I’m Anthony Colangelo.

I wonder how many—if any—of those ACES improvements will find their way into this Centaur upgrade. Interestingly, ACES was not mentioned once.

Great breakdown of yesterday’s meeting and the work and decisions that lie ahead for the National Space Council, NASA, and the elephant in the room: Congress.​​

I speculated last week that there is potential for schedule tension between Falcon Heavy and Dragon 2 with the former seemingly slipping into 2018. This two month slip gives Falcon Heavy some breathing room.

At this point, is there anyone out there who hasn’t signed a Memorandum of Understanding regarding Dream Chaser missions?

However odd the announcement, this would (will?) be great. It adds a massive amount of storage space and opens up a ton of room for work on the ISS. Coupled with the increased crew size that Commercial Crew will bring, this sets the stage for a very productive next few years on the ISS.

As 2017 begins to look less and less likely, my mind starts to wander into 2018. How close will SpaceX be comfortable running the Falcon Heavy schedule up to Dragon 2 demo missions—with or without crew?

Very special thanks to the 102 of you out there supporting Main Engine Cut Off on Patreon for the month of September. Your support keeps this blog and podcast going, and most importantly, it keeps it independent.

Elon Musk’s long-awaited IAC update is coming up next week. Interestingly, his session has a moderator. And that moderator is none other than Jean-Yves Le Gall.

Formerly of Honeywell, United Space Alliance, and The Aerospace Corporation, Smith has a ton of experience and a very interesting background to bring to Blue Origin.

Not quite what I would call an unexpected first customer for Ariane 6, but this at least gives us 3 launches to put on the calendar. The first launch has the surprisingly-specific date of July 16, 2020, with these two to follow shortly thereafter.