Comments on: March 24, 2026 Quick space links

By: Blair Ivey

Blair Ivey — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 12:09:09 +0000

Wayne: as usual; NGO (Never Gets Old). But, as I’ve said before, those early films focus on the fuselage: show the business end!

By: Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 07:03:43 +0000

Seagate Space needs to approach the Navy with their concept, in that they have been looking into Sea Bases anyway:

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/us-navy-usmc-us-army-sea-basing-concepts.10177/

The USSF and the USM together may at last shove the Air Farce away from the table—it’s time they did without for a bloody change.

By: Richard M

Richard M — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 19:51:24 +0000

Amazon recently bought 10 more Falcon 9 launches. My guess is that all 10 of those will fly before Amazon’s other three launch providers are able to get off 10 deployment missions combined.

Worth mentioning that there’s an Atlas V set up for launch this week with a payload of LEO satellites, but . . . yeah, I would not wish to bet against your prediction here, Dick.

By: sippin_bourbon

sippin_bourbon — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 01:49:30 +0000

Wouldn’t it be interesting, after Starship is operational, if Amazon contracts a launch to support LEO.

Alternatively, it Starship may free up Falcon 9 bandwidth for Amazon.

By: Dick Eagleson

Dick Eagleson — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 19:14:46 +0000

Amazon recently bought 10 more Falcon 9 launches. My guess is that all 10 of those will fly before Amazon’s other three launch providers are able to get off 10 deployment missions combined. I also think this recent 10-launch deal with SpaceX will not be the last such. SpaceX may well wind up launching a larger percentage of Amazon’s total Leo constellation than any of its other launch providers. With Starship most likely deploying the first V3 Starlinks later this year, SpaceX can put up a lot of birds for Amazon Leo on F9s that might otherwise have launched the smaller Starlink birds without taking any hit at all to the rate of total bandwidth increase for its constellation.

By: mkent

mkent — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 08:18:56 +0000

“As many as Amazon needs” is likely well beyond what Ariane can deliver. But Amazon LE-02 is scheduled for April, supposedly LE-03 is scheduled for May, and LE-04 is scheduled for this fall. That, along with the four remaining Atlas V launches, should give Vulcan and New Glenn time to ramp up their cadence, with Vulcan supposedly starting mid-summer.

Personally, I doubt it will happen like that. I, like you, don’t think Ariane can ramp up that fast, and Europe has two Ariane 6 launches scheduled for this summer for high-priority weather satellite launches. I suspect Ariane will launch LE-02, then the two weather satellites, then LE-03 in the fall. Note that LE-03 is the first flight of the upgraded P160 stage, so I expect some schedule slippage related to that.

By: Robert Zimmerman

Robert Zimmerman — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 06:39:45 +0000

In reply to mkent. mkent: Yes, Ariane-6 has a launch scheduled, but Arianespace has promised at most 8 launches in 2026, but likely less. It cannot match the pace that Amazon needs and wants. I also did not suggest that ULA was the issue here, though it too has a Vulcan problem.

By: mkent

mkent — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 06:22:52 +0000

”Right now it is questionable…Arianespace’s Ariane-6 can launch soon or very quickly.”.

The next Ariane 6 launch is scheduled for April 28th and will carry 32 satellites for Amazon Leo.

There are two more Atlas V launches for Amazon scheduled before then carrying 29 satellites each. LA-06 is scheduled for April 24th, and LA-05 is scheduled for Sunday. That makes three Amazon launches scheduled in the next five weeks carrying a total of 90 more satellites for its Leo constellation.

Also, last I saw is that Vulcan will return to flight this summer with an Amazon launch carrying 40 satellites. Two more Atlas V launches remain on the books for this summer with another 58 satellites.

By: David Eastman

David Eastman — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 02:59:37 +0000

MDN, it’s the ULA Vulcan that is having SRB nozzle issues. The Blue Origin New Glen does not use strap-ons. But yes, Amazon needs both those launchers to be operating at a vastly higher cadence than they’ve managed so far.

By: wayne

wayne — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 01:25:39 +0000

Gemini 3 Launch to Staging
Retro Space (2019)
https://youtu.be/m2YLeEjWUIs
3:00

By: MDN

MDN — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 23:15:30 +0000

Amazon is facing issues with Blue Origin too as its solid rocket strap ons keep puking off engine nozzles, and to launch any reasonable number of Leo satellites at the same time like SpaceX does Starlinks they’re going to need them.