12.03.2026 05:00
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A photo of Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket lifting off. The rocket is silhouetted against the golden evening sky.
A scale model of the Firefly Alpha rocket lifts off. It is silhouetted against the golden evening sky.
Today's Firefly Alpha rocket launch (left) vs. my 2025 scale Alpha model (right).
(First image by Firefly via Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/firef...)
If you ask me, not enough of the world views him in high esteem. Also, getting a small cut on the ear hardly counts as surviving a fatal injury.
WOW!
Firefly is back!
Thanks! I'll probably wait a while before seeing the movie. That'll give the crowds time to disperse, lol.
So cool!!!
I never again want to hear anyone say a lunar mission is too expensive.
Having read The Martian (and about to read Project Hail Mary), I can definitely say his writing style is excellent.
A screenshot from Python code that erroneously reads that 1 plus 1 equals 11.
My Python code has unlocked a whole new level of genius. 🤣🤪
Reading this, I don't see how they'll be ready for a crewed moon landing before the end of the decade. 😬😬😬
Oh this should be a fun read...
Some F-15s were flying over my house today. I'm sure they take comfort in the fact that Kuwait can't shoot them down over here.
One of the funny things that keeps happening in spaceflight is that the RL10 just will not die out.
Every time that someone has tried to replace that engine with something better, Aerojet just makes a better RL10.
Anyways you'll never believe what Aerojet did again lol.
A CAD model of the RL10CX-3EL along with its listed performance parameters: Propellants: LO2 & LH2 LO2/H2 Mixture Ratio: 4.7:1 Engine Cycle: Expander Thrust Level: 24.30 klbf Champer Temperature: ~3165 K Camber Pressure: 630 psi Nozzle Area Ratio: 285:1 Specific Impulse: ~470.5s Engine Thrust/Weight Ratio: ~40.5 Engine Legnth: 4.24 m Nozzle Exit Diameter: 2.15 m Service Life: 10s of hrs Start/Stop Cycles: 100s
A photo showing a completed RL10E-1 engine
Yeah so turns out that with only a few tweaks you can increase the specific impulse of the RL10E-1 from 460.9 to 470.5s.
Oh my gosh
This is how I access Bsky
I might look better if the "center" gridfin was a bit smaller than the other two, like they talked about doing at one point. But having them all be the same size just hurts the eyes. I suppose if it works, though... 🤷♂️
Not gonna lie, Superheavy version 3's gridfins are ugly as heck.
Assuming no major accidents (a bad assumption), then maybe 4 at most. Of course, they want to have a ship come back to the catch tower after looping around the earth. I'm not even going to guess at the odds of success or failure there.
Theirs and ours, undoubtedly.
Agreed. He's acting like the three-year gap was some kind of political maneuver. Just straight-up lying.
If they expect us to believe this approach is saving money, they shouldn't redact the price tag...
Mr. Spock saying, "Once the sky was full of orbiting H-bombs."
I'm certain ULA will deliver. But here's what's not certain: can the mods to the SLS core stage and ML be done on time? New umbilicals and a shorter stage adaptor are needed, which basically invalidates all the structural and wind-tunnel work that's been done so far. I'll be watching. 🍿
Yeah. Last year they'd even stopped mentioning it in they livestreams. It seems to me they only started making noise about it again after Duffy threatened to give the contract to someone else.
It should have been the priority. What a mess of a program.
