Main Engine Cut Off

There are two payloads on CRS-14 that caught my eye as very important to the future in space.

If the air molecules can be collected, compressed, and stored, you could imagine an imaging or communications satellite in orbit around Mars that occasionally drops its periapsis into the atmosphere to refuel, and once refueled, boosts its periapsis back to its operational altitude. Aerial ISRU!

The first of Vulcain 2.1 engine arrived in Germany ahead of its December test firing, which will kick off a 15 month-long test campaign.

Overall, I’m quite disappointed at the missed opportunity XS-1 presented to widen the industry. It’ll take a lot to convince me that a Boeing project of this sort will ever be affordable. Boeing doesn’t have the best reputation for cost-efficiency when it comes to launch vehicles—Delta IV and SLS being the two most recent examples—and their last small launch DARPA project didn’t end well.

Regardless of how you think our collective plans should be organized, we can all agree that we’d rather see something happen. Let’s be honest about where we’re headed, and get on with it.

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.

These numbers are getting more and more unbelievable by the day. The Intelsat-OneWeb merger is very interesting to follow, too. Hot on the heels of the big investment OneWeb received back in December, the merger gives them more resources, knowledge, experience, and a customer-base. That’s a pretty good mixture.

Last year, Masten’s Phase I SBIR proposal was selected which helped support the initial development of the engine. In that abstract, they discuss usage of this engine and its derivatives as propulsion for a Mars ascent vehicle, and Xephyr, their entry into DARPA’s XS-1 program.

Good to see more activity on this front.

I’m not sure how well their strategy for Prometheus will work out, long-term, but I do admire the cautious-yet-curious attitude towards reusability rather than the fingers-in-ears attitude of Arianespace CEO Stephane Israel.