ISS Crew Trains For Medical Emergency…Totally Planned Previously, Right?
Probably not a bad idea, because of those positive tests for COVID-19 at Baikonur. Luckily they’ve been up there for a while and all seems fine.
Episode T+156: Sean Mahoney, CEO of Masten Space Systems
Sean Mahoney, CEO of Masten Space Systems joins me to talk about everything they’ve been up to lately, from flights of their terrestrial vehicles out in Mojave, NASA’s Lunar CATALYST program, their recent Commercial Lunar Payload Services task order award, and some other projects like DARPA’s XS-1, the Broadsword engine, and XEUS.
SpaceX Posts Lengthy Starlink Visibility Update
Coinciding with a presentation to an astrophysics decadal survey committee meeting, SpaceX posted a bunch of information (and really nice visualizations of Starlink satellites) about what they’re doing to work with astronomers on the visibility issue. It’s wonderful to have this amount of information put in one place, straight from the source.
Episode T+155: Peter Beck on the Pandemic’s Effect on the Industry and Rocket Lab’s Busy Few Months
Peter Beck, Founder, CEO, and CTO of Rocket Lab returns to the show to talk about how the industry is dealing with the pandemic, and to update us on their busy past few months, including their acquisition of Sinclair Interplanetary, flying missions to the Moon and beyond, and their work towards reusability.
Exolaunch Signs on for SpaceX’s SSO Rideshare
Speaking of rideshares, SpaceX continues to fill that first rideshare flight to sun-synchronous orbit.
Synspective Switches from Vega Rideshare to Rocket Lab Dedicated Flight
Rocket Lab taking advantage of a bad situation in French Guiana and showing United Launch Alliance how to do it at the same time.
OneWeb’s Bankruptcy-to-Spectrum Sale Timing Was Not Accidental
Caleb Henry, for SpaceNews, with a paragraph written so well it stopped me in my tracks. A must-read on OneWeb’s bankruptcy and the strategy of its timing with regards to its upcoming spectrum sale.
Episode T+154: Tim Ellis, CEO and Cofounder of Relativity
Tim Ellis, CEO and Cofounder of Relativity joins me for an in-depth discussion about Relativity’s status and work towards their first launch. We cover everything from their company vision, funding, new headquarters, wider fairing, customer backlog, potential west coast launch site, and dive into the details of Stargate and Relativity’s materials work.
Episode 29 - Go Full Goldin
Jake and Anthony take on a long-standing debate: worm or meatball? The NASA Worm is back, so in honor of that, we talk about our most and least favorite logos in space, including missions, organizations, and companies. And some Soviet propaganda.
Episode 29 - Go Full Goldin
Jake and Anthony take on a long-standing debate: worm or meatball? The NASA Worm is back, so in honor of that, we talk about our most and least favorite logos in space, including missions, organizations, and companies. And some Soviet propaganda.
Masten Wins Commercial Lunar Payload Services Task Order, Heading to the Moon in 2022
I’m so thrilled for Masten. I’ve long admired their work, and it’s wonderful to see them become part of a quick moving, big budget, and prestigious program like CLPS. I really hope they shine with XL-1 and can use that momentum to push themselves with bigger and better vehicles.
Swarm Licensed to Begin Commercial Operations
Sara Spangelo, CEO of Swarm, in a Medium post on what has to be one of the most surprising regulatory turnarounds in space history.
Virgin Orbit Awarded 3 Space Force Launches for STP-S28
The contract covers 3 dedicated launches of 44 satellites for $35 million. That puts the per-launch price at just under $12 million, which seems like just a bit of a bulk discount. This is huge news for Virgin Orbit, and it comes at a critical time for them.
BepiColombo Completes Earth Flyby, Sends Back Wonderful Imagery
Some of my favorite images from space are the ones where you can see parts of spacecraft, because it adds such great context and perspective. BepiColombo delivered on that, with a sequence of images at closest approach. But the best sequence is the nearly 10-hour long, full disk approach.
Rocket Lab Completes Mid-Air Recovery Test
It’s good to see them making quick work on this reusability effort. They released a ton of video to go along with this, and from watching that, it sure looks like a Rocket Lab-painted version of PDG Aviation’s 2017 test in cooperation with Airborne Systems and Lockheed Martin.
Episode T+153: Boeing to Refly Starliner Uncrewed Test, While SpaceX Crew Plans Firm Up
A flurry of Commercial Crew news hit last week: new crew members were announced for SpaceX Crew-1, Jim Bridenstine shed some light on the DM-2 schedule, and Boeing will refly the Starliner uncrewed test flight. I break down each of those and talk through why those stories are more connected than was hinted at by NASA and others.
Farewell, Dragon
I wasn’t feeling overly sentimental, but then I read Eric Berger’s piece and started thinking back. As Eric makes clear, it’s hard not to argue that Dragon and its Falcon counterpart are the defining vehicles of this era. And boy did I have an epic day back in 2010.
Boeing to Refly Starliner’s Uncrewed Test This Fall, Potentially After SpaceX Crew-1
In a world where SpaceX was not doing as well with Dragon 2 as they are, the decision on whether or not to refly Starliner’s test might have gone differently.
OmegA on Track for Spring 2021 Flight
Surprisingly, OmegA is on track to be the first to fly of the three new launch vehicles bidding for the National Security Space Launch program. Northrop Grumman is looking mighty smart to use a pair of RL10 engines on their upper stage rather than the BE-3U.
Huge Thanks to March Supporters!
Very special thanks to the 388 of you out there supporting Main Engine Cut Off on Patreon for the month of March. MECO is entirely listener- and reader-supported, so your support keeps this blog and podcast going, growing, and improving, and most importantly, it keeps it independent.