Main Engine Cut Off

NASA is asking about 7.6 metric tons of cargo to lunar orbit. That’s an ATV-class vehicle—a huge undertaking, requiring a big launch vehicle.

I mentioned this on the last episode of Off-Nominal, but it’s worth saying here, too: I’m totally fine with Russia sitting out for the Gateway. Considering the state of the Russian space industry, and specifically how Roscosmos has been handling the ISS drill hole situation, I would very much prefer them to not be involved in building any hardware that will be flying to the Moon.

I don’t really understand the decision to establish in Luxembourg. It makes sense for organizations focused on space resources, since Luxembourg has taken such a strong stance for private space property rights. But I can’t quite make sense of it for CubeRover.

It’s encouraging that they chose to develop a hydrolox engine for their architecture, and 200,000 pounds-force puts it right about what a Merlin 1D is pushing these days.

Titan is, by far, the second coolest planetary body in the solar system and I can’t wait to see Dragonfly explore it in all its glory. It better get picked!

Still has the vibe of a solution in search of a problem, but I continually like the theory that Stratolaunch is the Glomar Explorer of aerospace.