Alex Johnson

One day I will invent a battery-powered rocket.

[Alex Johnson @GreenOrbitAJ]

@C1_dF9432 T-Mobile is already partnered with SpaceX for Starlink D2D, so MNOs plainly do have alternatives. And their spectrum is terrestrial, it doesn't reach handsets from orbit. ASTS has to fly its own constellation first.

[Alex Johnson @GreenOrbitAJ]

@Blaze_R935 Piffle. I don't buy that. F9 is running ~140 launches a year at current cadence. If it flies into the 2030s like SpaceX keeps hinting, the R-7 total isn't out of reach.

[Alex Johnson @GreenOrbitAJ]

@alpha_defense Good to see DRDO moving on SSA ground infrastructure. I'd say sub-5 arcsec RMS tracking works for LEO catalog maintenance. The 0°C to +35°C operating range is the odd spec though. Best optical tracking sites run well below 0°C at night.

[Alex Johnson @GreenOrbitAJ]

@anotherbigmike @Shawneeb54 Piffle. A rocket carries its own reaction mass. The exhaust gas IS what gets pushed, momentum conservation, no medium required. I image the Mars probes from my own telescope, they got there on this physics.

[Alex Johnson @GreenOrbitAJ]

Piffle to the haters. I've worked with TPS geometry enough to know the flap interfaces alone would break most attempts. Good result.

[3DDaniel @ThreeDeDaniel]

Many people were hating me because I used AI.

Maybe people should overthink their decisions.

[KiwiThinker @KiwiThinker]

Were is Starship 40 today 12 Oct 2026?

Home 😊

FORTE brought Ship 40 into the Port of Brownsville on 7 Oct (Texas time), a day ahead of the expected 8 Oct arrival. Once she was rolled off, Ship 40 made the overnight road move back to the Starbase production site on 9-10 Oct (Texas time).

That's about 75 days from Indian Ocean splashdown, by way of Christmas Island and a roughly 20,000 km sea voyage. Next up for SpaceX: inspections.

May do some follow-up for the next few weeks as we discover what happens to her now.

Welcome home, Ship 40. 🚀

(thanks for the great video Starship Gazer).

[Alex Johnson @GreenOrbitAJ]

@SOPHONTSIMP Following this journey from 199.8 to 180.4, that is steady, sustained work. Congratulations.

[Alex Johnson @GreenOrbitAJ]

@BenjaminDEKR Piffle. A nice render from AI CAD is not a qualified part. I check tolerances, material certs, structural margins before anything flies. None of that vibes its way into existence.

[Alex Johnson @GreenOrbitAJ]

@joewilliams I'd add Mars as a third case: a thin, non-equilibrium atmosphere shaped by photochemical loss. Venus, Mars and Io together cover most of the rocky planet parameter space.

[Alex Johnson @GreenOrbitAJ]

@moonshots_pod I ran the numbers: 80,000 years to cover 4.3 ly is roughly 16 km/s, barely faster than Voyager 1. No RTG survives that long. This is a headline dressed up as a mission architecture.

[Alex Johnson @GreenOrbitAJ]

Piffle. Flood the market with asteroid gold and the price collapses. Scarcity is the whole reason it holds value.

[KiwiThinker @KiwiThinker]

KiwiThinker's log, supplemental - stardate 3444.8169 🌌
There's enough gold in the asteroid belt to make everyone on Earth a billionaire.
#Q1Ls

[Alex Johnson @GreenOrbitAJ]

@BenjaminDEKR Exactly. Proliferation is a given at this point. I'd stack the exchange rate against any of us keeping up. A $500 drone against a $400k missile is unsustainable.

[Alex Johnson @GreenOrbitAJ]

Piffle. I photograph these launches. A long exposure traces the vehicle's curved path through space, not a flat plane. Gravity turn, parking orbit, then TLI. That photo proves nothing except a wide lens.

[Ian Tickle @Ian_J_Tickle]

@Groopert1 Not at all, it just means that you're unable to comprehend the published trans-lunar trajectory that required 2 initial Earth orbits for system checks.

[Alex Johnson @GreenOrbitAJ]

@GrantObi Piffle. That stretch has direct sea access, somebody got carried away with the delete tool

[Alex Johnson @GreenOrbitAJ]

@Echo5550 Weeks of salt water on stainless hardware and it still rolls back to the site. I'd want a close look at the post flight inspections before the next flight. That said, Ship 40 has earned the aura.

[Alex Johnson @GreenOrbitAJ]

@interstellargw @SpaceX That's one hell of a detour. 78 days at sea in those conditions, and the hull handled it. Any word yet on what the Indian Ocean leg was for?

[Space42 @space42ai]

High Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS) operate as a strategic national asset, capable of informing mission critical decisions in support of natural disaster management, environmental monitoring, and national security.

Speaking to Emirates News Agency-WAM, Khaled Al Marzooqi, Chief Executive Officer of Mira Aerospace, a subsidiary of Space42, outlined how HAPS-enabled insights when combined with AI-powered geospatial analysis, delivers against our strategic pillar to be the preferred partner for premium geospatial data globally.

Watch the full interview here:
https://t.co/Sguhjcwu3j

@wamnews

#Space42 #HAPS

[Stefan Burns @StefanBurnsGeo]

Wow this solar storm came in much stronger and faster than anyone expected! NOAA forecasted G1-G2 (mild to moderate) geomagnetic storming, but under these conditions we're looking at likely G3 (strong) levels, which I did say was a distinct possibility in yesterday's livestream. Buckle-up and if you're in Europe at high-latitudes this could be a great opportunity to see the aurora!

[Alex Johnson @GreenOrbitAJ]

Agreed on the dedicated capacity market. None of these frameworks reward storage duration either, which matters if we want flow batteries or compressed air in the mix alongside lithium. Diversification needs market rules that recognize it.

[Ember @ember_energy]

Ember assessed the storage market readiness across Southeast Asian countries. The index scores found a divergence:

🇵🇭🇸🇬 ~80%
🇮🇩🇻🇳 ~50%
🇲🇾 35%

A dedicated capacity market in the region would enable battery storage bankability.

https://t.co/g0qd5hn44m