Astra Loses First Rocket 3.0
Bummer to hear that they’ve lost the vehicle as well as some equipment on the ground. Good thing they have 2 more following closely in the pipeline.
Episode T+151: Northrop Grumman, Satellite Servicing, and DARPA’s RSGS
After a tumultuous past few years, DARPA has selected a new partner for RSGS. It is none other than Northrop Grumman, who has found early success with their satellite servicing ventures.
Rocket Lab to Acquire Sinclair Interplanetary
Great news for all involved. Sinclair becomes part of what has to be one of the most exciting space companies operating today, and Rocket Lab gets a jump up the timeline of their work on Photon.
From Dragon to Cygnus to an Android Phone
Cool read on a very cool development.
I’m Not Just Picking on Virgin Orbit
If it wasn’t clear in my post yesterday, I’m annoyed at California’s overly-broad definition of aerospace manufacturers that allows Virgin Orbit to keep its facilities open in any capacity.
Virgin Orbit, Who Has Been Saying Their First Launch is This Year for Nearly Three Years, Deemed an Essential Service
With all due respect to anyone reading this who works at Virgin Orbit, this is quite frankly bullshit. I’m fine with designating high-visibility, time-sensitive launch campaigns like Mars 2020 (Perseverance), Commercial Crew, or even AEHF-6 as essential services. But a company still in the development and testing phase of a launch vehicle that has been delayed for several years now with the only government flight being a Space Test Program launch?
First Long March 7A Fails, with Some Evidence Pointing to Second Stage Failure
Andrew Jones, far and away my favorite source (and podcast guest!) for Chinese space news, has a great rundown on SpaceNews on Long March 7A and the impacts its failure could have.
Episode 28 - Don’t Sneeze in Their Mouths!
Jake and Anthony are joined by fellow space podcaster Brendan Bryne for a self-quarantine edition of the show. Jake developed a new bit for this grab bag episode with talk of Schrödinger’s Gateway, SpaceX’s DM-2, and a whole bunch more, including (obviously) COVID-19 and its impact on space. Also how Brendan’s cat almost ruined OSIRIS-REx.
Episode 28 - Don’t Sneeze in Their Mouths!
Jake and Anthony are joined by fellow space podcaster Brendan Bryne for a self-quarantine edition of the show. Jake developed a new bit for this grab bag episode with talk of Schrödinger’s Gateway, SpaceX’s DM-2, and a whole bunch more, including (obviously) COVID-19 and its impact on space. Also how Brendan’s cat almost ruined OSIRIS-REx.
Episode T+150: SpaceX Signs Crew Flight Agreements with Axiom, Space Adventures
SpaceX recently signed two agreements: one with Axiom Space to fly a private mission up to the ISS, and one with Space Adventures for a free-flying tourist flight up to 1,000 kilometers. I discuss these two missions and why agreements like this are key to SpaceX’s long-term strategy.
DARPA Selects Northrop Grumman for RSGS
Hot on the heels of MEV-1 successfully docking with its first target, the good news continues for Northrop Grumman’s Space Logistics business.
ESA Data Puts 2019 Amazon Fires In Context, and It’s Good News
Pleasantly surprising data from ESA. Turns out 2018 was a good year, and 2019 was pretty close to the norm over the last two decades. Context helps.
NASA Awards Psyche Launch to SpaceX, Who Now Has Its First Mars Launch on the Books
At $117 million, Falcon Heavy is a hell of a deal for NASA. It’s no surprise, then, that SpaceX has been winning a lot of NASA science missions lately. Just within the last year, they’ve been selected to launch DART, PACE, IXPE, and now Psyche.
Huge Thanks to February Supporters!
Very special thanks to the 385 of you out there supporting Main Engine Cut Off on Patreon for the month of February. 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.
Episode T+149: Let’s Talk About Starship with Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut
Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut, joins me to talk all about SpaceX’s Starship, its history thus far, it’s nearly-impossible-to-keep-up-with development in the open, and what we may see in the coming months. We make some timeline predictions, talk about the predicament of Boca Chica, and both randomly stumble into completely unsupported theories.
First Look at Falcon 9 and Heavy Updates for NSSL
An FAA environmental assessment shed some light on changes that would come to SpaceX’s Falcon family if and when they’re selected as a Phase 2 launch provider: the new service tower that would be built at Pad 39A to support vertical integration of payloads, and the longer fairing that would be required for certain payloads.
MEV-1 Docks with Intelsat 901
Northrop Grumman completed the first docking of a Mission Extension Vehicle with its target, and the photos are wonderful.
The Starliner Saga Continues: Boeing Skipped End-to-End Test
This continues the same story I’ve been harping on with Starliner’s issues since December: Boeing is making mistakes that even to non-technical audiences sound downright stupid.
Episode T+148: Gerst to SpaceX, and Why Landing is Part of Mission Success
Long-time head of human spaceflight at NASA, Bill Gerstenmaier, has joined SpaceX as a consultant, but everyone is excited for the wrong reasons. And SpaceX missed a booster landing on their most recent Starlink launch, which prompted a new round of debates over whether booster recovery is part of mission success or not.
Episode T+147: Mike Suffredini, President & CEO of Axiom
Mike Suffredini, President and CEO of Axiom, joins me to talk about their recent announcement: Axiom has been selected by NASA for access to an ISS port. They will build out Axiom Station as an expansion of the ISS, and eventually operate it as a free-flying space station. Before Axiom, Mike was NASA’s ISS Program Manager for a decade.