Main Engine Cut Off

Block 4 of the Falcon 9 is debuting with the launch of CRS-12, and Block 5 will debut on the uncrewed Dragon 2 demo mission.

The total AR1 agreement is valued at $804 million, so it’s just about halfway there. Worth noting that the Falcon 9 launch vehicle was developed for $390 million. And that includes the cost of Falcon 1 development.

Cutting travel time to Mars from six to four months is not unique to nuclear thermal propulsion, and more importantly, getting there two months faster is pretty pointless without the most important piece: a lander.

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USA 276 is making another close approach to the ISS, and yet again, there is a lot of activity around the ISS when it happens.

There’s a bit of a logjam out at the Cape: the launch dates of TDRS-M and CRS-12 fell very close to each other, and they’re both high-priority missions for NASA. This situation sheds some light on future SpaceX operations in Florida.

In the wake of the announcement that Dream Chaser will fly to the ISS on an Atlas V 552, I’ve been curious how much performance the dual engine Centaur will add to the Atlas V configurations we know and love.

A launch on an Atlas V 552 probably runs pretty damn close to the $200 million mark. Yikes.

The current pricing SpaceX uses makes no sense in the high-level, long-term view. It’s pretty obvious that the model grew out of an expendable-minded era, and that SpaceX is sticking to it because the market itself has not yet changed its thinking.