About That SpaceX/NASA Thing On Thursday
Keith’s 10 Oct update: I just got an answer from NASA PAO that there will be no media dial-in for offsite news media. It took them 3 days to respond.
NASA Administrator to Visit SpaceX Headquarters
“Following the tour, SpaceX will host a media availability with Bridenstine, SpaceX Chief Engineer Elon Musk, and NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley – the crew for the Demo-2 flight test to the space station. The media availability will be streamed live on Bridenstine’s Twitter account: https://twitter.com/jimbridenstine?lang=en.”
Keith’s note: I sent 2 inquires to PAO and SpaceX – yesterday and today – asking if off-site media can ask questions. No reply. Funny how PAO can use Jim Bridenstine’s iPhone to send video of this out over his twitter account but no one knows how to have a speaker phone or take questions by email.
Keith’s update: I have not heard anything at all about the time of this event or whether offsite media will be able to participate in the last minute thing. I used to do live webcasts from Everest Base Camp almost daily – for a month – a decade ago. So how hard can this be. Just wondering.
Keith’s additional update: Well NASA quietly updated the online version of the release sent out 2 days ago but didn’t bother to email media a revised version: “Editor’s Note: This media advisory was updated on Oct. 8 to reflect the live stream of the media event now is scheduled for 5 p.m. EDT (2 p.m. PDT) Thursday, Oct. 10.” Still no information as to whether there will be offsite media access to the web event which was announced at the last minute. But at least the world is in balance once again:
All is right with the world again. Last week @ElonMusk unfollowed @JimBridenstine after his #starship tweet. Now he's following him again. pic.twitter.com/yIsm7O0Q7O
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) October 10, 2019
Ahhh…back to being bros again.
No seriously, we did need an update on this. Are you going, Keith?
Yep, looks like the hatchets and swords were stowed and hands shaken like nothin’ was a miss. Funny how that works.
No it was far too short notice and would have cost me a lot of money to go. I’ll be live tweeting it and (if they allow questions) will try and get a question in.
Yeah I don’t think NASA can really afford to be not friends with SpaceX
True. SpaceX is, so far, the most successful participant in NASA’s effort to cut Congress and the mutual backscratching club of military contracting out of the loop. So, ya. NASA needs them, but they need them doing exactly what they are doing with Superheavy/Starship. It will be flying the next generation of payloads while the ISS is tumbling through the atmosphere. Musk was actually the last of us to get snarky with Bridenstine for forgetting that.
I would say that the opposite is also true. SpaceX rides the NASA knowledgebase and other parts of their technology infrastructure hard and will continue to do so all the way to Mars.
Actually if Starship works then NASA has an alternative to crashing the ISS as it easily has the capability to disassemble it and return it the Earth for display in museums of the various ISS member nations.
“if Starship works”
Many things must happen before those test objects become an actual ‘thing’ that works.
This is a fact often overlook by the SpaceX fanboys, yours truly included. The Wall Street people say that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future success, and nowhere is this caution more relevant than Starship. We look at Mr. Musk, don’t we, through the eyes of a hero worshiper? I’ve so often pointed out the so-nearly overnight success of F5, and the new engines, and the capsules.
Taking the glasses off and what do we see? Life-support for a hundred people (food, water, air, and poop facilities) barely scratches the surface. We have no sense of how SX is approaching these requirements, many of which represent new tech or even new science, at least in extent. And given Mr. Musk’s predilection for talking, and predicting, the silence on these subjects is scary indeed. What is the life support State of the Art in Hawthorne?
Should we learn that advanced life support has become another element on the critical path, certainly nobody can be faulted, and I find no fault, except that in the absence of more data I can only conclude that Starship missions with people aboard are possibly decades away.
As far as I know, SpaceX does not have any experience with life support systems at all. My understanding is that, unlike most of their subsystems and hardware, they contracted that out for Dragon 2. But with Starship, that may not matter. Most of the difficulties and risks come from trying to minimize the system’s mass and the mass of supplies.
They can start with orbital and lunar flights, with a small number of passengers (#dearMoon is less than a dozen) and a short duration (e.g. a week.) With the payload mass available from Starship, you can buy the required life support systems off the shelf from General Dynamics’ Electric Boat division. From there, they can make gradual improvements and work towards that 100-person, nine-month capability.
