RSS Feed
Twitter
5 Comments
White House science office reports United States rocket propulsion work lagging
"According to the report released this week: "Despite the importance of space to government and commercial activities the U.S. space launch industry has seen a decline in launch services over the past decade . . . From 2004-2008 the U.S. shared of commercial launches was about 17 percent, compared with 42 percent for Russia, 21 percent for Europe and 18 percent for the multi-national company SeaLaunch."
OSTP Releases Assessment of U.S. Space Launch Vehicle Engine Production Capacity
"At present, the U.S. space launch propulsion industrial base provides a diverse range of technological capabilities and more than adequate production capacity to meet most currently identified U.S. Government and commercial requirements for space launch vehicles.' Furthermore, there are no articulated, established space launch requirements that are beyond the current development expertise of the U.S. space launch propulsion industrial base. Nonetheless, this U.S. industrial sector is under significant stress, due largely to low demand."
That was a good report on the situation. It's definitely good to have a SpaceX to pin some of our future on.