Comments

I doubt there's any 'waiting' involved. Any teams including Armadillo will be working flat out to be ready in 12 months time. Armadillo clearly is in front but still has issues with the physical robustness of their craft, software design and stability, and manual control. I think there's also further engine development work required as well.

Not to mention all the regulatory paperwork. It would probably take a year just to get permission to fly! I was amazed at the persistence required for Armadillo to just get to the cup and fly in the face of all the government agencies in their way. It took intervention from the governor just to get permission to drive the truck to the airport!

Yes it's easy to understand now why there's been so little progress in the space business by the private sector - their resources are gobbled up with the regulatory requirements.
One thing that really astounded me was the scruitiny of the flight software. I can't believe that the FAA (I think it was them) required signoff on any code changes. Bloody hell, you'd think that with what is essentially experimental systems, the physical saftety controls would be sufficient without them having to understand software code changes. No wonder it takes so long to get licences. Poor John, you have my sincere sympathy. and if I was of a cynical nature, I'd say it was all a conspiracy to keep the business in the hands of the usual suspects.

Yeah, conspiracy. The government is trying to keep us out of space to please the powerful aliens that they are secretly in contact with and who don’t want humans loose in the galaxy. And can you blame them?

Not from where I stand.

Hello, beancounter,

they might have been looking onto the software because the sotftware of SpaceX's Falcon has been modified because of safety after the crash. This seems to mean that even if the physical safety controls are okay the software might counteract to them somehow - by improper activations and disactivations and so on.



Dipl.-Volkswirt(bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

John specifically stated that after the permit was granted, AST became very co-operative and helpful.

Probably just the aliens trying to lull us into a false sense of security?