Main Engine Cut Off

Boy, is that inexpensive. IXPE is just a few hundred kilograms and is going to a 0° inclination orbit, so Falcon 9 could fit a bit more payload aboard, but not much. I’m going to guess that it will fly solo, and take the title away from FORMOSAT 5 for lightest payload flown by Falcon 9.

Very special thanks to the 289 of you out there supporting Main Engine Cut Off on Patreon for the month of June. MECO is entirely listener- and reader-supported, so your support keeps this blog and podcast going, growing, and improving, and most importantly, it keeps it independent.

If you’re into quirky space history, Dwayne Day wrote an incredible article for The Space Review this week on a NASA/NRO collaboration that never saw the light of day, nor was known about until now.

Of note to me is that Firefly’s Alpha with its new Orbital Transfer Vehicle can carry a single small-end Saturn bus or just about two Astranis satellites all the way to geostationary orbit on its own.

Chris Gebhardt of NASASpaceflight joins Jake and I to talk about space media in modern pop culture, the way its made and received, and what stands the test of time.

Upcoming meetup! Hang out with Jake and other fellow Anomalies in Kent, WA on June 29! Details at events.offnominal.space.

Very special thanks to the 285 of you out there supporting Main Engine Cut Off on Patreon for the month of May. MECO is entirely listener- and reader-supported, so your support keeps this blog and podcast going, growing, and improving, and most importantly, it keeps it independent.

Gee, I wonder what it is that is making them get around to this in 2019, rather than decades ago.

Jake and I try and figure out what’s going on with all this Artemis talk and where we’re headed.

The Moon 2024 initiative finally has a name, and it kicks ass—Artemis. However, there seems to be some mass cognitive dissonance surrounding all this that I can’t get my head around.

I’ve heard some talk of what Virgin Orbit is working through, and from the sounds of it, it’s bad. Nearing potentially-losing-an-important-mission bad.