Main Engine Cut Off

The next few weeks will be very telling for both SpaceX and ESA. Falcon 9 should be back flying by the end of the year, and ESA’s Ministerial Council is meeting next week.

Falcon 9 Returning to Flight

This week on the podcast, I spent time talking about the upcoming Falcon 9 return-to-flight, and what we’ll see from SpaceX after that.

It sounds like we’ll see Iridium NEXT launched from Vandenberg on December 16th or so, followed by EchoStar 23 launching from Pad 39A on January 8th or 9th. I’ll be getting married on December 16th, so I may be a bit busy, but you better be watching.

I’d recommend listening to this week’s podcast episode for a more in-depth breakdown on what will follow from there. The gist of it is this: with Vandenberg and Pad 39A active and flying missions again in the next month, that gives SpaceX their full complement of two pads—one for polar and high-inclination fights, and one for ISS, geostationary, and other lower-inclination flights.

Space Launch Complex 40 should be fixed up by summer, and that’s when things get interesting. I expect all ISS and commercial flights to move back from 39A to 40. My guess is once 39A is freed up from their manifest, they’ll use it heavily to support Falcon Heavy and Dragon 2. SpaceX needs to work towards both crewed Dragon flights and Falcon Heavy flights, to prepare for Commercial Crew and Red Dragon missions.

ExoMars and ESA’s Ministerial Council

This past week, ESA released a little more information about Schiaparelli’s failed landing. So far, they’ve determined that a saturated IMU was the cause for the failure.

This is a very interestingly-timed announcement, with ESA’s Ministerial Council to meet next week. One of the biggest topics of discussion will be the follow-on ExoMars mission in 2020. There will need to be a commitment to full funding for the mission, or else it could be at risk. Jonathan Amos wrote a great article for BBC News that’s really worth reading on the topic.

In addition to ExoMars, we may hear something from the Council about their future participation in the ISS and other international programs of that sort. It’ll be an intriguing meeting, so be sure to keep an eye out next Thursday and Friday for any news coming out of Lucerne.

Thank you!

Thanks for reading the sixth issue of Main Engine Cut Off Weekly. Each week, I bring you what I find interesting and important in spaceflight, and you can get it however you like best—blog, podcast, or this here column. If you like what I’m doing, I’d really appreciate your support. Head over to Patreon and become a patron for as little as $1 per month. Everything I do is supported entirely by readers and listeners like you, and every little bit of support helps. Big thanks to those of you out there supporting!

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Thanks for reading, and I’ll talk to you next week.

— Anthony