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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Self Awareness (Link #676)