T+52: XCOR Winds Down, ULA Wins STP-3

XCOR laid off the rest of its staff and is closing up shop after losing a contract with ULA, which leaves ULA in an interesting spot for Vulcan-ACES. On the ULA side, they won their first Phase 1A contract from the Air Force, and the contract price sheds some light on just how much they’re cutting their costs.

This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 16 executive producers—Kris, Mike, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Brad, Ryan, Laszlo, Jamison, Guinevere, Nadim, Peter, and four anonymous—and 56 other supporters on Patreon.

• XCOR Aerospace Lays Off Entire Staff But Intends To Keep Going
• XCOR Loses XS-1 and ULA ACES Contract, Announces Lay Offs - Main Engine Cut Off
• ULA wins competition for $191 million Air Force launch - SpaceNews.com
• United Launch Alliance Wins Competitive Contract Award to Launch the United States Air Force STP-3 M - United Launch Alliance
  
• Very interesting comments on STP-3 from Tory Bruno on the ULA subreddit
• NASA -
  NASA Selects Launch Services Provider for Juno Jupiter Mission
  
• Air Force asks SpaceX, ULA to bid on a five-launch contract - SpaceNews.com
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