For similar reasons, I don’t expect a steel rocket flying to Mars. Once it’s flying, even suborbital, they can build on experience (or subtract on it, in this case.) Swap this brace out for a lighter aluminum one, and verify in flight. Trim down that mounting bracket after finding out it doesn’t need to be quite as sturdy as they thought. Etc. I suspect that’s how they plan to get the dry mass down to 110 tonnes from the prototype’s 200 tonnes.
That’s be cool.
SpaceX is adept at using modern communications and new media; NASA, perhaps not. Expect a SpaceX livestream, and NASA updates by carrier pigeon (or, of SLS gets a mention, Passenger Pigeon).
Just as with rocket technology. Over the years I have come to believe most of NASA’s problems (diversity, risk aversion, long complex procedures, lack of tech skills) are related to the very high average age of its workforce.
I’m not sure if it’s the age of the workforce or the corporate culture. The problems I’ve seen most recently with teleconferencing are about age. Specifically finding a solution which satisfied their needs and was probably pretty spiffy for the time. Then they stuck with it. Unfortunately, “for the time” means something like 20 years ago in a rapidly-changing field. That means lots of incompatibility and disfunction when trying to interface with modern systems. That sounds like those other NASA problems you mentioned.
It’s neither.
NASA is afraid of Keith Cowing.
I guess the unvarnished truth hurts.
One other thing – if NASA brass is not afraid of Keith, why don’t they invite him as a member of the professional press to all their functions?
I am certain NASA brass reads these posts, so I openly challenge them to grow a pair, be men instead of mice, and have Keith Cowing attend NASA press briefings with the same press pass credential(s) they distribute or approve to other journalists.
My guess is they won’t step up to the plate, and for the same reason(s) associated with the SLS, and previous iterations / incarnations of SLS aren’t flying – they have no business being in a management position within NASA because they are political hacks devoted to maintaining their salaries, rather than being true leaders.
No .. NASA is not afraid of me at all.
Well, with respect, they should be.
Fear? I doubt it. Certainly our host is prickly, and direct; and were I a NASA PAO person, no doubt the term ‘annoying’ would come to mind.
But PAO is the unquestionable giant in this contest. They are armed with stock answers, and obfuscation, and on ‘can I get back to you on that’. In a gaggle (I love that word) they have the power to call on a reporter, or not. (The real power is in letting troublesome reporters ask just a few questions, then move on.)
So I observe that reporter must fight for those rare opportunities to ask a question; and in the end, she really has only one tool: the truth.
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I also think that the word ‘they’ can be confusing, especially when trying to attribute motivation from the written word. Certainly at PAO and similar offices there are fine professionals trying to do a job; grouping with collective nouns lumps the bad with the good.
Whatever, we’ll have wain in the future when these guys and others can tell us what was really going on. Most likely nothing nefarious, probably something boring but informative. Something along the lines that Shuttle requires 1500 mile crossrange during landings based on USAF launch from VAFB, deploy satellite, and land orbiter all in a single orbit (VAFB moves 1500 miles in 90 minutes). Where before all kinds of people had all kinds of ideas of why this and that much of it unfounded. But also program had very high expectations that didn’t pan out.
If SpaceX is using Pad 39A for launching their Starship, and the pad is also used by the crewed Dragon, what happens if Starship explodes on or near the pad? Seems SpaceX will be unable to launch crew to the ISS for years.
They could always carry a Dragon2 to Orbit inside a Starship launched out of Texas, then deploy it the ISS orbit.
I really doubt that. If a Starship exploded on the pad at 39A, how long do you think it would be before NASA let their astronauts fly on a Starship? For them, return to flight takes two or three years. By then, 39A would be fixed. SpaceX might start flying sooner (although unlike aviation I expect there would be a fleet-wide stand down) but I can’t see NASA buying tickets for some time.
That’s what Boeing is there for, and vice versa. And I’m sure they won’t be burning any bridges with Russia so that they can keep Soyuz as an option.
“Welcome, Administrator Bridenstein, to Mars and to the newest SpaceX Syrtis Major facility, dedicated to testing crew Dragon in simulated terrestrial conditions.”
I believe SpaceX is live streaming the whole thing !