INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Sentinel, developed by Northrop Grumman, will replace the Air Force's fleet of Minuteman III ICBMs, which entered service in 1970, as the
land-based leg of the military's nuclear triad
Sentinel was originally expected to cost $77.7 billion, but projected future costs ran so severely over budget that in January 2024, the
program triggered a review process known as a critical Nunn-McCurdy breach
After that review, the Pentagon last year concluded Sentinel was too critical to national security to abandon, but ordered the Air Force to
restructure it to bring its costs under control
Additional studies of the program are highlighting more potential problems.Gilmour says it (hopefully) will wait no more
The Australian launch startup Gilmour Space Technologies has been given approval by Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority for the
debut launch of its Eris orbital rocket, InnovationAus.com reports
There is still one final regulatory hurdle, a final sign-off from the Australian Space Agency
If that happens in the next few days, Gilmour's launch window will open May 15
The company has announced tentative launch schedules before, only to be thwarted by technical issues, regulatory hangups, or bad weather
Most recently, Gilmour got within six days of its targeted launch date in March before regulatory queries and the impact of a tropical
cyclone forced a delay.Stand by for history ..
The launch of Gilmour's three-stage Eris rocket will be historic
If successful, the 82-foot-tall (25-meter) rocket will be Australia's first homegrown orbital launcher
Eris is capable of hauling cargos up to 672 pounds (305 kilograms) to orbit, according to Gilmour
The company has dispatched a small team from its Gold Coast headquarters to the launch site in Queensland, on Australia's northeastern
coast, to perform testing on the vehicle after it remained dormant for weeks
(Submitted by trainticket)Fresh insights into one of SpaceX's worst days
When a Falcon 9 rocket exploded on its launch pad nearly nine years ago, SpaceX officials initially struggled to explain how it could have
The lack of a concrete explanation for the failure led SpaceX engineers to pursue hundreds of theories
One was the possibility that an outside "sniper" had shot the rocket
This theory appealed to SpaceX founder Elon Musk
A building leased by SpaceX's main competitor in launch, United Launch Alliance, lay just a mile away from the Falcon 9 launch pad, and a
video around the time of the explosion indicated a flash on its roof
Ars has now obtained a letter sent to SpaceX by the Federal Aviation Administration more than a month after the explosion, indicating the
matter was elevated to the FBI
The bureau looked into it, and what did they find? Nothing, apparently.6b2a73cb0a788e73b37e597febdfcbe0
