 For what we're hoping to be the final time, Optimus One's space launch system has rolled out to the pad and the excitement is unreal. Firefly is also hiding a rocket in plain sight and I think I figured out their plan. This is Wednesday's Tomorrow Space News. Following a slight delay due to a thunderstorm, SLS finally rolled out of the vehicle assembly building at around half past two in the morning UTC on August 17th. Just like the previous two rollouts for the wet dresses, shortly after leaving and once clear, the crew access arm was swung around and locked into its travelling position before the crawler proceeded down the crawl away to 39B. Hopefully for the time being, this is the last time we will see an SLS vehicle leave the VAB for launch. All the engineers and flight controllers, as well as all of us fans, really wanted to go off without a hitch, launching at the earliest possible opportunity, which for Optimus One is currently 1333 to 1533 UTC or half eight to half 10 in the morning Eastern on August 29th. About 10 hours after leaving the VAB, SLS arrived at Launch Complex 39B at 1230 UTC. Over the coming hours, the rocket and the mobile launch platform would have been lowered onto their stands, allowing space for the crawler itself to call back to its rest area. We do have to remember though that this is a brand new vehicle, even if it is using engines flown during the shuttle program, and it will be the only vehicle flown by NASA since STS-135 in 2011. This means that delays should be expected and if the rocket misses the first windows, that's okay. It'll obviously be a shame though, because I can't wait to see four RS-25s and two extended SRBs ripped through the sky. There have been so many awesome photos and footage of the rollout by NASA's photographers and I'd highly recommend going to the NASA Image and Video Library at images.nasa.gov to check them all out in high resolution glory. NASA TV may currently be restricted to 720p, but their photography most certainly isn't. Antares is Northrop Grumman's workhorse rocket, delivering their sickness spacecraft to the International Space Station about every six months, providing vital cargo resupplies for the crew, as well as providing a bin lorry service. Without an expendable resupply vessel, any rubbish would need to be sent back to Earth, taking away available mass for return that could be used with science experiments or more important items. That last part is important, as when Russia started their invasion of Ukraine back in February, pretty much all links with the Western aerospace industry were severed, excluding those which are extremely important to keep intact, such as the ISS. The current generation of Antares, the 230+, uses two Russian RD-181 engines and its first stage is manufactured in Ukraine. Northrop Grumman, however, may have just found the solution to this political problem. Firefly Aerospace is joining forces with Northrop Grumman to manufacture a brand-new first stage for their next generation of Antares, the 300 series. The first of this series will be the Antares 330, designed as a direct replacement for 230-plus Cygnus operations. Following this will be a, and I quote, entirely new medium-class launch vehicle. To power these vehicles, Firefly will be providing seven of its Miranda engines, which use the same propellants as the current first stage, RP-1 and liquid oxygen, meaning the launch pad upgrades can be kept to a minimum. Whilst you're looking at another piece of concept art from Firefly, I'll tell you about Beta. That was the name for Firefly's next rocket after Alpha. However, on their website, it has mysteriously been renamed to the initialism MLV. It's time for me to dive into a chasm of speculation because I think I might have sussed something out. The MLV is also powered by seven of their Miranda engines, the same as Antares 330. The diameter of the MLV is 4.32 meters. However, Northrop Grumman haven't released an official diameter of Antares 330, but it doesn't mean we can't work it out. Instead, if we look at 230-plus, which has the same size second stage, it has a diameter of 3.9 meters. Now, looking at this concept art again, I measured the width of the second stage in this image to be 327 pixels. I divided that by the real-world width, 3.9, multiplied the result of that by 4.32, the diameter of MLV. The result of that calculation was 362.2 pixels, which I plugged into Photoshop, and it was the exact width of the 330's concept first stage. Coincidence, I think not. Oh, and the stubby bits of the raceway line up exactly. And for the biggest whopper of all, get to reanalyse the quote, entirely new medium-class launch vehicle. This means a separate vehicle, not another Antares. What could MLV stand for? Medium launch vehicle. It was in there the entire time, and I'm willing to bet money that Firefly's next rocket will be developed by them and Northrop Grumman. Antares 330 must be using MLV's first stage, or Firefly is pulling an epic prank. If Antares 330 and Firefly's MLV are going to be sharing a first stage, then theoretically, with the correct adaptations, Firefly could operate out of Northrop Grumman's launch Pad 0B at the mid-Atlantic regional spaceport, adding onto their active alpha pad at Vandenberg. And guess what? Neighboring Pad 0A is already in their alpha's users manual, alongside Slick 20 at the Cape. If Firefly will have an alpha facility at Wallops, why would they not integrate an MLV facility too? Another point to consider is what will happen to Rocket Lab's neutron pad. I believe that was supposed to fly from 0B also, but that depends on Northrop, Firefly, and Rocket Lab playing nice, who, by the way, will be medium lift competitors at that point. I will be clear again, however, that that is entirely speculation. There has been no official data, and I might be entirely wrong. I do have a feeling, though, that this is way too big a coincidence for it's being correct. Watch this space, though, because if I am right, I will most definitely going to be bragging about it. As you'll know, if you watched last week, there were no scheduled launches between then and now, but there is one coming up. It's dying Group 427 from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Thanks once again to all the citizens of tomorrow who help keep the show afloat and on the internet. If you want to experience some of the perks that the ground supports, suborbital, orbital, and escape velocity citizens, as well as neuro stream experiences, such as pre and post live show hangouts, and seeing space news scripts as they're being written, head over to youtube.com forward slash tmro forward slash join, or hit the join button below. Tomorrow isn't finished for this week, so don't think about clicking off and never seeing us again. Tomorrow, Dr. Tamartha Scove will have your next space weather update, keeping you up to date with what the sun's been up to. We'll then have our normally weekly live show on Friday before I return on Monday with another episode of Tomorrow Space News. That's all for now. Hopefully we'll see you tomorrow and on Friday. Thank you for watching and goodbye.