NASA's ISS-successor RFP is out; Cygnus XL lets go; SDA Falcon 9 resets for 07:39 UTC Saturday

Commercial LEO Destinations RFP — NASA published its final request for proposals on Friday for commercial space stations to take over from the International Space Station in low Earth orbit. Answers are due Dec. 8; the agency means to pick two or more companies, with awards in spring 2027 and a final decision reported for April. Phase 1 winners are guaranteed at least $100 million, and later phases fund certification and buy at least four NASA crew missions to the private stations.

This is the paperwork that decides where American astronauts live once the station goes, and it finally answers the question the station builders have been stuck on: who provides the ride up. Bidders do not need a signed transport contract or even a letter of intent, and NASA has put a price on the flights: $325 million for a four-seat crew mission in 2030, $300 million for cargo. NASA

“We will continue to need a place to conduct research, develop technologies, train crews, and prepare for missions to the Moon and Mars.”

A rare Falcon 9 scrub, and Vulcan's turn. Eric Berger's Rocket Report leads not on the scrub but on United Launch Alliance: a no-earlier-than date of Oct. 29 for Vulcan's return to flight with an Amazon Leo batch, and a second Vulcan Amazon mission planned before the year is out. On the Falcon 9 side, he notes SpaceX never gave a reason for the late abort, and that the rocket went horizontal afterwards — the usual sign of hardware troubleshooting rather than a bad sensor reading.

The argument underneath is whether anyone else is about to fly often enough to matter, and this is the week the Vulcan believers have something concrete to point at. Amazon Leo's Rajeev Badyal says two vehicle integration facilities at the Cape each hold a vertical Vulcan, so two rockets can be processed at once; Jeff Bezos separately told Fox News that Blue Origin has three more pads under construction. Ars Technica