I’m Anthony Colangelo.

A fantastic, must-read post with photos, maps, and analysis of the ZUMA situation. Dr. Langbroek is just about the only person I’ll be following with regards to ZUMA.

Best episode of Off-Nominal yet: Jake and I talk New Frontiers and drink extraordinarily tasty beer that has been to space. Massive thanks to Ninkasi Brewing Company for fueling this episode!

Fascinating piece by Eric Hand, for Science.

Plans could change, obviously, but the last bit there seems to confirm that Orbital ATK is only going to build this launch vehicle if they are awarded funding from the Air Force in the upcoming Launch Services Agreements.

Someone over at Intelsat has been doing a lot of math, and it looks like Orbital ATK was serious—the business case closes.

ZUMA has been wrapped up in the mystery surrounding USA 276 and the ISS since last November, when Marco Langbroek found that its launch window and trajectory lined up very closely to their orbits. After a few delays (with little insight into their causes, much like the launch of USA 276…), things seem to be lining up again.

This will only get really interesting when someone books a launch to use such a path, and any thoughts of consolidating all US launch infrastructure to a single location are nonsensical, but the possibility does enable some fun discussions for those working on Falcon Heavy and New Glenn, specifically.

Good choice, but one person does not a policy make. There is a lot to overcome within the Air Force, organizationally.

The language used here is imprecise, so it’s tough to draw conclusions, but “summer” implies a slip for the uncrewed test flight of Dragon 2, currently scheduled for April.

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