John Curry

Texas A&M ‘87, 45th NASA Flight Director (Arcturus Flight), Dream Chaser Program Director, Sidus Space CMO, Aerospace Corp/NASA Artemis SE&I

[John Curry @Arcturus227]

Showing my Grandsons their first ever launch…priceless!! @ulalaunch #AtlasV_551 @SidusSpace

[John Curry @Arcturus227]

Big Dipper on the lower right corner…and you can follow the arc to Arcturus from there!

[John Curry @Arcturus227]

Venus (top) and Jupiter (bottom) just before dipping below the Western horizon.

[NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman @NASAAdmin]

The Artemis Generation is here.

Artemis III will help us get into the rhythm of multi-launch campaigns, test new capabilities close to home, and then take the next step toward building a sustained human presence at the lunar South Pole.

[John Curry @Arcturus227]

Luca is a great person and Astronaut!

[NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman @NASAAdmin]

Proud to continue our partnership with @esa as Luca Parmitano joins the Artemis III crew.

Great things happen when trusted partners come together around bold goals. Together, Artemis III will prove the capabilities and operational rhythm needed for the next era of lunar exploration.

[NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman @NASAAdmin]

Proud to continue our partnership with @esa as Luca Parmitano joins the Artemis III crew.

Great things happen when trusted partners come together around bold goals. Together, Artemis III will prove the capabilities and operational rhythm needed for the next era of lunar exploration.

[John Curry @Arcturus227]

Aggies are the best!!! Gig’em

[ESPN @espn]

Two years and one day after suffering a broken ankle during a Super Regional game while playing with Texas A&M, Braden Montgomery hit a walk-off home run in his MLB debut 🔥

[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.

[Texas A&M Baseball @AggieBaseball]

BRADEN. MONTGOMERY.

[John Curry @Arcturus227]

@TexAgs @TexAgsLive @B_mont_ Awesomeness!!! Well deserved!

[TexAgs @TexAgs]

BMont ➡️ Big Leagues ⚾️

Congratulations on the call-up, @B_mont_ 👏

[Texas A&M University @TAMU]

Today we honor the 82nd anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1944, when Allied forces faced impossible odds on the beaches of Normandy and changed the world. Aggies were among the brave who stormed those shores, their sacrifice forever woven into our university's legacy of selfless service. That legacy didn't end on the battlefield. It lives on in every Aggie who answers the call.

[John Curry @Arcturus227]

Good stuff on TNT blast equivalency. In short, the blast radius was not as bad as predicted.

[Stephen Clark @StephenClark1]

The Space Force treats methane as 100% TNT blast equivalency. Industry wants 25%. Last week's Blue Origin explosion may provide the answer. https://t.co/lpla3P9BLk

[John Curry @Arcturus227]

@dansgoldin @SpaceNewsFL Great story Dan! Steve Lindsey told me all about the STS-95 mission and how much attention it received thanks to John Glenn onboard!! Great decision to fly him again!!

[Dan Goldin @dansgoldin]

Woke up thinking about the late John Glenn. This is me with him just after he landed at Kennedy Space Center onboard the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-95) to become, at age 77, the oldest person to orbit the Earth.

One day, during my 6th year as NASA Administrator, John Glenn paid me a visit at my office in Washington, D.C.

He sat down and explained that he had been studying the effects of space on aging bodies, and he wanted me to send him to space so he could run experiments on his body.

At the time, John Glenn was a revered Senator of Ohio for 24 years.

But, he had been a hero to me and to America ever since he successfully became the first American astronaut to orbit the earth in 1962.

Up until then, the Soviets had been leaping ahead of us in space. They launched the first man, Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961. And then they once again beat us by keeping a cosmonaut in space for a full day.

On Feb. 20, 1962, at 40 years old, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth during the three-orbit Mercury-Atlas 6 mission, aboard the spacecraft he named Friendship 7.

At the time, I was about to turn 22 and I had just started as an ion plasma engineer at NASA Lewis in Cleveland, Ohio. On that day, I remember the hope and confidence John Glenn instilled in all of us to take space on as a country and beat the Soviets to the moon.

In fact, John Glenn became so much a hero to our nation that President Kennedy felt that we couldn’t risk losing him and declared that he would never go to space again.

So now decades later, here I was as NASA Administrator being asked by this American hero to reverse President Kennedy’s decree and risk sending him back to space again… this time at age 77!

I told Senator Glenn that he would need to pass the same physical exam standards the younger astronauts took – 20/20 vision, whether naturally or with corrective lenses, and a sitting blood pressure not to exceed 140/90.

He passed. But what most don’t know is that this is also me grabbing him by his flight suit from behind to prop him up, because he had lost his sense of balance from disrupting the equilibrium in his ears while in space 😛.

I couldn’t have our American hero stumbling around with all the press and crowd watching him!

I thank John Glenn for energizing America and our confidence to reach the heavens. He also always championed space and technology, in public and private spheres – especially during my brutal battles as a newbie Administrator on The Hill.

[Jeff Bezos @JeffBezos]

One week later, incredible progress. It’s a 24/7 operation with a solid path forward to launch this year, helped by a lot of luck. @NASA and @USSpaceForce have both been extremely helpful.

This team. Never tell them the odds.

[NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman @NASAAdmin]

@shanksteroflove We are announcing the Artemis III crew next week. Tune in, because we will also be providing a confidence update on the mission.

[NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman @NASAAdmin]

I respectfully have a different take...

A major vendor, @UnionPacific, decided to paint one of its locomotives in patriotic colors to celebrate America’s 250th birthday as it transports components of a NASA rocket. They also decided to paint “45 47” on the train to recognize the sitting President during this important anniversary. Now, I understand if someone served in a different administration, from a different political party, there may be a bias, but through my lens, what Union Pacific is doing is patriotic.

We also happen to be celebrating a lot of NASA’s “meaningful achievements,” including the giant Saturn V, the Moon landing, and other historical moments projected on the Washington Monument during America’s 250th birthday. We similarly have those accomplishments displayed at NASA centers to recognize these historic and world-changing achievements, but it is unlikely we can ask vendors to paint them on every locomotive.

[Adam Schefter @AdamSchefter]

🚨🚨🚨

Bombshell: The Browns are finalizing a trade that will send two-time Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams, per @rapsheet, @TomPelissero and me.

In exchange for Garrett, the Rams are expected to send Pro-Bowl edge Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick and other draft-pick compensation still being negotiated to the Browns.

[Hen | 🇦🇺 @HenSomeMan]

I hope to god Jared Isaacman can continue as a NASA admin into another parties Presidential term.

All things considered he seems amazingly non-partisan, and great at bipartisan relations.