SpaceKate

Alter-ego of Broadcast Journalist @RadioKate, reporting the latest spaceflight and exploration news. Advocate for diversity and women in STEM. ISU SSP12.

[Tom Dune 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🚀🤘🏳️‍🌈 @TheTomDune]

Seeing this morning that John McFall @iamfivetoes has been nominated to fly aboard the first @vast Haven-1 mission, possibly as early as 2027. Fantastic way to cap off years of hard work and completing @esa astronaut training. Hoping there's a seat for @astro_meganne too 🤞🏻

[SpaceKate @SpaceKate]

@davill @blueorigin Before the end of the year? Blimey - you’ll have your work cut out, but very good luck with it all. Will be watching with interest and hoping for the best for your team.

[Dave Limp @davill]

Some LC-36 updates. Now that we’ve had access to the pad and integration facility we can share a bit of good news. The propellant farm, oxygen, liquid hydrogen and LNG tanks are all in good shape. This is good luck because these are very long lead items. The water tower is also good. The big support tower is damaged, but it can be repaired in place rather than torn down and replaced. The booster “Never Tell Me The Odds” and the three GS-2s that were onsite in the integration facility also look good.

I’ve seen some speculation that we might move directly to the 9x4 configuration, but we won’t do that. Rate manufacturing of 7x2 is going well, and we’re going to continue that at pace as planned and store the stages for use. In addition, we had already been working for some time on eliminating our transporter-erector in favor of an alternative vertical conop, and we’ll now go directly to that; so we don’t need a new transporter-erector.

We will fly again before the end of this year. Gradatim Ferociter.

[Voyager Technologies @voyagertech_]

Breaking: Voyager to acquire @Astrobotic, combining lunar landers, surface power, habitats and cislunar operations into one integrated lunar platform. Griffin Mission One, targeting the lunar South Pole NET November 2026, will be Voyager’s first mission to the Moon.

Learn more: https://t.co/DlHHlwxd3t
​
$VOYG #MissionReady #AcceleratingtheAdvantage #Artemis

[Paul Sidhu @PaulSidhuUK]

@SpaceKate @DJSnM https://t.co/ZGRj5Os3YL

[SpaceKate @SpaceKate]

Any Earth Observation images of the Blue Origin launch pad before and after the New Glenn explosion? @DJSnM - have you seen anything?

[Taylor @TaylorHose]

Gutted for the entire team at Blue. I hope the issue can be identified and the pad can be rapidly repaired. Just thankful everyone is safe.

[Scott Manley @DJSnM]

Sound synchronized from @NASASpaceflight footage

[Blue Origin @blueorigin]

We experienced an anomaly during today's hotfire test. All personnel have been accounted for. We will provide updates as we learn more.

[Taylor @TaylorHose]

The first time I met Charlie, she brought us into her office and showed us a plaque that was given to her by the shuttle Closeout Crew after the final shuttle mission. She told us how much Closeout Crew meant to her and that the safety of our team and the flight crew are her biggest priorities on launch day. She promised to never send us, or anyone else, to the pad unless the vehicle was in a 100% safe configuration.

On our first terminal count sim she had our team stand up in front of the firing room so all the console operators could see us, and told them this is who we are sending to the pad, so make sure your systems are in a healthy configuration because they rely on it.

She has always been our biggest supporter and helped us with anything we needed. It is incredible to know if I have any issues I can go to her and she will do everything in her power to fix it. It has been one of the greatest honors of my career working so closely with her, and the rest of the launch team these past few years.

After the launch of Artemis II, I had the honor of presenting her with a new Closeout Crew plaque. This was truly an unforgettable moment for myself and the rest of the team.

[SpaceKate @SpaceKate]

@_Ben_in_space @brandonjmphoto @AmazingSpace2 Certainly hope so. But surely with changing so many elements it’s harder to know what exactly did cause the issue?

[SpaceKate @SpaceKate]

So.. wow… that was a lot! Launch, booster loss, engine down but made it to space, payload deploy, amazing images from the modified Starlink sats, Starship made it through re-entry and then attempted a landing burn. But no in-space RVAC relight… so what’s the verdict? #Starship

[SpaceKate @SpaceKate]

@_Ben_in_space @brandonjmphoto @AmazingSpace2 Yeah I get that, but I’m not sure it’s the design timeline/approach I would have chosen myself

[SpaceKate @SpaceKate]

@UKSteveRhodes @Erdayastronaut But the life support stuff? How far along is that for this vehicle?

[SpaceKate @SpaceKate]

@_Ben_in_space @brandonjmphoto @AmazingSpace2 But maybe stop upgrading/redesigning everything until you have a super reliable engine that you can evolve.

[SpaceKate @SpaceKate]

@_Ben_in_space @brandonjmphoto @AmazingSpace2 Which is why I would love to know how NASA, the agency that has contracted them to create HLS to take humans to the lunar surface, is feeling about it all.

[SpaceKate @SpaceKate]

@_Ben_in_space @brandonjmphoto @AmazingSpace2 Are you suggesting there isn’t? Even just to see how spending longer in the space environment impacts heat shield or engines would seem a useful data point. I mean the hope is it wouldn’t make a difference, but it hasn’t been tested.

[SpaceKate @SpaceKate]

@_Ben_in_space @brandonjmphoto @AmazingSpace2 If it is so easy why haven’t they gone ahead and done it? Genuine question.

[SpaceKate @SpaceKate]

@brandonjmphoto @_Ben_in_space @AmazingSpace2 I guess I would like to see the thing succeed nominally before they see how much they can take off; or how far it can be stress tested etc.

[SpaceKate @SpaceKate]

@UKSteveRhodes @Erdayastronaut Will thy have a ship ready for a rendezvous and docking operation - potentially with astronauts going inside to test life support, by next year? I’m a bit dubious, but very happy if my concerns turn out to be misplaced.

[SpaceKate @SpaceKate]

@_Ben_in_space @AmazingSpace2 They demonstrated internal transfer, but not between vehicles - and it’s that that has to work, and reliably.