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Commercial Space Flight General / Re: Amazon Project Kuiper Broadband Constellation

« Last post by Tywin on Today at 08:54 pm »

By the way like many other has said to you, many second companies in a market are very profitable:

Android - Apple

Prime - Netflix

Amazon Music - Spotify

Xbox - PlayStation

etc...

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Commercial Space Flight General / Re: Amazon Project Kuiper Broadband Constellation

« Last post by Tywin on Today at 08:51 pm »

MeekGee, do you know that Kuiper constellation is smaller than Starlink, right?

This is not about launch satellites ad infinitum...

Yes Tywin, I do.

Not on paper, not in your head, but de-facto in earth orbit, yes.

Starlink is much larger today, and can deliver more tons to orbit per year than Kuiper can, by a wide margin, so the gap just grows.

Actually, why don't you tell me - How do YOU think Kuiper can catch up in mass in orbit with Starlink?

They decided to rely on a rocket that's not flying fast enough,

As already mentioned, this is not relevant to the delays. It makes for a good story, though.

The fact that an insufficient launch rate is currently masked by an even worse deficit in fabrication rate doesn't mean the former is not a problem.

I can believe that Kuiper will get around the fabrication bottleneck (call me an optimist!) but I can't see how they can get around the launch deficit. I'll ask you what I asked Tywin - how do propose they do that?

The market is only finite, and they're staring down something like a 20x deficit in mass-to-orbit for many years to come.

Not in my point of view, I think so 12.000 sat for Starlink is enough, I don't see economically profitable 42.000 sats...

And for Kuiper they will go 7000-8000 sats total for the GEN2...enough too.

And New Glenn in 2028 will be enough rocket for Kuiper too...

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Advanced Concepts / Re: Method for storing antimatter

« Last post by 24Launch on Today at 08:49 pm »

I remember reading that Fermilab has been producing and storing antimatter and my understanding was it was fairly long term.  I know the OP is focusing on portable containment instead of an impracical campus-wide lab, but perhaps the containment method is still relevant.  Interesting articles though they're from 2014:

The Importance of Antimatter Research (talks about storage)
https://www.fnal.gov/pub/science/inquiring/questions/antimatter3.html

Fermilab's Antimatter Production Rate
https://www.fnal.gov/pub/science/inquiring/questions/antimatterprod.html

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Commercial Space Flight General / Re: Amazon Project Kuiper Broadband Constellation

« Last post by Tywin on Today at 08:46 pm »

Are we sure about this 51 thing? This sounds very low.

There will be also be 1292 Kuiper satellites in polar orbits.

With all the Artic new economy this is important.

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SpaceX General Section / Re: SpaceX Dragon XL

« Last post by Tywin on Today at 08:40 pm »

SAM.gov: Deep Space Logistics ENgineering Support Extension [Jul 15]

This justification documents the basis for issuing a modification to an order under the Deep Space Logistics ENgineering Support (LENS) contract  using an exception to the Fair Opportunity process. This modification is to add additional option periods from October 1, 2025 through November 29, 2025 and from November 30, 2025 through May 29, 2026.

I don't understand, this is for a second provider?

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SpaceX Starship Program / Re: Flight 10 (Booster 16, Starship 36/37) pre-flight preparations

« Last post by ChrisC on Today at 08:32 pm »

A new FCC filing, 1375-EX-ST-2025, was requested on July 11th and is currently pending.

This STA is necessary to authorize an additional location for uplink frequencies

The coordinates from that FCC filing put the new location at 26° 04' 59.0" N 97° 09' 38.0" W , which a recent NSF video (weekly Starbase update) noted was precisely on top of the Margaritaville Hotel.

Since the frequencies listed are 2056 and 2062 MHz, squarely in the near-Earth space comms segment, our NSF friends should keep an eye out for a new S-band antenna or two, on tracking mounts, every time they visit the roof of that hotel.  With a 6-degree beamwidth (as seen in the FCC doc), it's not going to be huge, but I also do NOT expect it to be a trivial little thing, like the flat panel components that come up first in google searches.  More likely it'll be a meter or two in diameter, and on that tracking mount.  It might be fun to have it in view of one of your cameras during the launch, although they might put a fence around it or have it mounted higher up on one of those elevator penthouses.

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Missions To The Moon (HSF) / Re: NASA's Artemis Program Updates and Discussion Thread 6

« Last post by VSECOTSPE on Today at 08:27 pm »

Another congressional letter to Duffy.  This one hits on FY26 and the science mission terminations more directly.  Signed by 60-odd members.

… actions to put the FY2026 proposal into practice prematurely would not only be unlawful, they could also circumvent actual Congressional direction for FY2026 appropriations for NASA and how such appropriations are legally required to be spent, a process that has already started in the House and Senate Appropriations Committees and that indicates Congressional intent to reject much of the Administration's proposed FY2026 cuts to NASA Science.

https://foushee.house.gov/imo/media/doc/foushee_letter_nasa_fy26_pbr_cuts.pdf

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Space Science Coverage / Re: Interstellar objects

« Last post by Hyperborealis on Today at 08:23 pm »

Come on. People should just read Loeb's paper. He recognizes the great likelihood the object is merely a comet: "By far the most likely outcome will be that 3I/ATLAS is a completely natural interstellar object, probably a comet, and the authors await the astronomical data to support this likely origin." He offers the Dark Forest hypothesis merely as a "testable hypothesis, to which the authors do not
necessarily ascribe."

He brings forward his his outlandish hypothesis as a way to highlight the object's various anomalous characteristics,  and generally to set up an epistemological question: "is an outlier of a sample a consequence of expected random fluctuation, or is there ultimately a sound reason for its
observed discrepancy?” As he points out, given that the sample size of interstellar objects is three, we lack an empirical basis upon which to stand a conventional assumption as to what the object is.

Also, and not least, the article is fun to read, interesting, and stretches the mind. It makes science and astronomy appealing, which is all to Loeb's credit. People should ignore the naysayers, and read the article for themselves.

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Firefly, Relativity, Astra / Re: Relativity Space - Terran R

« Last post by Rik ISS-fan on Today at 08:06 pm »

I'm jealous of how fast engines are being developed in the USA.

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Advanced Concepts / Re: Method for storing antimatter

« Last post by scienceguy on Today at 07:59 pm »

What about using a toroid of permanent ring magnets and storing the antimatter inside? Please see attached diagram.