Main Engine Cut Off

NASA is asking about 7.6 metric tons of cargo to lunar orbit. That’s an ATV-class vehicle—a huge undertaking, requiring a big launch vehicle.

Good news for SpaceX and Falcon Heavy, but I still haven’t figured this one out. How did a company that has yet to finalize procurement of a satellite decide that a direct-to-GEO mission was right for them and their payload?

Elizabeth Howell joins Jake and I to talk about her trip to Baikonur, the recent Soyuz situations, the politics of the ISS, and Canadian space.

This was my prediction back in July, and everything I said then still holds true, so if you want my thoughts on their choice, go have a listen.

For all my skepticism of Stratolaunch, it’s a major bummer that Allen never got to see the giant plane fly.

It’s kind of amazing that this is the first we’re hearing of this. Is this a new issue, or related to whatever caused Dragon 2 to end up with four parachutes?

Speaking of Russia, this is a story I’ve been following closely, from Tyler Rogoway and Ivan Voukadinov at The Drive.

I mentioned this on the last episode of Off-Nominal, but it’s worth saying here, too: I’m totally fine with Russia sitting out for the Gateway. Considering the state of the Russian space industry, and specifically how Roscosmos has been handling the ISS drill hole situation, I would very much prefer them to not be involved in building any hardware that will be flying to the Moon.

Very special thanks to the 222 of you out there supporting Main Engine Cut Off on Patreon for the month of August. Your support keeps this blog and podcast going, and most importantly, it keeps it independent.

Looks like all the rumblings about Moon Express folding entirely weren’t the whole story. But I do want to point out that they haven’t even started building the first flight vehicle.