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At The Symposium
The wireless seems to be working all right, though it's a tad slow.
No big news this morning. There was a press conference with Elon Musk, Alex Tai, Clay Mowry (of Arianespace) and Peter Diamandis.
The most notable thing about the conference was the fact that there was someone there from Arianespace. The giggle factor continues to diminish.
In response to the first question, from me, Alex said that they are not in a position to make any announcements as to what happened in Mojave--that is for Scaled and Northrop-Grumman to announce when they have made a determination. He said that how they will respond will be at least partly a function of what caused the accident, but that they are in a reevaluation period with regard to propulsion, so that it's possible, but not definite that there will be changes (this is a paraphrase, not a quote). In response to a related question, he noted that propulsion has never been on the vehicle critical path, so the accident didn't necessarily set them back. It remains to be seen whether or not it will be a factor, and going to a new propulsion system could potentially slip the schedule, which remains internal (off-the-cuff comments from Richard Branson aside).
Perhaps more thoughts later.
[Update a few minutes later]
Clark Lindsey is live blogging, and has some results of the morning sessions here and here.
Posted by Rand Simberg at October 24, 2007 12:02 PM
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Comments
How would propulsion be "off the critical path"? I suppose it means either they already have working motors or a vendor who can provide them.
Posted by Karl Hallowell at October 24, 2007 02:24 PM
If the planned development for it is shorter than the planned development for the airframe (or something else), then it's not on the critical path (i.e., it can slip some amount without affecting the overall schedule).
Posted by Rand Simberg at October 24, 2007 02:33 PM
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