I’m Anthony Colangelo.

Signing a multiple-launch agreement covering a decade is less meaningful than a contract for a _specific_ Ariane 6 launch, but noteworthy nonetheless.

Viasat has booked launches on Ariane 5 and Falcon Heavy for Viasat-3, and has an option for an additional Falcon Heavy launch. They’re taking the spread-the-work-around path for their deployment, rather than the all-in approach that Iridium took with Iridium-NEXT.

My first thought was that this could be early work on a constellation of infrared surveillance satellites.

My first thought was that this could be early work on a constellation of infrared surveillance satellites.

It seems incredibly hopeful, but if SLS were able to fly with this sort of cadence, it would certainly make the conversation around it interesting again.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The pylon is attached, and Jeff Foust of SpaceNews has some info on their test flights.

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.

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.

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.

Beautiful renders, interesting payload numbers, underwhelming names, and short on just about any other detail.

Seems like Boeing sees Millennium as their ticket into the Department of Defense’s resiliency campaign that gets so much talk of late.