Main Engine Cut Off

Very special thanks to the 261 of you out there supporting Main Engine Cut Off on Patreon for the month of February. 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.

We all knew Canada would contribute Canadarm3 to the Gateway, but it is politically important for NASA to have this stated commitment.

Unfortunately, Canadarm2 and the ISS will be operating until 2030, sucking up most of the time, money, and attention.

I am very supportive of the human space settlement amendment, but 11 more years of ISS makes me woozy.

Big news from the Air Force, with 3 launch contracts going to each provider for the 2021–22 timeframe.

I’m a Space Force Inevitablist, and the top priority in my eyes is elevating space leadership up and outside of the Air Force constraints, so this directive is pretty disappointing to me.

This is obviously a bad look for NASA, Boeing, SpaceX, and Congress, but it’s smart to have Soyuz overlap with the early Commercial Crew flights, just in case. However, let’s not forget the constant fearmongering from Bill Gerstenmaier and other NASA officials about how it’s too late to buy more Soyuz seats.

This is a pretty unique situation—a satellite for the Air Force Research Lab riding on a commercial Indonesian satellite all the way to (near) geostationary orbit.

It’ll be endlessly interesting to see how this turns out, but now is precisely the right time for SpaceX to protest an award like this. They’re fresh off their Category 3 certification from the NASA Launch Services Program, they’re on a hell of a roll, and ULA has had quite a few scrubs and some long delays of late.

This shit is as annoying as when the Alabama Space Mafia does the same sort of thing.

Very special thanks to the 256 of you out there supporting Main Engine Cut Off on Patreon for the month of January. 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.