Congratulations to SpaceX on a spectacular launch of the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon capsule for the COTS-2/3 cargo delivery demonstration mission. Dragon is safely in orbit, its solar array wings are deployed, and, right this minute there is a Dragon flying around the world, headed toward a rendezvous … Continue reading
Category Archives: Commercial Space
Rocket Plumbing
SpaceX have inspected the engine that gave the anomalous chamber pressure reading, and have found a faulty valve. They plan to have it replaced in time for the next launch attempt on Tuesday at 3:44 am.
Not This Time
Well, the Falcon 9 countdown went down to zero, the engine ignition sequence started, but was aborted by the computer controlling the launch because of a sensor reading that the chamber pressure on number five engine was abnormally high. The Falcon launch sequence is designed to hold the rocket on … Continue reading
T Minus 10 Minutes to the SpaceX COTS 2/3 Dragon Launch
Rob here – been a loooong time since I have posted at Out of the Cradle – but today I couldn’t stay away. In the very early days of OotC I live-blogged several of the first launch attempts of Space Exploration Technologies’ Falcon One rocket. SpaceX have come a long … Continue reading
Outstanding
Howdy everyone! Outstanding. That’s the only way to describe this year’s Moon Day at Frontiers of Flight. From not even knowing if there was going to be one this year only three months ago, to what actually transpired, was quite a ride. It’s hard to get an accurate attendance count, … Continue reading
Be Afraid
Be very afraid. The first part of my Moon and Back interview at the ISDC conference is now up. I haven’t watched it yet, as I’m a little worried that I said something phenomenally stupid. Enjoy! Interview With Ken Murphy, part 1 – Outreach For Space Awareness Originally posted on … Continue reading
The State of NewSpace
While I’m generally loath to bandy about the phrase “NewSpace”, it seems particularly fitting in the context of a just-released video that does a darn fine job of summarizing where we are at this particular moment in time in developing a more commercially-oriented space industry in the U.S. Were I … Continue reading
She’s Away!
Out of the Cradle extends sincere congratulations to SpaceX on the launch of their Falcon 9 rocket and the delivery of payload to orbit. These are the kinds of successes that the private space industry needs to continue to accrue to help show the promise of this growing American industry. … Continue reading
2010 Metroplex Moon Day Machinations
Howdy everyone! I’m just taking a break here from my current project, the cobbling together of some kind of coherent program for this year’s Moon Day celebration on July 18th from 1-5 pm at the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field in Dallas. That’s right, folks from elsewhere can … Continue reading
Space Economy Leadership Summit Debrief
Howdy everyone! I took a couple of vacation days this week, so that of course means Space Conference! This time around it was the Space Economy Leadership Summit just down the road in Austin at the Stephen F. Austin Hotel on Congress Avenue. Put together by Phillips & Co., it … Continue reading
Carnival of the Egg Moon
Howdy everyone! Thing’s are certainly perking up for Spring, even with regards to our Moon, so I decided to throw together another Carnival of the Moon. Recently, The Moon Society sent out a request to its members eliciting support for a book donation project to create a Lunar Resource Library … Continue reading
EVA Interviews Hoyt Davidson, Managing Partner of Near Earth LLC
Welcome back to EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Ageâ„¢ as we leave the Lunar Editions and return to Earth orbit. Our next guest is Hoyt Davidson, Founder and Managing Partner of Near Earth LLC. Near Earth specializes in providing Investment Banking and Advisory Services to companies and investors in the … Continue reading
The Dawn of a New American Enterprise
The space program announcement on Monday was, in my view, status quo shattering. It engages a lot of risk, but if you look carefully at what it says (as opposed to what the mass media says it says), you will see that it unlocks an enormous realm of opportunity. In … Continue reading
EVA Interviews Team “Selenokhod” in the Google Lunar X Prize Competition
From Russia, we welcome Team Selenokhod to EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Ageâ„¢ in the fourth of this series of Lunar Editions. As one of the most recent entrants in the Google Lunar X Prize competition, Team Selenokhod looks to build on Russia’s early lunar robotic successes of … Continue reading
EVA Interviews Team “Next Giant Leap” in the Google Lunar X Prize Competition
Welcome to the third in this series of Lunar Editions of EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Ageâ„¢. To start this series, EVA went directly to the source and interviewed the Moon about its expectations for future lunar commercial activities. Coming back down to Earth, the second interview focused on the organization whose … Continue reading
Scholarships for Space Studies
Ah, your Lunar Librarian can well recall his student years, hitting the books and starving more often than not in the pursuit of knowledge. Ramen noodles, rice & beans, ravioli. I seemed to have a very R-rich diet. So that you won’t have to suffer as I did in my … Continue reading
Armadillo Competes for NG Lunar Lander Challenge
Howdy everyone! Here in North Texas we had a treat this weekend as Armadillo Aerospace made its bid for the $1,000,000 purse of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge at the Caddo Mills Municipal Airport just east of Dallas. Festivities kicked off in the hangar shortly after 9am on Saturday … Continue reading
EVA Interviews Will Pomerantz about the Google Lunar X PRIZE
Welcome to the second in a series of Lunar Editions of EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Ageâ„¢. In the first of this series, EVA went directly to the source and interviewed the Moon about its expectations for future lunar commercial activities. Coming back down to Earth, this next interview focuses on … Continue reading
EVA Interviews The Moon
Welcome to this next, unique edition of EVA Interviews: The Business of the New Space Ageâ„¢. This conversation started on a cold winter day in January over 2 years ago. A friend of mine at NASA asked me to look over a matrix he was creating on commercial lunar opportunities. … Continue reading
EVA Interviews Paul Eckert about the Space Investment Summits
Welcome to the next edition of EVA Interviews: The Business of the New Space Ageâ„¢ with our guest Paul Eckert Ph.D. – Coordinator of the Space Investment Summit Coalition, and International & Commercial Strategist for the Space Exploration division of The Boeing Company. Paul and his colleagues at the Space … Continue reading
EVA Reviews Richard Branson’s “Business Stripped Bare”
Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur Richard Branson, as you might guess, is on my list of people who I would love to interview for EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Ageâ„¢. I haven’t yet asked him to be my guest as I have a few … Continue reading
EVA Interviews Rex Ridenoure, CEO of Ecliptic Enterprises
Welcome to the third edition of EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Age! Our next guest is Rex Ridenoure, Space entrepreneur and CEO of Ecliptic Enterprises Corp. – a successful small Space startup famous for its RocketCamâ„¢ equipment and images. EVA:    Hi Rex! It’s great to have you … Continue reading
Space Business is heating up!
There are an increasing number of entrepreneurial space-related events and conferences happening, and here are a few that I’ve gotten notice of recently: On short notice is the half-day symposium on THE SPACE ECONOMY, occurring next Friday morning, March 13th in D.C. The agenda can be found here. There are … Continue reading
Review: “Who Owns the Moon”?
“Who Owns the Moon” by Virgiliu Pop. Published in 2009 by Springer as Vol. 4 in their Space Regulations Library, it weighs in at 175 pages all in. A handful of editing errors, mainly in the last half. While this could be considered a follow-up to Virg’s earlier work “Unreal … Continue reading
ISU’s Executive MBA
Back in the good ol’ days when I went to ISU, it was just the year-long Master of Space Studies and 10-week Summer Session Program. Now they’ve got an Executive MBA (pdf), and it’s the kind of program that only ISU can put together. It’s divided into six modules over … Continue reading