 Hey what's up everybody, welcome to tomorrow. This week I wanted to talk about a lot of future rockets that you've probably already heard of, but at least I wanted to give my take on which ones will actually become a reality and which ones probably won't. This is your space bot for September 1st, 2015. So first off, SpaceX is continuing their crash investigation into the July 28th failure of the Falcon 9 rocket, and it's taking a little bit longer than expected. But first they were expecting a return to flight in September, but now it's looking to be a few more months away, and Gwen Shotwell has recently said that November might be the soonest that they would return to flight. Whenever SpaceX does return to flight, that rocket will have upgraded myrtlein engines that will have 30% more thrust than the previous version, and a payload hasn't been announced yet for that return to flight mission. For these upgraded engines, the first mission for that was supposed to be an SES communications satellite, but that may have changed with this whole crash investigation, so we'll just have to wait and see for that as well as to which payload will be chosen for that. Meanwhile, it seems that everyone all over the world is also working on rocket upgrades to have bigger, better versions of either what they're already using or what they've never done before. For example, China is working on the various engines for their new Long March 5 rocket. With the Long March 5, they've already tested the first stage engines and have recently been testing the upper stage engines for that rocket. Their hope is to start flying the Long March 5 in 2016, so things are ramping up for that, and if they are successful then they will have a rocket that's in the same sort of class as the Atlas V and Delta IV, so they'll be able to do a lot of really cool things until their upgraded version of the Long March 5 debuts, which would be years after that. Russia is working on that as well, and that is becoming closer and closer to being a reality. As Benjamin talked about in the recent live show this past weekend, Russia is also working on a possible upgrade for the Soyuz rocket. They're calling this the Soyuz 5, and with the Soyuz 5, at least in my opinion, I think it would compete with the Angara rocket because it's in the same class and it's in the same sort of modular configurations that the Angara family of rockets would use. But the only thing that should continue from this whole program is working on a new methane rocket engine, and wouldn't it be an ironic twist of fate if they end up buying liquid methane rockets from America, like from Blue Origin for example? That would be awesome. The Soyuz 5 though is essentially a paper rocket at this point, but a rocket that is already been flight tested in various form is India's GSLV Mark III. Unlike the GSLV Mark II, which recently launched successfully and was the second time ever that India's own indigenous cryogenic upper stage successfully was used, they're working on an upgraded larger version of an upper stage cryogenic engine. And for this version, they have successfully test fired it, and they have to do lots more tests for this and then integrate it into the first stage of the GSLV Mark III. But once they start doing test flights of that, then they can start doing some of the payloads that they have been planning for this rocket. And they would have a medium, almost heavy class rocket as well. So I'm definitely rooting for India, and I hope that everything goes well, and with the experience that they've been getting on the GSLV Mark II, that everything will go smoothly for their newest version. Even the European Space Agency is working on their upgrades, and it seems like the design is finally coming into its final form with the Ariane 6 rocket, the replacement for the Ariane 5. And a couple of different designs for that have come forward, but it seems like all of the partners are finally coming forward on a plan that they all like. And at least certain parts of that rocket have been finalized, and plans and work are already moving forward. For example, in Corot, they have already broken ground on a new launch site for the Ariane 6 rocket. So whatever design finally does come forward, at least for what they have finalized so far, they're able to move forward on certain parts of it at least. But not only that, they're also working on an upgrade for their Vega rocket. This will be the Vega C rocket, and it will feature an upgraded first stage solid rocket, and it will be able to deliver even more weight into orbit. And that'll be really cool because that upgraded first stage, that solid rocket, will be the boosters on the Ariane 6 rocket. So it goes hand in hand with both of those rocket developments. So good luck European Space Agency, and I hope that everything is able to move forward smoothly, and there aren't any arguments or disagreements between the partners. Back in the United States, Orbital ATK is working on their upgraded version of the Antares rocket, and that's actually going to be the 200 series of the Antares. And the only thing different about it is having, of course, the new Russian engines to replace the old Russian engines. And it's also going to have an upgraded upper stage as well, which actually did fly for the first time on the last mission, but due to the explosion back in October, it wasn't able to be flight tested. So this will be the first time, hopefully, once the Antares does launch again, that they will be able to actually use the upgraded upper stage engine for the first time. And that's a solid rocket motor as well. United Launch Alliance, of course, is working on finalizing their plans for the Vulcan rocket. And I really do hope you guys change the name for that to just anything else. But if it is the Vulcan, then so be it. But whatever that future rocket is going to be, they're working on the plans for that and all the different elements for that are coming together. Blue Origin 2 has some big announcement this month, so we'll see what they have planned. And of course, this is probably going to have to do with their orbital plans, and it might just have more to do with their partnership with United Launch Alliance and providing the engines possibly for the Vulcan rocket. So we'll see what information they have, but it's probably going to be something big. Meanwhile, NASA's Space Launch System is continuing to make progress. They're test firing engines. They've completed upgrades to the different barges and transportation of different elements to the launch sites. And there's lots of things that are moving forward with this. But I think the thing that is most important is there are finally lots of really good ideas and mission plans for different payloads all across the solar system. And so with all these different new payloads and uses for the Space Launch System, we might have to move forward with it. And even though it might be a money pit and end up kind of bankrupting NASA, so to speak, I know it wouldn't actually do that, but at least would pull away money from lots of other programs. It might become a reality, though. And I think that if we can push forward with this and have accountability and not make it just be a jobs program, and if we need to use it more than once every three or four years, then hopefully we'll be able to bring the cost down and the contractors will be able to, I don't know. I'm very hopeful for it. And that's me being naive, I guess. But it looks to me like the Space Launch System is actually going to launch more than just once. So I'm very much looking forward to that. And in a future space pod, I want to talk in depth about a lot of these really great ideas for the future payloads for the Space Launch System. So look forward to that at a future date. Pretty much my point is there is a bright future ahead of us, full of next generation rockets. And I really hope that our global access to space becomes cheaper, more frequent, and so common that we start doing really innovative things in space. Not only to enhance life back here on Earth, but to spread life all over our solar system and do all of those things that all of us space keeks dream about. So thank you very much for watching this video. And let me know what you think about all of these future rockets and which ones you think will become a reality, and which ones you think might get canceled. Thank you so much to everyone who's been contributing to our Patreon campaign. And if you are willing and able to do so, please visit patreon.com slash space pod to help make these space pod videos happen. Thank you again for watching this video. I for one am very much looking forward to tomorrow. And I will see you guys in the future. Till next time.