I’m Anthony Colangelo.

And here’s the megafeed of everything I’ve been doing.

Episode T+75: March Roundup

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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.

Mission Extension Pods

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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.

The Swarm-Spaceflight-ISRO Situation

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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?

Episode T+74: Stagnation and Opportunity

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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.

Black Ice

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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.

ESA-Led Team Fires Air-Breathing Electric Thruster

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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!

The Regulatory Scapegoat

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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.

Thanks to February Patrons

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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.

Hard Times at Planetary Resources

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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.