Main Engine Cut Off

Jake and Anthony take on a long-standing debate: worm or meatball? The NASA Worm is back, so in honor of that, we talk about our most and least favorite logos in space, including missions, organizations, and companies. And some Soviet propaganda.

I’m so thrilled for Masten. I’ve long admired their work, and it’s wonderful to see them become part of a quick moving, big budget, and prestigious program like CLPS. I really hope they shine with XL-1 and can use that momentum to push themselves with bigger and better vehicles.

Sara Spangelo, CEO of Swarm, in a Medium post on what has to be one of the most surprising regulatory turnarounds in space history.

The contract covers 3 dedicated launches of 44 satellites for $35 million. That puts the per-launch price at just under $12 million, which seems like just a bit of a bulk discount. This is huge news for Virgin Orbit, and it comes at a critical time for them.

Some of my favorite images from space are the ones where you can see parts of spacecraft, because it adds such great context and perspective. BepiColombo delivered on that, with a sequence of images at closest approach. But the best sequence is the nearly 10-hour long, full disk approach.

It’s good to see them making quick work on this reusability effort. They released a ton of video to go along with this, and from watching that, it sure looks like a Rocket Lab-painted version of PDG Aviation’s 2017 test in cooperation with Airborne Systems and Lockheed Martin.

I wasn’t feeling overly sentimental, but then I read Eric Berger’s piece and started thinking back. As Eric makes clear, it’s hard not to argue that Dragon and its Falcon counterpart are the defining vehicles of this era. And boy did I have an epic day back in 2010.

In a world where SpaceX was not doing as well with Dragon 2 as they are, the decision on whether or not to refly Starliner’s test might have gone differently.

Surprisingly, OmegA is on track to be the first to fly of the three new launch vehicles bidding for the National Security Space Launch program. Northrop Grumman is looking mighty smart to use a pair of RL10 engines on their upper stage rather than the BE-3U.

Very special thanks to the 388 of you out there supporting Main Engine Cut Off on Patreon for the month of March. MECO is entirely listener- and reader-supported, so your support keeps this blog and podcast going, growing, and improving, and most importantly, it keeps it independent.