NASA's Office of Inspector General just released a report on the management of the HLS program - generally they found that the costs have been kept under control, but schedules keep slipping.
Also, the report is already out of date given recent changes.
oig.nasa.gov/office-of-in...
Todays video is about Scramjets, explaining why regular turbojets and ramjets can't operated at hypersonic speeds and how Scramjets solve these problems, enabling airbreathing jets like NASA's X-43A that operated at Mach 9.6!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFIB...
I'm coming to Austin for SXSW.... as a DJ at the Space House event, will be cool to see some of the panels too
www.thisisspacehouse.com
Finally beat enough of Mewgenics so I can see my tiny contribution in the credits.
Did you know that NASA was once planning to capture an asteroid so they could say they sen humans to another planet? A very small planet, but still a planet.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3R_...
They built 4 structural test articles for SLS core, the final one was delivered in 2019. They still took 3 years from that to get to launch. So, we’re still talking 5 years.
So, how long until "That's Not A Knife" turns into "That Is A Scrub"?
The Centaur V is built by ULA who also built and integrated ICPS on SLS.
So your argument would imply this is a good choice.
Based on the new infographic SLS will be using ULA’s Centaur V as an upper stage, with about twice the fuel load and thrust. The larger exploration upper stage isn’t on the cards.
It's even funnier if you read the full bug report
"A dwarf who is stressed but does not gain a good thought from shouting at someone in charge seems to prioritize shouting at someone in charge over any other activities."
If only Boeing engineers put as much effort into materials comparability and O-ring sizing as I had to put into figuring out all the interesting redactions
youtu.be/L96asfTvJ_A
The public version of the fire fighting in space video. Fire behaves differently, it can burn more slowly, but the effects of being in zero g, and in an enclosed volume makes it more dangerous.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3So...
Fires in Spaceflight can’t just be treated like fires on Earth, the physics are different. You can’t just open a window to get fresh air.
www.patreon.com/posts/151163...
It wasn’t made for this, but I made it work anyway
After discovering some dangerous vulnerabilities of the TCAS anti-collision system and successfully validating them in the laboratory, researchers from the University of Genoa and the CASD – Scuola Superiore Universitaria , with the support of the PNRR SERICS - Security and Rights in Cyber Space partnership , have analyzed a real case: a series of TCAS anti-collision system alarms recorded over a 3-hour period by 10 airliners landing at Ronald Reagan Washington Airport on March 1, 2025 . The analysis indicates that the observed behavior is consistent with an in-flight cyberattack on the collision avoidance system, but in a previously undocumented variant . To protect future operational scenarios, the research team has also developed a new method for identifying the source of the attack .
1/ Last week the Italian researchers who have been looking at vulnerabilities in the TCAS system put out a press release about their analysis of the "phantom" resolution advisories that happened near KDCA last March. (Image via Google Translate.) life.unige.it/comunicati-s...
No there’s been a change in concept from the massive single spacecraft which would need all sorts of new technologies, to networks of smaller spacecraft that are comparable to a Starlink satellite with computers instead of antenna.
Kilometer scale spacecraft have difficult to solve problems. Which is why everyone is switching to constellations of regular sized spacecraft
The Artemis II Wet dress rehearsal looked like it was going well, so I went ahead and booked plane tickets.
Then it started to go badly.
Maybe not universe sandbox, it takes a lot of work to do that, but who know what I have time for
A video tracking the Columbia Disaster in real-time compiled from multiple cameras, simulations and documents www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNmR...
It's not really a surprise that New Shepard had a limited life, it is surprising that it seems to have stopped to suddenly with hardware in various stages of construction and customers who were happy to pay for the service.
www.blueorigin.com/news/new-she...
Yeah, the math only works out under extremely optimistic conditions. But if launch costs come down enough there’s a point where it might work.
And it will work first for highly vertically integrated organizations that own the hardware, launch capability and servers.
Current Starlink V2 MINI satellites are estimated to have >20kW of power based on the panel size. And they're launching ~25 on a single F9. That's 500kW.
In theory starship could enable >3MW per launch.
I’m not as negative on datacenters as you might imagine. I don’t think kilometer scale structures work any time soon. But if you take a Starlink satellite and replace the antennas with compute the thermals don’t change that much.
While some news stories will talk about many other firsts for the forthcoming Artemis II mission, I wanted to focus on this being the first mission to the moon with an actual toilet and how that works.
youtu.be/DaDSuCXIRms
Multiple companies are hoping to take advantage of microgravity to make superior pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and optical devices.
So….
Why Are Drugs Made In Space Better?
youtu.be/U1sH2a57eXM
All dragon splashdowns have moved to the west coast, in theory only half will approach down the coast, and if you want to see them it needs to be night time and clear skies.
If you're in California you should be able to see NASA's Crew 11 mission returning from space around 12:30am, it'll be like a large slow moving meteorite.
Radiation Shielding is one of those things that gets mentioned in relation to other technologies like nuclear reactors or spaceflight, but I've never done an explainer on how it works. It turns out the best shields aren't always Lead bricks
youtu.be/DJcbevbBzsc
Noctilucent clouds glowing in sky long before dawn, created by a rocket launch 250miles south of me
