Dan Piemont’s Post

In 2018, we set out to design an orbital-class turbopump-fed rocket engine from a clean sheet. We believed that owning every element of design and manufacturing was fundamental to our success. Ryan Kuhn took on the problem from first principles, led the charge, and got the job done. Exciting to share the story of E2, one of many examples of creative achievement in the birth of RS1. ABL Space Systems

It’s easy to be excited this week in the space startup community as not one but two startups attempt landings of their first-article vehicles. Varda Space Industries’s “Winnebago-1” atmospheric re-entry capsule will land under chute at the Utah Test and Training Range around 1:30PM PST on Wednesday Intuitive Machines’ “Odysseus” cargo lander will land propulsively on the moon around 2:45PM PST on Thursday I’m fully expecting these missions to achieve their objectives. Very exciting times. A particular nod to friends and colleagues working the programs, great to see you all in action. Godspeed IM-1, Godspeed W-1!

Many people are thinking about space security for the first time today due to the disclosures by the House Intelligence Committee. An aggressive adversarial regime may be working to put nuclear weapons in space. This highlights some major problems we are facing as a country and industry today. 1) International cooperation to ensure outer space is used for peaceful purposes is degrading, quickly. We can't count on the goodwill of others to preserve it. The U.S. needs to avoid escalating the militarization of space, while also guaranteeing that peaceful people will continue to enjoy the many hard-earned benefits of the last sixty years of spaceflight. 2) If we want to guarantee space capability in any scenario, we need hybrid architectures that use multiple orbital regimes. We also need a lot of satellites on the ground and many ways to launch them fast. Yes, we can and should defend our space assets from "gray zone" shenanigans, and of course proliferation helps, but in some extreme cases our space assets will be simply impossible to defend. 3) Government-operated is the only answer for any truly strategic capability. Sure, in peacetime, you can save yourself some grief and dollars by leveraging "dual-use" products. But in times of high tension, no private company can or should be expected to absorb the risk of leaving a billion-dollar cash cow in harms way to provide a bit of satcom or ISR to an ally. Therefore the vendors may have to make tough choices; therefore an ally may be left in the lurch. It's not acceptable for such important decisions to be thrust onto private companies, and I don't see how that point is even debatable. Feel free to share your own thoughts below. ABL Space Systems https://lnkd.in/gb-xifJG

Enjoyed speaking with Mo about Flight 1, Flight 2, ABL's future plans, and the state of the launch industry. A few highlights from the discussion: - Launch is a strategic capability, as important as any capability the U.S. has - Launch is not one market, it's a handful of specialized submarkets - Launch businesses don't just need great unit economics, they need to be profitable at reasonable near-term flight rates Payload ABL Space Systems https://lnkd.in/g6vxrabE

It feels great to be ramping up activities for Flight 2. More to come soon.

Grateful to Harry for sharing his perspective on great technicians and how they form the heart of any successful hardware program.

Flight 1 provides a great opportunity to take stock of where ABL has come from and where we are going. While a couple of things went wrong on launch day, thousands of things went right. All of the systems that were demonstrated in flight were created from nothing in five years with a brand new team, brand new launch vehicle, all built from scratch by a small group of very dedicated people.   Along the way we took no shortcuts: - Five years and five months from founding - 350-person team - In-house turbopumps from a clean sheet design - In-house engines w/ custom parts printed + machined at ABL - In-house structures milled, formed, and welded at ABL - In-house GNC and FSW stack straight on a custom Linux build - In-house modern ERP software from Day 1 - In-house real time control software for all ground and flight ops - Custom deployable launch site systems - Test sites built from scratch in Mojave (and Edwards, and NM...) - Launch site built from scratch in Kodiak - Zero derivative, pre-existing, acquired, or licensed IP   This has been the hardest path, but the one we know is needed to serve our customers reliably over the years to come. And we are speed running it.   We are grateful for the support of the community. In the past week I’ve received no less than 100 space is hards, 20 man in the arenas, 12 kennedy ‘62s, and 6 katy perry strongers. There’s a lot of truth in those sentiments, and the Flight 1 campaign gave us many valuable experiences that will help us embed excellence deep into the company. But this is not a moment of contrition or retreat for us – we will hold up our track record for comparison against any other novel launch vehicle development. Give us a few more flights before you take too sympathetic of a view. The RS1 program is stronger than ever. ABL Space Systems

We took a cruise through the archives and put together this immersive cut which captures the sights and sounds of RS1 development over the past three years. It brings back great memories of rigging lighting protection in a New Mexico hailstorm, TEA-TEB fills in the Mojave sun, real head scratchers in the vibe lab, building a launch pad in Alaska from the winter to the summer solstices, and many more. The launch industry demands a lot but it offers incredible joy, growth, and reward. Thanks to everyone inside and outside ABL who has been a part of RS1. ABL Space Systems