Stan Shull

Space industry analyst and consultant: strategy, partnerships & ecosystem development. #SpacePartnerships

[Stan Shull @stanshull]

Cost reduction in satellite manufacturing is not getting enough attention, and it's changing the economics of space.
https://t.co/FNqVoyc4F4

[Blue Origin @blueorigin]

Continuous sunlight is scarce on the Moon unless you know where to look. 🌑

The lunar poles contain "peaks of eternal light," areas bathed in near-continuous sunlight. Power Tower mounts on Blue Moon MK1's top deck and extends solar arrays to 26 meters total height to capture that energy and deliver sustained power for Moon Base operations.

Check out this video of Power Tower during a successful deployment in an analog lunar environment.

The infrastructure era of lunar exploration starts now.

[Northrop Grumman @northropgrumman]

Pegasus and our L-1011 Stargazer aircraft are officially on the move. The team is one step closer to staging in the Marshall Islands. There, they’ll provide the first step to rocketing the @NASA Swift observatory to a new orbit via the @KatalystSpace servicing craft.

[Eric Berger @SciGuySpace]

Some interesting details in this IG report:

• SpaceX says it needs at least 15 launches for HLS landing
• Blue Origin seeking third New Glenn pad, just north of NASA's LC-39 complex
• SLS nitrogen demands may cause 1-2 month blackout of N2

https://t.co/9q672DbaqJ

[Chris Lewicki @interplanetary]

Something constantly on my mind is Elon's implicit "gift" to the company and its team when founding SpaceX. He plowed his $100M in Paypal proceeds ($185M today) into a team ultra-focused on creating a fully commercial, low-cost launch vehicle.

This astounding founder-seed investment gave the team (and Elon's leadership of them) the gift of pure focus. It provided a credible foundation for ambitious talent to take the career risk.

They were able to maniacally focus on that vision for 6 years, with sufficient capital for their ambitions, until they needed outside money or had to deliver on contracts.

SpaceX succeeded not only commercially, but culturally -- in changing beliefs of what the private sector could do, and lead a transformation from "cost-plus" pricing, to "sticker pricing" with profits from their margin in innovation.

Ambitious efforts like asteroid mining will also need to catalyze this "belief change" -- and will probably also need $100Ms in seed funding to unlock the first commercial markets.

The good news is that SpaceX has created thousands of new millionaires and dozens of billionaires who have epic visions for space in their souls. Time to ride those rockets beyond Earth orbit!

[Tory Bruno @torybruno]

I'm pretty excited to be working on delivering this capability to humanity...

[hubblenetwork @hubble_network]

The biggest connectivity breakthroughs aren't faster.

They're cheaper.

1/20th the power.
1/50th the operating cost.

That's how new markets get created.

[Stan Shull @stanshull]

@scottwisniews Congrats! (why no video of the deployments?)

[Kiko Dontchev @TurkeyBeaver]

37A tower stack is underway. The growth of the Cape skyline continues… exciting times!

[Stan Shull @stanshull]

@ezrafeilden So cool. I featured "Starcloud-1 separation confirmed" and orbital track in my 2025 WA space highlights video.

[Stan Shull @stanshull]

"At $55.5 billion overall, the proposal would increase Space Force funding by nearly 80% from the roughly $31 billion enacted for fiscal 2026."
https://t.co/wvLeveRRdv via @SpaceNews_Inc

[NASA Universe @NASAUniverse]

LINK, Katalyst Space’s robotic servicing spacecraft, has been integrated into a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket at @NASAWallops. Later this month, it'll launch from Kwajalein Atoll and rendezvous with our Swift telescope to attempt an orbital boost. https://t.co/7W7jfJgmee

[Everyday Astronaut @Erdayastronaut]

@NASAAdmin Thanks for the well thought out additions. Always great to have such a measured response, free of drama, and clear!

[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.

[Reid Wiseman @astro_reid]

I was excited for today…excited to cheer on the Agency and my friends as we named the Artemis III crew.

What I didn’t expect was the feeling of complete, unbridled happiness in my soul as @Astro_Jeremy (from afar), @Astro_Christina, @AstroVicGlover and I ceremonially handed our baton to the next crew.

We did it, and we did it well. @AstroKomrade, @astro_luca, Frank Rubio, @Astro_AndreD — you have the controls!! You will do it, and I know you will do it well. Godspeed, Artemis III

[SpaceX @SpaceX]

Watch @ElonMusk provide a technical update on SpaceX’s capability to manufacture, launch, and operate AI satellites at scale → https://t.co/PSCyWrNsOg

[Stan Shull @stanshull]

real-time satellite intelligence powers Ukraine's drone strikes, speeds up kill chain, per @WSJ

"images go directly from the satellite to the soldier’s tablet, phone or laptop in as little as 15 minutes"

https://t.co/19Yy46Qoh2

[Stoke Space @stoke_space]

Big tank. Big tests. Big milestone.

Nova Stage 1 proto-qualification is complete.
46 structural objectives verified, plus key fluid systems, avionics, software, ground systems, and ops demos. (More detail in our linked blog post.)

This is where new rockets often find the hard stuff; Nova (and the Stoke team) handled it. Our local partners at the @PORTOFMOSESLAKE , the Grant County Sheriff's Office and Public Works department, plus our vendor Norco made sure we had the support we needed every step of the way.

Ad Astra.✨

https://t.co/TFKfrM2n2B

[Lori Garver @Lori_Garver]

Fantastic!

[Ryan Caton @dpoddolphinpro]

BREAKING: @AmazonLeo has been granted an extension to their deployment timeline requirements, to maintain priority on their comms bands.

"Amazon Leo has represented that it will fail to meet the 50% milestone required in section 25.164(b)(1) of the Commission’s rules.", said the @FCC.

Previously, Leo was required to have launched 50% of their 3,232 first gen sats (1,618) by July 30, 2026. To date, they've launched just over 300.

Leo still must deploy 100% of the constellation by July 30, 2029.

📷 @ULAlaunch

[Christian Davenport @SpaceDavenport]

NASA says it “strongly” supported the Russian decision to wait on ISS leak repairs, which forced crews to temporarily evacuate station to their capsules. Always interesting trying to read btwn the lines of these carefully worded releases and note the use of words like strongly.