And here’s the megafeed of everything I’ve been doing.
A Progress launch failed on its way to the ISS, so I discuss how this may affect the politics of the ISS and NASA going forward. And then I get into some thoughts on satellite servicing in general, and specifically surrounding Restore-L and Orbital ATK’s Mission Extension Vehicle. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 3 executive producers—@spacepat_o, Matt Giraitis, and one anonymous—and 25 other supporters on Patreon.
One of the big hurdles that satellite servicing needs to jump in order to become a viable market in the current era is the ability to work with satellites not specifically designed to be serviced. For that reason, it’ll be interesting to follow along with this mission as it progresses.
Thanks to my patrons for the month of November. If you’re getting some value out of what I do here and want to send a little value back to help support Main Engine Cut Off, head over to Patreon and donate as little as $1 a month—every little bit helps.
Tory Bruno took to the stage to announce RocketBuilder, their new way to market and sell Atlas V launch services. I discuss my initial thoughts about it and what the announcement means for ULA going forward in the commercial market.
The announcement didn’t contain breaking news or mind-blowing visions of the future, but that doesn’t mean it was entirely inconsequential. It showed that ULA is learning how to speak to the market, and they’re finding new ways to reach out to potential customers. We’ll see just how many customers they get out of this effort, but their improved messaging should not go unnoticed.
Marcia Smith of SpacePolicyOnline.com got her hands on a draft of the upcoming NASA authorization act.
We must be getting really close to that first launch.
A website alone won’t attract more customers, so it’s tough to read the tea leaves and say what exactly is transformative about the announcement. But the existence of the announcement alone shows how much of an effort ULA is making towards becoming competitive in commercial launch services.
Lately when I’ve been talking about political and financial tradeoffs made to sustain programs, I’ve been focusing on NASA’s exploration program, but the same things are true of Ariane 6.
Next week will be very interesting to watch. Keep an eye out for any and all decisions coming out of Lucerne, Switzerland.
After some investigation, a saturated IMU was blamed for causing the crash of Schiaparelli.
Electron is to one-month increments as Falcon Heavy is to six.
All signs point to SpaceX nearing a return-to-flight mission for Falcon 9. I discuss what to watch for in the months ahead, and read some email.
Following up on last show’s topic, there are signs that NASA may be moving away from Orion in the future. I discuss how I see NASA modernizing their exploration roadmap, politically, in the next administration.
Chris Gebhardt of NASASpaceFlight talked with Orbital ATK’s Frank DeMauro about the switch from Antares to Atlas V for OA-7.
Photos and videos were posted on the SpaceX subreddit of the ITS composite tank as it headed out to the destructive sea testing that we heard about from Elon Musk himself.
Signed about a month ago, this report from the FAA states that they’ve cleared the environmental concerns surrounding Falcon 9 landings at Vandenberg. Great timing, as SpaceX should be back up and flying soon.
This is going to be an extremely interesting transition period. More of a “Let’s modernize this roadmap,” instead of a “Tear it all up!”
Chris Gebhardt of NASASpaceFlight wrote up a rundown of external cargo for SpaceX CRS flights 10 through 20. The NanoRacks airlock isn’t mentioned anywhere, which is counter to what Mike Johnson talked about in my interview with him.
How Orbital ATK got to where they are today, what makes their next rocket so appealing, and how things might play out in the future.