission. Recent milestones include completion of a New Glenn first stage mockup simulator, completion of a structural test facility, and hardware milestones for tanks, stage modules, and composite fairings.In addition to program progress, more than 600 jobs have been created in the region. Blue Origin has invested more than $2.5 billion in facilities and infrastructure at all sites, including $1 billion invested in the rebuild of historic LC-36, which is nearing completion.
Quote from: IanO on 03/19/2019 09:17 pmI'll be the contrarian and suggest the Long March 9. Superheavy launch capability is a statement about the health of the country's economy, how much excess they have to spend on vanity projects, and China's economy is the one trending upwards.The most recent info I see on the Long March 9 program notes- "The Long March 9 is slated to be ready for a test flight around 2030" from an article here: https://spacenews.com/china-reveals-details-for-super-heavy-lift-long-march-9-and-reusable-long-march-8-rockets/. Did you have some updated info on the development effort?
I'll be the contrarian and suggest the Long March 9. Superheavy launch capability is a statement about the health of the country's economy, how much excess they have to spend on vanity projects, and China's economy is the one trending upwards.
Vulcan, SLS, NG, SS...in that order...
Vulcan - Initial flight article waiting for flight-ready engine delivery and integration
The "nothing" option won so this poll needs to be remade.My order would be SLS, Vulcan, Starship followed much later by New Glenn.
Current vehicle launch readiness as far as I am aware for SLS, SS, Vulcan & NG 5 as of Jan 2022SLS - WDR scheduled for late Feb for the stacked Artemis 1 mission, launch date to be considered after thatSS - current B4 + SS20 flight articles have been stacked and had full prop loads (together as a stack?) have had separate static fires- waiting on FAA approval for launch considerationVulcan - Initial flight article waiting for flight-ready engine delivery and integrationNew Glenn - pathfinder test article only, no flight-ready engines available yet either That's a rough description- if anyone has more useful, current information, please add.
Per Ars Technica's weekly rocket report- "Sources have told Ars that the realistic "no earlier than" date for Artemis I inside NASA is now February 2022, and this presumes a successful Green Run hot fire test in early March."Not sure that SLS still in the running to launch this year. Need to keep a close on the completion of the Green run.At least we're now getting dates for New Glenn, even if they aren't in this year
Quote from: dlapine on 01/06/2022 12:56 amCurrent vehicle launch readiness as far as I am aware for SLS, SS, Vulcan & NG 5 as of Jan 2022SLS - WDR scheduled for late Feb for the stacked Artemis 1 mission, launch date to be considered after thatSS - current B4 + SS20 flight articles have been stacked and had full prop loads (together as a stack?) have had separate static fires- waiting on FAA approval for launch considerationVulcan - Initial flight article waiting for flight-ready engine delivery and integrationNew Glenn - pathfinder test article only, no flight-ready engines available yet either That's a rough description- if anyone has more useful, current information, please add.Are the flight booster and upper stage for Vulcan actually ready? I thought the stage that did the WDR was not going to be the first flight booster. And ULA has been fairly cagey about the readiness of Centaur, which was not part of the booster WDR.Booster 4 has not had a full prop load or static fire. Booster 3 did a static fire, but only with a partial prop load, 3 (?) engines, and on the suborbital pad. IT's not clear that the orbital pad can support a full prop load in the near future.New Glenn is far behind the others. Blue seems to be still trying to figure out manufacturing and structural testing. That leaves SLS. But a Q1 launch appears to be out of the question now, and there remains a lot of pad hardware and operations that have never been run with a rocket out there, so more delays seem inevitable. IMO SLS and SS are too close to call. Vulcan is most likely 3rd, and New Glenn a distant 4th that will probably first launch over a year behind the others.
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