And here’s the megafeed of everything I’ve been doing.
The US Air Force has developed a viable corridor for launching to polar and other high-inclination orbits from Cape Canaveral. I spend some time thinking through who may be interested in using that corridor and what its existence could mean for the newer launch vehicles in development.
In thinking through who may launch to high-inclination orbits from the Cape, I totally forgot about DARPA’s XS-1 that will be based out of Cape Canaveral. I would be surprised if there weren’t plans to launch XS-1 from Vandenberg, but as of yet, we haven’t heard anything. Maybe the Department of Defense had XS-1 in mind when developing a polar corridor from Cape Canaveral?
Jake and Anthony drink a beer that has been to space, discuss the recently-announced New Frontiers finalists, and propose their own flagship-class missions. Huge thanks to Ninkasi Brewing Company for powering this episode!
Jake and Anthony drink a beer that has been to space, discuss the recently-announced New Frontiers finalists, and propose their own flagship-class missions. Huge thanks to Ninkasi Brewing Company for powering this episode!
Jake and Anthony drink a beer that has been to space, discuss the recently-announced New Frontiers finalists, and propose their own flagship-class missions. Huge thanks to Ninkasi Brewing Company for powering this episode!
A fantastic, must-read post with photos, maps, and analysis of the ZUMA situation. Dr. Langbroek is just about the only person I’ll be following with regards to ZUMA.
Best episode of Off-Nominal yet: Jake and I talk New Frontiers and drink extraordinarily tasty beer that has been to space. Massive thanks to Ninkasi Brewing Company for fueling this episode!
Fascinating piece by Eric Hand, for Science.
Plans could change, obviously, but the last bit there seems to confirm that Orbital ATK is only going to build this launch vehicle if they are awarded funding from the Air Force in the upcoming Launch Services Agreements.
Someone over at Intelsat has been doing a lot of math, and it looks like Orbital ATK was serious—the business case closes.
ZUMA has been wrapped up in the mystery surrounding USA 276 and the ISS since last November, when Marco Langbroek found that its launch window and trajectory lined up very closely to their orbits. After a few delays (with little insight into their causes, much like the launch of USA 276…), things seem to be lining up again.
This will only get really interesting when someone books a launch to use such a path, and any thoughts of consolidating all US launch infrastructure to a single location are nonsensical, but the possibility does enable some fun discussions for those working on Falcon Heavy and New Glenn, specifically.
Good choice, but one person does not a policy make. There is a lot to overcome within the Air Force, organizationally.
The language used here is imprecise, so it’s tough to draw conclusions, but “summer” implies a slip for the uncrewed test flight of Dragon 2, currently scheduled for April.
Very special thanks to the 135 of you out there supporting Main Engine Cut Off on Patreon for the month of December, and for all of 2017. Your support keeps this blog and podcast going, and most importantly, it keeps it independent.
Robin Seemangal joins me for a free-flowing discussion on the stories we found most important in 2017 and what we’re looking forward to in 2018, including SpaceX’s huge year, Blue Origin’s under-the-radar work to lay foundations for their future, SLS’ rough year, and—what else?—Falcon Heavy.
Mike Lewis, CTO of NanoRacks joins me to talk about what they’re working on today, as well as their big plans for the future, including their upcoming airlock and the Ixion project—their ongoing work to turn spent upper stages into useful spacecraft.
A special preview of the MECO Headlines shows: Elon Musk kinda-sorta-maybe announces the Falcon Heavy demo payload, Russia and China carry out successful military launches, NASA announces some very interesting NextSTEP-2 contracts, OA-8E Cygnus departs ISS, and SpaceX’s SLC-40 is back, baby!
If Virgin Orbit delivers on their stated cost and performance goals for LauncherOne, they’ll put Minotaur I out of work in a hurry. But the market is still without any vehicles that put the heavier Minotaurs—Minotaur-IV and Minotaur-C specifically—in any danger. Terran 1 could be the first truly commercial launch vehicle to take on those heavier Minotaurs.
Note: Please listen to Episode 3 before listening to this podcast! A companion podcast to follow Episode 3. Jake tells the story of Polynesian Celestial Navigation. Originally produced for a class in sound design but published here for your enjoyment.