And here’s the megafeed of everything I’ve been doing.
Maybe the change was brought about by the seemingly-slower ramp up of BE-4 testing, but nonetheless it gets them to the pad quicker, simplifies their production lines and operations, and allows them to hit just about every useful flight profile from day one.
Caleb Henry of SpaceNews returns to talk Satellite 2018, megaconstellations, flat-panel antennas, and the current state of the satellite industry.
A few interesting documents have been released: the late-but-final 2018 appropriations, NASA’s lunar cargo lander request for information, and the public summary of the NASA Independent Review Team’s investigation into the CRS-7 mishap. And a few interesting announcements were made: NASA Acting Administration Robert Lightfoot is going to retire, and the Air Force awarded contracts for another round of EELV Phase 1A launches.
Hmm.
This seems like a great addition to the MEV architecture, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it grew out of customer inquiries for a stationkeeping-only service, rather than one that includes attitude control, too.
I’m holding off on making too many assessments of the Swarm authorization fiasco until we know a little more than we do now. Did one of the parties knowingly make a nefarious decision to proceed? Or did this really fall through the cracks because of how many parties were involved in getting these satellites up?
NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot appeared in front of the space subcommittee of the House Science Committee to discuss the 2019 NASA budget request, and I’ve got some thoughts on their decisions regarding the SLS Mobile Launcher and how it affects SLS’ flight rate. And then I get off onto a train of thought regarding the stagnation of and opportunity within the policy gridlock we’re stuck in today.
We’ll see if anything comes of this, and “last summer” is not an insignificant amount of time in the past, but it’s at least an intriguing project to think about and consider. I’d hate to see Stratolaunch repeat some mistakes from Shuttle with Black Ice, though.
Brendan Bryne joins Jake and Anthony to discuss the National Space Council, the 2019 NASA Budget Request, and the wonders of Jai Alai.
Brendan Bryne joins Jake and Anthony to discuss the National Space Council, the 2019 NASA Budget Request, and the wonders of Jai Alai.
Brendan Bryne joins Jake and Anthony to discuss the National Space Council, the 2019 NASA Budget Request, and the wonders of Jai Alai.
If the air molecules can be collected, compressed, and stored, you could imagine an imaging or communications satellite in orbit around Mars that occasionally drops its periapsis into the atmosphere to refuel, and once refueled, boosts its periapsis back to its operational altitude. Aerial ISRU!
Forgot to post this until now, but last week after the GOES-S launch, I asked ULA CEO Tory Bruno when we’d see the new Orbital ATK GEM 63 solid boosters on Atlas V. He responded: “About a year or so.”
While I admit that companies like Moon Express do need regulatory clarity before spending too much time and money on a project in a regulatory gray area, there are not many projects held up purely because of regulatory uncertainty.
One question I’d like to see answered, that as far as I know has never been asked or commented on: how much time is needed between EM-1 and EM-2 for everything else except the Mobile Launcher?
This mission gives me such agita. Always.
Very special thanks to the 166 of you out there supporting Main Engine Cut Off on Patreon for the month of February. Your support keeps this blog and podcast going, and most importantly, it keeps it independent.
NASA recently began talking about some contingency planning for potential Commercial Crew delays, and the end-of-ISS discussion is heating up.
First and foremost, layoffs are always a major bummer. As far as Planetary Resources goes, I did start to get worried about their future after their pivot to Earth observation in 2016 and then their pivot back to asteroid mining just a few months later. It was—and remains—a confused strategy that was pretty blatantly about chasing the money wherever the money could be found.
I’m still generally skeptical about Vector after the past year or two of mostly empty calories of the PR variety. But there’s another thing about this announcement: it further shows the relative uselessness of Wallops.