Jen

Pancake Enthusiast 🥞 Lover of all things space 🚀 Traveling the world to the ends of the Earth 🌎

[Everyday Astronaut @Erdayastronaut]

Fun fact! My profile picture was actually taken by Artemis III Astronaut, @astro_luca when he was on the ISS in 2019!!! He took a picture of my sticker floating around in the Cupola!!! I can’t wait for him to fly again!

[Nic Cruz Patane @niccruzpatane]

President of @SpaceX Gwynne Shotwell on CNBC this morning on Starship:

• Starship Flight 13 is about a month away.
• Expect to see hopefully see Starship flights on a monthly basis after that.
• SpaceX hopes to attempt orbital injection on Flight 14.
• It’s realistic to have Starship reaching orbit by the end of 2026.

[Max Evans @_MaxQ_]

It is…so strange to see Starship/Starbase hardware here at the Kennedy Space Center.

A booster transport stand and 2 ship transport stands are currently idle by the turn basin, having been unloaded from SpaceX’s transport barge “You’ll Thank Me Later” earlier today.

Flight vehicles are gonna be here before we know it!

📸 - @NASASpaceflight

https://t.co/HMdRAAL8Kv

[NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman @NASAAdmin]

Starting with some energy, and my inability to write brief updates, I am just extremely proud of the NASA crew, our industry, and our international partners. We are getting into a rhythm here at NASA. Earlier this year, setbacks put the Artemis II rocket back in the VAB for repairs, and we determined it was necessary to add another mission, Artemis III in 2027. Since then, we have unveiled the Ignition plans to build a Moon Base and nuclear-powered spaceships, launched a highly successful mission around the Moon, brought the crew home safely, and now watched the torch pass to Artemis III. There will be no shortage of major milestones to celebrate in the months ahead as we build the Moon Base and launch the Nancy Grace Roman telescope. I am beyond proud of the team and all the momentum and excitement around the space program.

I do want to take this moment to address two of the questions I have been seeing since the crew announcement.

Why are there no women assigned to Artemis III?

I have seen reactions ranging from disappointment to outrage. I have personally been to space twice with 50% female crews. My closest advisors and some of the smartest engineers I know are women. In our latest NASA leadership organization, nearly 50% of the Center Directors and Mission Directorate leadership are women. The last astronaut candidate class selected under this Administration was majority female because they were the best of the best, including one astronaut I previously went to space with.

In a world with so much controversy, I hope this can be a moment where we celebrate the astronauts selected, respect the integrity of the process, and recognize the extraordinary depth of talent across the entire corps. The crew selection does not involve any political appointees. The Astronaut Office assigns the crew that gives the mission the best chance of meeting its objectives, taking into account many factors, including the background and expertise of the astronauts, such as test pilot experience, development work on specific programs, and availability. For example, those raising this concern may not be aware of the pipeline of crews already preparing to launch to the Space Station, or those who have been undergoing lunar-specific training that would be a better fit for a future surface mission.

The Artemis III astronauts are experienced, qualified, and deserve to be celebrated for the mission they have been assigned, just as the crews that follow will be celebrated when their time comes. We have an extraordinary astronaut corps, and every mission and every crew is part of a larger campaign to get America back to the Moon and to build the future we all dreamed about as children.

What are the objectives for Artemis III if both landers will not be fully ready?

Coming off a highly successful lunar mission like Artemis II, it is not surprising that the bar is set high for Artemis III. I think it is important to understand how difficult and dangerous it is to land astronauts on the Moon. We have not done it in a very long time, and we want to draw from a past playbook for success. That means getting into a cadence of launching, learning, and rolling improvements into the next mission.

First and foremost, it is imperative for SLS to be flying with some frequency for operational currency and, honestly, safety. Earlier this year, it was very clear across NASA leadership that an additional mission was necessary in 2027. It is also imperative to gain interoperability data from rendezvous and docking with landers in Earth orbit. We do not need those landers that are still in development to be fully capable and certified for landing on the Moon on Artemis III, but we do need to test certain systems and controllability. Not to mention, we are moving quickly into a future where we do not require a single rocket to bring everything necessary for a mission to space, and as such, gaining experience with multi-launch campaigns and on-orbit assembly is directionally correct.

The Blue Origin test lander for Artemis III will incorporate many of the most important systems and subsystems that have not previously been operated by the provider, including ECLSS in a crew cabin, and other avionics. With SpaceX, they have demonstrated many of those capabilities continuously on Crew Dragon, but other controllability tests are important based on the negative-X axis acceleration that will be necessary when Starship undertakes the TLI burn to the Moon with a docked Orion.

After Artemis III, we will learn a lot and roll in further improvements, be that hardware, software, or procedural updates, as both providers undertake end-to-end uncrewed demonstrations to the surface in 2028, in advance of Artemis IV, where NASA astronauts will finally complete the grand return to the Moon.

As I said in my remarks yesterday, when Gene Cernan left the lunar surface on Apollo 17, he said, “We leave as we came, and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.” We are returning, and we are doing so with the fire carried forward from Apollo, the lessons learned from Artemis II, the crew of Artemis III, and all those who will follow. NASA will send the very best crews for the right missions. If the composition of our astronaut corps and our latest class of candidates says anything, it is that we have exactly the talent required to get the job done.

Godspeed Artemis III, and all those who will follow.

[Max Evans @_MaxQ_]

Seeing Randy, Luca, Frank, and Andre in their OCSS’ makes it all real.

Godspeed, gents!

