T+181: Falcon 9 Fleet, ABL in the UK, Firefly to the Moon

SpaceX broke their turnaround record and is racking up quite the flight history across their Falcon fleet. Lockheed selected ABL for a launch from the Shetland Islands. Firefly shook up their board, is looking for new investment, and won a CLPS contract from NASA.

This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 37 executive producers—Brandon, Matthew, Simon, Lauren, Melissa, Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Ryan, Donald, Lee, Chris, Warren, Bob, Russell, Moritz, Joel, Jan, Grant, David, Joonas, Robb, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astronaut!), Frank, Julian and Lars from Agile Space, Tommy, Matt, the Astrogators at SEE, and seven anonymous—and 471 other supporters.

Topics

• Gwynne Shotwell talks about selling flight-proven rockets, Starship | Ars Technica
• SpaceX fires 60 Starlink internet satellites into orbit, with more set to launch Friday – Spaceflight Now
• Lockheed Martin selects ABL Space Systems for UK launch - SpaceNews
• Episode T+169: Commercial Small Launcher Updates - Main Engine Cut Off
• Main Engine Cut Off on Twitter: “Something is up at @Firefly_Space, though. Max Polyakov and Mark Watt have been removed from Firefly’s about page within the last month or two. Here it is on the Wayback Machine from October…”
• On eve of first launch, Firefly revamps board of directors, may go public | Ars Technica
• Firefly Aerospace seeking to raise $350 million - SpaceNews
• NASA Selects Firefly Aerospace for Artemis Commercial Moon Delivery | NASA

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