Down the rabbit hole, We go

So where have I been....
I was abducted by aliens, hit be a car, bitten by a spider(no spiderman powers yet :P), tarred and feathered by the locals, scratched by the cat, blimp crashed in the backyard.
OOOHHH NOOOO, GODZILLA
And worst of all, I have a toilet paper cut on my ass.

LOL, just kidding, I moved my shop, And I'm still not done yet. I'm currently waiting on the floor to dry(poured concrete) in my new shop, so I can start unloading my stuff.

COTS
I knew spacex was going to be one of the final 2, but Kistler, I thought spacehab had a better proposal than kistler. Irregardless kistler's last estimate to bring the k-1 to the flight line was in the $600 million range, now you have to add on the cost's of creating a ISS resupply vehicle for the K-1. Does NASA realize that the $207 million that they have awarded to kistler, doesn't come close to the $600+ million needed to get this thing off the ground. Investors aren't exactly lining up to fund this beast, and I doubt a COTS contract is going to change things.

Lockmart starting to see the writing on the wall
Not to long ago, private space companies where described by big aerospace companies, as inexperienced, it will never fly, never happen, build it, and we might come to your bankruptcy auction, and you get what you pay for. But now, I can't get over the lockmart/Bigelow, announcement. Oh my gosh, Lockmart is talking about lowering cost's, high flight rates, making space affordable and accessible to the average Joe. Was the CEO of lockmart hit in the head or something, that's private space talk, or is the upcoming private space companies finally seen for what they really are, a threat to the dinosaur like big aerospace companies that are stuck in the stone ages
To bad NASA hasn't woken up yet, $100+ billion for the CEV program, are you F-ing kidding me

SS2
Is that really what the SS2 and its carrier aircraft "Eve" will look like, seems awfully fishy to me,
Photo
first and foremost look at the photo of WK and SS1, rather than babble about technical terms the ideal center of gravity placement for an aircraft is 10-25% of the total width of the wing, behind the leading edge of the wing, with that in mind, the SS1 center of gravity(COG) is almost on the COG of WK, so that WK will have roughly the same flight characteristics with or without SS1 onboard, also look at WK's main landing gear, notice that it is just slightly behind the COG, to give good takeoff and landing characteristics
Photo
now look at this photo of SS2 and Eve, The COG of SS2 isn't anywhere near where the COG of EVE is, and look at the main landing gear, how ridicules is that, It needs to be close to the COG, because it is the pivot point for takeoff and landing, its like lifting a fat guy on the end of a teter totter, and you are pushing down close to the pivot point. I'm surprised no-one has picked up on this yet.
Photo
Also look how close the elevator control surfaces are to the COG on SS2, same priciple fat guy on a teter totter, SS2 as it stands will have piss-poor pitch stability characteristics

So whats new on the Orbiter front
I canning all my projects, except for Venera-d, a current pic of it is in the the banner at the top of this page, time to do things one project at a time.