Main Engine Cut Off

Loren Grush joins Jake and I to talk about whatever the hell SpaceX is going to announce, Opportunity’s troubles, the masterpiece that is Space Craft, and why you never start in Mexico.

That’s a big step for a critically-important piece of technology. Phasor says it will be shipping its first antenna later this year or early next, so we’ll hear more on this front soon.

Signing a multiple-launch agreement covering a decade is less meaningful than a contract for a _specific_ Ariane 6 launch, but noteworthy nonetheless.

Viasat has booked launches on Ariane 5 and Falcon Heavy for Viasat-3, and has an option for an additional Falcon Heavy launch. They’re taking the spread-the-work-around path for their deployment, rather than the all-in approach that Iridium took with Iridium-NEXT.

My first thought was that this could be early work on a constellation of infrared surveillance satellites.

It seems incredibly hopeful, but if SLS were able to fly with this sort of cadence, it would certainly make the conversation around it interesting again.

Very special thanks to the 217 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.

Just over a year ago, Jeff Bezos had to sell 1 million shares to fund his annual $1 billion investment in Blue Origin. As of right now, he only has to sell half of that to do the same.

When the tau dips below 1.5, a 45-day active communication phase begins. If nothing happens during that, a passive listening phase of several months begins.

Yet another hosted payload for NASA, and interesting win for General Atomics. We haven’t heard much from their satellite side since they bought Surrey’s factory last November.