Main Engine Cut Off

Lockheed Martin has been slowly revealing their small sat strategy over the last three years, and it’s shaping up to be quite interesting and potentially very compelling. And NASA announced 10 Tippin…

Michael Provenzano and Andrew Horchler of CubeRover and Astrobotic join me to talk about the project, the rover itself, and the future of robotic exploration on the Moon (and beyond).

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Rocket Lab announced that they’re in the final selection stage of their search for a US launch site. I break down the options they have, and discuss why I think they’ll pick Wallops Island.

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Big news this week: SpaceX won an EELV contract for Falcon Heavy. I talk through what this means for the US launch market, how SpaceX and Falcon Heavy are set up to compete for the next few years.

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ESA has all but given its full support to the (newly renamed) Lunar Gateway, and Terry Virts threw some criticism its way during the third meeting of the National Space Council. I break down what tho…

Last week, China opened up their future space station to other nations, and Blue Origin laid some hints about their lunar ambitions. Both of these stories are indicative of what I think the next era …

Two events worth discussing happened while I was on vacation—the first Block 5 Falcon 9 took flight, and ULA selected RL10 for Centaur V.

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Jon Goff of Altius Space Machines joins me to talk about how he got to where he is today and what’s ahead for Altius—including satellite servicing with Bulldog, propellant depots, cryo couplers, and …

Last week, we heard news that the Resource Prospector mission has been cancelled. I spend some time thinking through my initial reactions to the news, and speculate about what the path ahead may hold…

The DARPA Launch Challenge has been officially unveiled, so I spent some time breaking down the competition and speculating about who will enter and what DARPA wants out of it.

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Orbital ATK unveiled the name and additional technical details of their new launch vehicle, OmegA. Jim Bridenstine was finally confirmed as the new NASA Administrator.

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NASA had some interesting comments on the Lunar Gateway at a recent NASA Advisory Council meeting—the program is eschewing cost-plus contracting, but it’s lacking vision.

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Caleb Henry got a great scoop on some changes Blue Origin is making to New Glenn. I think through why these changes may have been made and what these changes could mean for the near future.

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Caleb Henry of SpaceNews returns to talk Satellite 2018, megaconstellations, flat-panel antennas, and the current state of the satellite industry.

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A few interesting documents have been released: the late-but-final 2018 appropriations, NASA’s lunar cargo lander request for information, and the public summary of the NASA Independent Review Team’s…

NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot appeared in front of the space subcommittee of the House Science Committee to discuss the 2019 NASA budget request, and I’ve got some thoughts on their deci…

NASA recently began talking about some contingency planning for potential Commercial Crew delays, and the end-of-ISS discussion is heating up.

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SpaceX launched Falcon Heavy last week and shook up the space launch world. I spend some time thinking through SpaceX’s motivations for building Falcon Heavy, and what its effects might be on the wor…

The Commercial Crew program—NASA, SpaceX, Boeing, and more—went in front of Congress to discuss the current status of the crew launch systems in development. Concurrently, the GAO released a report w…

The US Air Force has developed a viable corridor for launching to polar and other high-inclination orbits from Cape Canaveral. I spend some time thinking through who may be interested in using that c…