Gen. Michael Moseley, Chief of Staff, on a recent visit to Balad AB, Iraq, told airmen that the Air Force’s shift to a 120-day cycle increased the number of airmen who must deploy as part of an Air Expeditionary Force. He said: “When we deploy an aviation package for 120 days we need a lot more equipment and people because of the increased maintenance the aircraft needs in those environments. That means we need more services, security forces, and other support, but now we’ve just made our footprint bigger.” So, the question is, “Do we go back to 90-day rotations.”
NASA, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance are all preparing to launch their next-gen rockets from Florida’s Space Coast, two of them before the year is out. One is expected to liberate the U.S. launch enterprise from its reliance on Russian-made RD-180 engines, while all three rockets could eventually carry astronaut crews.