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Hey everyone. I’m down in Pasadena today covering the afternoon sessions of the AIAA Space 2012 Conference & Exposition. There was a plenary session on NASA’s beyond Earth orbit exploration plans earlier, and then there are individual sessions for the rest of the day. A few things to note: SLS and Orion Everything is on [...]

Hey everyone.
I’m down in Pasadena today covering the afternoon sessions of the AIAA Space 2012 Conference & Exposition. There was a plenary session on NASA’s beyond Earth orbit exploration plans earlier, and then there are individual sessions for the rest of the day. A few things to note:
SLS and Orion

Everything is on course for an Orion test flight aboard a Delta IV rocket in late 2013
NASA will be able to scale the Space Launch System as needed for capacities of 70, 105 and 130 metric tons — tooling and production being designed to accommodate different cargo functionality
Officials expect the SLS launch rate to be two to three flights per year in early 2020s

Tauri Group Analysis of Suborbital Market
[Earlier PA Story]

Market over next 10 years largely driven by tourism flights (80 percent)
Rest of demand is research, ...