Main Engine Cut Off

The mission status report says, “The team is still investigating the cause of the reboot and assessing two main engine check valves.” and gives no other update on the delayed orbit-lowering maneuver. The lack of information on that front is a little worrying, to say the least.

Let’s hope that the Rocket Lab test launch isn’t the new Falcon Heavy—always two months away.

I know, Schiaparelli wasn’t the primary mission. I know, you have to work hard to inform the public and those who hold the purse strings that ExoMars 2016 as a whole is still a success (so far).

I’m still excited about the Antares return to flight earlier this week, and am looking forward to Cygnus’ arrival this upcoming weekend. I finally finished uploading my photos and videos of the OA-5 launch.

There have been some revelations on the SpaceX front on how they’ll handle the production of Dragons moving forward, and how they’ll introduce propulsive landings.

I’ll be interested in what kinds of missions Antares launches in the future, and how viable a market it could be for Orbital ATK. Antares—due to its launch site and payload capacity—has a somewhat limited mission scope. We don’t yet know what they’d sell launches for, so that’s the big variable here.

In response to this, I saw a lot of people scoffing and saying “Only 10 percent? They had said 30!” The sentiment seemed to be that SpaceX missed their mark and can’t offer a 30 percent reduction right now, rather than realizing that they are making a sensible decision.

The RFI seems to indicate that an extended Cygnus would be a great fit for the flight, as we’ve seen Orbital ATK talking up previously.

Thanks to my patrons for the month of September. If you’re getting some value out of what I do here and want to send a little value back to help support Main Engine Cut Off, head over to Patreon and donate as little as $1 a month—every little bit helps.

Pretty interesting to read through what NanoRacks has announced. They even mention human-tended experiments once Blue Origin starts flying people aboard New Shepard.