Bruce McCandless III

I’m the author of Wonders All Around, Sour Lake, and In the Land of Dead Horses. Note: Head shape in photo not actual head shape.

[David Hitt @davidhitt]

Go @NASARoman!

[Bruce McCandless III @BMcCandlessIII]

This is not the way it’s supposed to work.

[Eric Berger @SciGuySpace]

Starship passed a number of key tests on Friday. But the biggest hurdle to full and rapid reuse remains ahead.

https://t.co/zdyAwmZzvC

[Bruce McCandless III @BMcCandlessIII]

@wonders_around Good one!

[Bruce McCandless III @BMcCandlessIII]

Remembering the USS Gregory today. After action at Iwo Jima and in the Bonin Islands, she was hit and put out of action for the rest of the war by a Japanese suicide plane.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Where are the aliens? This is one of the most fundamental questions.

[SPACE.com @SPACEdotcom]

On Episode 210 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik talk with Dr. Robert Lillis of the Mars ESCAPADE mission. https://t.co/rBELd2dIhe

[Eric Berger @SciGuySpace]

The stakes for this week's Starship launch are high. The US commercial space industry is depending on lower launch costs and higher capacity. NASA’s lunar ambitions, to a great degree, hinge on its success. And the stakes are highest of all for SpaceX.

https://t.co/JuBTjtdbpH

[Eric Berger @SciGuySpace]

It’s interesting to read critiques of the Moon base proposal, which seems like the smart path forward and could fit within NASA’s budget. The gist I’m hearing from critics is that this Isaacman priority is happy talk, will all fade away, and not happen. Then you realize these were the same people who:

- Said Isaacman wouldn’t be renominated
- Said he would was a political amateur
- Said he couldn’t build a coalition to cancel EUS and put SLS on a path toward sunset
-Said he was an Elon puppet (who has subsequently prioritized getting Blue Origin moving on HLS due to Starship delays)
- Said he would never get Congress, which called it a “national priority,” to go along with canceling Gateway
- Said he would never actually cancel Gateway

These people are now saying Isaacman can’t get NASA and its contractors to execute on a plan that has administration and Congressional support. The reality is, from a policy and political standpoint, NASA is in a better place now than it has been for years. If the Moon Base fails that’s on NASA and private industry, not stupid policy. And believe me, I’ve seen a lot of terrible, pie-in-the-sky space policy over the decades. #JourneyToMars

It’s a new era. I’m not sure everyone realizes this, but Isaacman and his team have eyes wide open to a lot of the major challenges facing NASA and they’re trying to fix them. They’re working long days. Weekends. It’s inspiring to see our government work like this, especially in an era when so much seems broken. I don’t know what will happen. Maybe this Moon base all will fade away. But I do know that NASA’s chance for success in the next couple of decades is a lot higher today than it has been for a long, long time. What we were doing was decidedly not working. This has a chance.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Dragon is docked with @Space_Station

[Eric Berger @SciGuySpace]

This is a story worth following closely.

https://t.co/PLHgR9vt1Z

[Eric Berger @SciGuySpace]

Excellent report by @StephenClark1 on the challenges faced by astronauts who will explore the Moon in new lunar spacesuits.

https://t.co/pUeM245iST

[Eric Berger @SciGuySpace]

This really is an enormous gift to astronomy. Also, if Schmidt's team succeeds in building a Hubble replacement for hundreds of millions of dollars in a few years, it will completely change space science (for the better).

https://t.co/IfbS0nettw

[Eric Berger @SciGuySpace]

Late change in our annual rankings.

"That is, ULA’s leader is leaving a company that largely subsists on national defense launch contracts to go be a national defense contract rainmaker at its direct competitor. From which ULA buys its rocket engines."

https://t.co/wJelXz2GKl

[WondersAllAround @wonders_around]

Why aren’t astronauts hungry when they get to space?

Cause they had a big launch🚀

#space #jokes #starbound

[Eric Berger @SciGuySpace]

Lots of implications for the Soyuz incident at Site 31 in in Kazakhstan, where one source told me the damage is "significant."

https://t.co/hrHbKW36q1

[Eric Berger @SciGuySpace]

Some thoughts on Blue Origin's blockbuster announcement this morning.

https://t.co/Z3WjQWCKAa

[Eric Berger @SciGuySpace]

I spoke with Blue Origin's CEO about the company's goals for next year. To start with, "well above" a dozen New Glenn launches.

https://t.co/Jh0h9Yghd4

[Eric Berger @SciGuySpace]

This is fantastic. HTV-X is a beautiful spacecraft.

[Eric Douglas Gribble @Eric3Gribble]

Major news. For the first time in 53 years NASA has a rocket that is fully stacked in the VAB that will transport people around the moon. The last time was Apollo 17. I remember the moon landings when I was a teenager and the failure of NASA to deliver following Apollo was a great let down.