Thanks to August Patrons
Very special thanks to the 217 of you out there supporting Main Engine Cut Off on Patreon for the month of August. Your support keeps this blog and podcast going, and most importantly, it keeps it independent.
Thanks to August Patrons
Very special thanks to the 217 of you out there supporting Main Engine Cut Off on Patreon for the month of August. Your support keeps this blog and podcast going, and most importantly, it keeps it independent.
Amazon Hits $1 Trillion Valuation
Just over a year ago, Jeff Bezos had to sell 1 million shares to fund his annual $1 billion investment in Blue Origin. As of right now, he only has to sell half of that to do the same.
Episode T+92: Marcia Smith
Marcia Smith of Space Policy Online joins me to talk about the recent meetings of the NASA Advisory Council, the status of Commercial Crew, Space Force, and more space policy goodness.
Episode T+91: August Q&A
The first official MECO Q&A! I answer questions from listeners about any and all things space—mostly. (PS: Start sending me your questions for September’s Q&A episode!)
Clock is (Almost) Ticking for Opportunity
When the tau dips below 1.5, a 45-day active communication phase begins. If nothing happens during that, a passive listening phase of several months begins.
General Atomics Wins Hosted Payload Contract for NASA’s MAIA
Yet another hosted payload for NASA, and interesting win for General Atomics. We haven’t heard much from their satellite side since they bought Surrey’s factory last November.
Episode T+90: Andrew Jones
Andrew Jones joins me to talk all things Chinese spaceflight—exploration, policy, industry, and more.
Mark Stucky Opens Up About SpaceShipTwo Roll Problems
I’m surprised Stucky was willing, able, and/or brave enough to tell these anecdotes to anyone outside the organization. I don’t think the higher-ups are going to be too keen on that.
Virgin Orbit Carrying Out Test Flights
The pylon is attached, and Jeff Foust of SpaceNews has some info on their test flights.
SLC-41’s Common White Room
I can only assume this use of common refers to the future use of Vulcan to launch Starliner. If that’s the case, it’s a good sign about where they’re at with the design of Vulcan, that they’re ready to make hardware changes to accommodate Vulcan in the future.
NASA’s Next NextSTEP Study: Commercial Communications
Great news for the likes of Audacy and others looking to build commercial alternatives to TRDSS, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the first step towards a commercial communications orbiter at Mars.
One Year Since Totality
Not a day goes by that I don’t look up at the Sun or Moon and think about the 2 minutes and 40 seconds I spent in totality.
Stratolaunch Announces New Launch Vehicles
Beautiful renders, interesting payload numbers, underwhelming names, and short on just about any other detail.
Boeing Acquires Millennium Space Systems
Seems like Boeing sees Millennium as their ticket into the Department of Defense’s resiliency campaign that gets so much talk of late.
Lockheed Martin Awarded $2.9 Billion for Three Overhead Persistent Infrared GEO Space Vehicles
We knew this would be sole-sourced to Lockheed Martin, just like we knew that for the polar vehicles awarded to Northrop Grumman. What we didn’t know was the award value, and it’s huge.
Episode T+89: Lockheed’s Small Sat Strategy, NASA Tipping Points Contracts
Lockheed Martin has been slowly revealing their small sat strategy over the last three years, and it’s shaping up to be quite interesting and potentially very compelling. And NASA announced 10 Tipping Point awards last week, which include some very interesting projects from Blue Origin, ULA, and Astrobotic.
The other side of a Rocket company CEO
Destin from SmarterEveryDay was invited down to the Parker Solar Probe launch, and got to hang out with Tory Bruno (and zero entourage) as the Mobile Service Tower rolled away from the rocket. He posted an absolutely lovely photo series with some commentary.
The other side of a Rocket company CEO
Destin from SmarterEveryDay was invited down to the Parker Solar Probe launch, and got to hang out with Tory Bruno (and zero entourage) as the Mobile Service Tower rolled away from the rocket. He posted an absolutely lovely photo series with some commentary.
Blue Origin Confirms BE-3U Uses Expander Cycle
The switch to expander cycle is a big deal. Because of the BE-3U’s thrust level, it’ll be an open/bleed cycle. That does decrease efficiency a bit, but its specific impulse will be very much in the ballpark of the RL10 and Vinci.