[SpaceX @SpaceX]

Congratulations Artemis III crew, we can't wait to fly with you

[NSF - NASASpaceflight.com @NASASpaceflight]

The upcoming week features flights from China, California, Virginia, and Florida. Three Starlink launches, two from Vandenberg and one from Cape Canaveral, are set for this week, along with a HASTE suborbital flight from Wallops.

by Justin Davenport:

https://t.co/59sTg4OFss

[Ryan Caton @dpoddolphinpro]

NEW GLENN: The rear door of the Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) has been partially opened for the first time since the explosion at Launch Complex-36 last week.

🎥 Space Coast Live/@NASASpaceflight

[Glenn Beck @glennbeck]

As a father of a child with cerebral palsy, I was greatly disturbed by the story of the YouTuber couple who aborted their baby with Down Syndrome. They didn’t say the child was not a baby. They said it was not a life worth living, and not a life worth disrupting their own.

I know from personal experience, IT IS A LIFE WORTH LIVING. And my daughter was SO worth disrupting my plans. When I became a father of a child with special needs, I had countless plans. Since then, I've learned, my own plans only made me miserable. The real moments of happiness came from my family.

Raising my children was BY FAR the hardest thing I have ever done. But I wouldn't trade it for the world. Cherish your family. Don’t kill it.

[NSF - NASASpaceflight.com @NASASpaceflight]

Reviewing all the NSF camera views and the aftermath of the New Glenn explosion at LC-36.

➡️https://t.co/NpcBW029PZ

[Jared Isaacman @rookisaacman]

Less than a year ago, Ship 36 and the test stand had a really bad evening, and I was delivering pizzas. A year later, V3 launched and now I typically deliver coffee & donuts. A lot of progress can happen in a year. This was a setback, but I have no doubt Blue will bounce back well. NASA will be there to help find solutions, and this time next year, excitement will be building for Artemis III.

[Allie Beth Stuckey @conservmillen]

Did the government warn pastors of impending alien doom?

@MikeWingerii has investigated the claims of several charismatic pastors who say they had access to secret government briefings about aliens.

These faith leaders led people to believe government officials were sharing classified information about UFOs and an extraterrestrial plot to disprove Christianity.

But, when people began to question the pastors’ claims, many of them retracted their previous statements.

Winger says the meeting actually involved some pastors discussing publicly available information. The meeting did not involve the government.

Here's his breakdown of what really happened & how it ties into a bigger problem that exists within charismatic leadership:

[Jessica Meir @Astro_Jessica]

In this timelapse of the night sky, you can see lightning storms (beginning and end), and one of my favorite night scenes – as we cross over Africa from west to east, it is very dimly lit until the snaking spectacle of light along the Nile appears (worth the wait), erupting into the brilliance of Cairo and the river delta. It’s a perfect illustration of the vitality of our planet’s water sources and how our human cultures have developed along them.

[Spaceflight Now @SpaceflightNow]

Here's our video of the explosion at Launch Complex 36. It happened about 9 pm ET (0100 UTC) as Blue Origin was beginning a static fire test of its New Glenn rocket.

Watch live views: https://t.co/tm2wZQmAVD

[Darshak Rana ⚡️ @thedarshakrana]

The Woodpecker is the only proof that God really exists.

And I'm going to prove it to you right NOW:🧵

[Allie Beth Stuckey @conservmillen]

James Talarico, you can’t claim to love your neighbor while supporting abortion, gender ideology that harms children, open-border policies that endanger Americans, or progressive justice policies that put violent offenders back on the streets.

You can’t love your neighbor while affirming sin, denying biblical truth, or preaching a gospel contrary to Christ.
The people harmed by these policies are your neighbors too.

You are an insult to Christianity. Your beliefs are an affront to the Imago Dei and I look forward to Texans showing you out of politics in November and hopefully you are shown out of the pulpit as well.

[Josh Kale @JoshKale]

This New Glenn rocket explosion released 20% of the energy of the Hiroshima atomic bomb and that wasn't even the bad part:

→ The pad: LC-36 is the only pad on Earth that launches New Glenn and now it's gone. Over $1B to build. SpaceX needed 7 months to rebuild after a similar hit.

→ The deadline: Amazon needs 1,618 satellites up by July 30 to keep its FCC license. It has ~300. The rocket that was supposed to help fix that just blew up twice in a row

SpaceX made us believe that landing rockets on barges was a normal expectation. Turns out rocket science is hard after all. Wishing the team a speedy recovery 🚀

[NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman @NASAAdmin]

We go where we need to be, and today that was @NASAKennedy.

Some of my senior engineers and I spent time at @blueorigin with @JeffBezos and @davill, speaking with the workforce and seeing the damage at LC-36 firsthand. I appreciated the opportunity to hear directly from those working through the aftermath and better understand the challenges ahead.

There is a lot of work to do, but this is exactly why people choose careers in aerospace, whether at NASA, Blue Origin, or across the industry. The talent in this field thrives under pressure and performs at its best when solving the toughest problems.

We have been saying for months at NASA that we are not going to sit on our hands and wait for the capabilities necessary to achieve the nation’s most pressing objectives. We are going to take an active role alongside our partners, just as we did in the 1960s, to overcome setbacks, remove obstacles, and deliver the intended outcomes.

@NASA is committed to helping the Blue team recover, continue to advance their lunar lander and get New Glenn back to launching as soon as safely possible.

America’s greatest achievements in space were never the result of avoiding setbacks. They came from overcoming them. We have done it before, and we will do it again🇺🇸

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly) events are not unusual in the rocket world

[NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman @NASAAdmin]

NASA is aware of the anomaly that occurred tonight at Launch Complex 36 involving Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. 

Spaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult. We will work with our partners to support a thorough investigation of this anomaly, assess near-term mission impacts, and get back to launching rockets.

We will provide information on any impacts to the Artemis and Moon Base programs as it becomes available.