T+2: SpaceX’s Red Dragon, Falcon Performance, and the Political Fallout of OA-6

SpaceX officially announced their first Red Dragon mission to Mars, which will pave the way for future missions. They also posted new performance metrics for Falcon 9 and Heavy, which position the launch vehicles very differently in the market. And a brief discussion of the potential political fallout over the OA-6 launch anomaly.

• By the Numbers: How close Atlas V came to Failure in this Week’s Cygnus Launch – Cygnus OA-6 | Spaceflight101
• OA-6: Atlas V booster shortcomings due to MRCV anomaly | NASASpaceFlight.com
• Mixture ratio valve the culprit in Atlas 5 anomaly, next launch this summer – Spaceflight Now
• HASC doubles Air Force allotment of RD-180 engines, focuses funding on building its replacement - SpaceNews.com
• Capabilities & Services | SpaceX
• SpaceX's new price chart illustrates performance cost of reusability - SpaceNews.com
• SpaceX plans to debut Red Dragon with 2018 Mars mission | NASASpaceFlight.com
• Can SpaceX really land on Mars? Absolutely, says an engineer who would know | Ars Technica
• NASA Talk - Mars Entry, Descent and Landing with Humans
• Space Act Agreement SAA-QA-14-18883
• Space Act Agreement SAA-QA-14-18883, Amendment 1
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