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Michael Sheetz Profile picture
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30 Nov, 6 tweets, 3 min read
Elon Musk, in a company-wide email obtained by CNBC, said SpaceX's Raptor engine program is "a disaster" and in "crisis":

"We face genuine risk of bankruptcy if we cannot achieve a Starship flight rate of at least once every two weeks next year."
cnbc.com/2021/11/30/elo…
Musk sent the update on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and said he had planned to take the holiday off but would be personally working on the Raptor production line through the weekend.
cnbc.com/2021/11/30/elo…
The email provides more context to the significance of former propulsion VP Will Heltlsey's departure, who CNBC reported was taken off Raptor development earlier this month:
Musk's email was first reported by @derekiswise
@derekiswise .@lorengrush published the full email: theverge.com/2021/11/30/228… Image
Update on the Raptor program:

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More from @thesheetztweetz

Michael Sheetz Profile picture
2 Dec
SpaceX is ~10 minutes away from launching its next Starlink mission, as well as a pair of BlackSky $BKSY satellites.

This is the 9th launch for this specific Falcon 9 rocket booster.

Livestream:
SpaceX has launched "over 200 rideshare payloads to orbit" this year, @andytran_sm says.
@andytran_sm Liftoff for Falcon 9
Read 6 tweets
Michael Sheetz Profile picture
2 Dec
NASA is hosting a media briefing on the CLD awards, with:

–NASA's Phil McAlister & Angela Hart
–Blue Origin's Brent Sherwood
–Sierra Space's Janet Kavandi
–Voyager's Jeffrey Manber
–Northrop Grumman's Rick Mastracchio

Thread:
McAlister: "Today marks an exciting new chapter in the development of the LEO economy."
McAlister: "NASA was very pleased to have received 11 proposals" for the CLD contracts, and "almost all of the proposals represented viable concepts."
Read 23 tweets
Michael Sheetz Profile picture
2 Dec
NASA awards three companies with over $400 million in contracts to develop private space stations, under the Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD) project:

Nanoracks – $160 million

Blue Origin – $130 million

Northrop Grumman – $125.6 million
cnbc.com/2021/12/02/nas…
Nanoracks, with Voyager Space and Lockheed Martin, is building Starlab – which aims to be operational in orbit by 2027.

cnbc.com/2021/12/02/nas… Image
Blue Origin and Sierra Space – with Boeing, Redwire, and Genesis Engineering – is building Orbital Reef.

The companies plan to have the baseline configuration of Orbital Reef operational by 2027, which it will build into the next decade:
cnbc.com/2021/12/02/nas… $BA $RDW Image
Read 5 tweets
Michael Sheetz Profile picture
2 Dec
I spoke to Rocket Lab CEO @Peter_J_Beck after today's Neutron rocket update, and learned more about the company's plans.

Thread: $RKLB
cnbc.com/2021/12/02/roc…
@Peter_J_Beck Rocket Lab is still targeting Neutron on the launchpad by 2024, and hopes to launch a commercial customer on the rocket by 2025.
cnbc.com/2021/12/02/roc…
@Peter_J_Beck Beck declined to comment on the price tag of a Neutron launch, but said the rocket “would be a pointless exercise” if Rocket Lab “didn’t think that we would be very cost competitive with with anything that’s currently in the market or or being proposed.”
cnbc.com/2021/12/02/roc…
Read 11 tweets
Michael Sheetz Profile picture
2 Dec
Rocket Lab $RKLB is giving a major update on its planned larger Neutron rocket at 8 a.m. ET, providing the first details about the reusable vehicle since announcing the company was going public.

Watch the livestream:
$RKLB Neutron event starting now:
CEO @Peter_J_Beck: "Where do you start designing a new rocket? Ironically, you don't start at the rocket. You start at the satellite and all the spacecraft you need to launch, and then you start the design process around that."
Read 9 tweets
Michael Sheetz Profile picture
1 Dec
The first meeting of the National Space Council in the Biden administration, with @VP Kamala Harris leading, has begun.

Sen. @CaptMarkKelly, an astronaut, kicks things off.

Watch the livestream:
@VP @CaptMarkKelly Kelly: "As we've seen in recent weeks and months, the threats to U.S. national security and commercial assets in space are real, and these threats will undoubtedly grow in the years to come."
@VP @CaptMarkKelly Harris speaking now, thanking Kelly for his dedication and "life of service."
Read 16 tweets

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