A friend of mine who works the range at the Cape – who is, I should add, a big fan of ULA – was fairly dumbfounded when he heard about this plan to launch three Vulcans within “14-20 day centers.” From what I can make out, ULA has never managed turnaround on SCL-41 in less than 29 days, which looks to be, I think, something they did only once.

Now, it is true that ULA has a second pad (SLC-37) at the Cape that perhaps COULD be used; but it’s configured only for Delta IV Heavy, and the current plan is for ULA to wind it down rather than rebuild it for Vulcan. So unless that changes, that’s out.

This is not to say it is *impossible* that ULA could do this. But it would take, at minimum, a 2 shift workforce, which is a lot of extra payroll for ULA. I guess they could just send the bill to NASA, but oe hopes that isbeing mde clear up front. Suddenly, those Vulcan launches start getting more expensive….

It should be noted that the three launch Vulcan architecture is only needed on the initial mission; after that, the lander is already up there to be reused, and then you’d just need two launches, to bring up the fuel.

Anton Petrov is a bit comical “Hello wonderful person!” But he has a formal education in astronomy and plows through recent astronomy papers, that he links to:
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2020GL089099

@ARR
I on the other hand discovered John Batchelor Show because of Robert Z. And I’ve recommended it to many who have an interest in international security policy and US politics. He’s a damn good radio man with damn good guests!