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Space

Developing Falcon Heavy Rocket Is Harder Than Expected, SpaceX’s Musk Says

By Marc Selinger

Thursday, July 20th, 2017

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Developing Falcon Heavy Rocket Is Harder Than Expected, SpaceX’s Musk Says

SpaceX's Dragon space capsule awaits its launch as part of an uncrewed pad abort test. Photo: SpaceX.

Developing SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket has proven more challenging than expected, according to SpaceX founder Elon Musk.Musk said at a conference July 19 that he originally thought the project would be straightforward because Falcon Heavy is based on the existing Falcon 9. For instance, Falcon Heavy uses the same Merlin first-stage engine, though it triples the number of those engines to 27. But that initial view turned out to be “pretty naïve,” Musk conceded.“It actually ended up being way, way…

Congress

House Republicans’ Blueprint For Reconciliation 3.0 Includes $60 Billion For Defense

House Republicans on Wednesday unveiled a blueprint for a third reconciliation bill that includes $60 billion for defense, a figure slightly below the Trump administration’s request to cover Iran war […]

Congress

Senate Dems Block Consideration Of FY ‘27 NDAA Over Iran War Concerns

Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked a vote to advance consideration of the chamber’s $1.14 trillion fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization (NDAA). The procedural vote was 46-50, failing to reach […]

Congress

Concerns Raised At SASC Hearing On Unobligated Reconciliation Funds And Lack Of Updates On Iran War Cost

Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) raised concerns at a hearing on Tuesday about the majority of funds in the $153 billion first reconciliation bill being unobligated thus […]

Unmanned Systems

CBO Says Upfront Costs To Protect Military Installations From Drones Between $1 Million And $74 Million

The initial costs to acquire and deploy counter-small unmanned aircraft system (C-sUAS) defenses at individual Defense Department installations are estimated at between $1.2 million and $73.6 million depending on the […]