Main Engine Cut OffZUMA has been wrapped up in the mystery surrounding USA 276 and the ISS since last November, when Marco Langbroek found that its launch window and trajectory lined up very closely to their orbits. After a few delays (with little insight into their causes, much like the launch of USA 276…), things seem to be lining up again.
This will only get really interesting when someone books a launch to use such a path, and any thoughts of consolidating all US launch infrastructure to a single location are nonsensical, but the possibility does enable some fun discussions for those working on Falcon Heavy and New Glenn, specifically.
Good choice, but one person does not a policy make. There is a lot to overcome within the Air Force, organizationally.
The language used here is imprecise, so it’s tough to draw conclusions, but “summer” implies a slip for the uncrewed test flight of Dragon 2, currently scheduled for April.
Very special thanks to the 135 of you out there supporting Main Engine Cut Off on Patreon for the month of December, and for all of 2017. Your support keeps this blog and podcast going, and most importantly, it keeps it independent.
If Virgin Orbit delivers on their stated cost and performance goals for LauncherOne, they’ll put Minotaur I out of work in a hurry. But the market is still without any vehicles that put the heavier Minotaurs—Minotaur-IV and Minotaur-C specifically—in any danger. Terran 1 could be the first truly commercial launch vehicle to take on those heavier Minotaurs.
The next episode of Off-Nominal is up! Jake tells us the history of China in space, and I talk through what to watch for in the next decade and beyond.
Very special thanks to the 126 of you out there supporting Main Engine Cut Off on Patreon for the month of November. Your support keeps this blog and podcast going, and most importantly, it keeps it independent.
Anatoly Zak has been following the recent Soyuz failure closely, and recently posted some information that—if true—is finally starting to demystify what happened.
Chris Gebhardt of NASASpaceflight published a nice article last week on Blue Origin’s ongoing New Glenn work. He also had this great little nugget of info to share regarding the ship that New Glenn will land upon.