Holy launch pad, bat man, who needs NASA anyway? Managers at NASA may be saying exactly that, and some of them doing so with a (qualified) sigh of hope and relief. They have better things to spend money on than new rockets, such as to replace the soon to retire shuttles, for local trucking. Plenty of U.S. aerospace companies already make big space launchers entirely for commercial trade. As far as I know all are based on models whose first examples were paid for primarily by military or NASA money. Ditto for other countries’ launchers.

As expected, but still news, the rocket start-up entrepreneur Elon Musk announced yesterday that his SpaceX company plans to launch in two years or so a rocket so big , says the press announcement, it could launch a Boeing 737 and all its passengers and luggage and stuff into orbit. One would have to squash the package into a dense streamlined blob that’d fit on top of the company’s Falcon Heavy rocket, including the airliner’s fatigued roof panels. That’d be uncomfortable even by the standards of United Airlines bosses who think its economy-class legroom is bearable. The point is made. Real  metrics: 117,000 pounds cargo capacity, $1000 per pound for freight.

One is pretty sure some government money worked its way into the financing of this rocket. One also suspects however that the design specs are all by the company’s engineers. It’s a sign that private enterprise can take over transportation into Earth orbit of anything that fits and for anybody who buys a ticket, including NASA. Any superlative is potential news. World’s biggest rocket, even if yet unflown, is news for sure.

Stories:

• AP – Seth Borenstein: Company planning biggest rocket since man on moon ; Good succinct job – details on pricing comparos, a reminder that Musk has not  yet a single customer for this biggie, a skeptical remark from an industry analyst, and the favor this could do to the Obama administration with its intention to get NASA out of the space freight-hauling business.
• Reuters – Irene Klotz: SpaceX to build heavy-lift, low-cost rocket ;
• Time Magazine (Techland blog) Matt Peckham: SpaceX’s ‘Falcon Heavy’ Most Powerful Private Rocket Ever ;
• Space.com – Clara Moskowitz: Huge Private Rocket Could Send Astronauts to the Moon or Mars ; Good angle, and she links to another space.com report on what a private moon base might look like.
• Bloomberg / BusinessWeek – Brendan McGarry: SpaceX Says New Rocket Will challenge Boeing, Lockheed in Space ;
• LA Times : SpaceX announces Falcon Heavy: a low-cost, heavy-lifting, 22-story rocket ; This is a topper to a more substantial piece that ran in the morning, ahead of the news conference, by W. J. Hennigan: With new rocket, SpaceX is poised to make a giant leap ; Shows how much of this isn’t really new news. Has a fine graphic that makes clear a 22-story rocket is already available, the Delta IV Heavy, but it hasn’t this new one’s planned load capacity.
• NPR – Nell GreenfieldBoyce: Plans for World’s Most Powerful Rocket Unveiled ;
• Voice of America – Jessica Berman: Date Set for Launch of World’s Most Powerful Commercial Rocket ; Oh, those headline writers. This hed is true, but as story says, it would be the most  powerful rocket of any sort in current operation.
• Aviation Week – Frank Morring, Jr.: Musk Sees Markets For Falcon 9 Heavy ; Morring tagged along to a post press conference forum and got a good quote from Musk about his aggressive pricing:  “So some people on Wall Street think it’s crazy, and what I actually should do is milk the government and commercial companies and charge as high a price as possible, which I will not do. So I want to make sure that I can ignore such things”
• Daily Breeze – Muhammed El-Hasan : SpaceX will use second most powerful rocket in history as launch vehicle ; Story’s fine, and the paper is located near SpaceX in Hawthorne, Southern California. Mostly The Tracker lists this because years ago, the Daily Breeze was regular summer reading in the Balboa Island neighborhood.
• Popular Science – Clay Dillow: SpaceX Unveils its New “Falcon Heavy” Rocket, a 22-Story Heavy-Life Behemoth / More than twice the payload of a Delta IV at one-third the cost ; He writes that the company has been teasing the public for more than a week about its big announcement. Dunno how much of the public saw it, but the space press has been hit with repeated teaser emails.
• Wired (Autopia blog) Jason Paur: SpaceX Promises Biggest Rocket Since Saturn V ;

Grist for the Mill: SpaceX Press Release ; Space X Animation;

- Charlie Petit

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