Main Engine Cut Off

We started seeing some great photos of SpaceX’s new piece of infrastructure on the ASDS: Optimus Prime. Scott Murray also posted some over-exposed-but-lovely shots of Optimus Prime on the ASDS, complete with shots of its garage.

I love me a unique launch delay.

An unexplained move to a CCTV-less cell: highly suspicious, or highly opportunistic.

More a trespassing/sightseeing adventure than a tour, but interesting nonetheless.

I’m not surprised to see rising prices—after all, you don’t have to outrun the bear, just the ones you’re running alongside.

Certainly sounds like NASA’s plans have changed since their EM-2 payload RFI went out back in October.

A few days after I linked to Altius’ SBIR Phase II win, this post on Altius’ blog went up. It’s a fantastic read, and really worth your time.

Docking standards are convoluted.

This is the true coming-of-age moment for ULA. Fight for independence and a surely-more-exciting future, or take the “safe” government job like your parents think you should. Look, they already got you in the door because of their friends that work there. You’re practically a shoo-in.

Explorer is something that seems so simple and obvious in hindsight, but only became possible once a few things came together in the right way: the rise of small satellites, the increase of launch availability, and easy distribution on the web, to name a few.