David Robie

Rocket Science is fun.

[David Robie @drobie22]

Inspired by @donttrythis, I made my bathroom clock work and look backwards - we only see it through the bathroom mirror anyways.

[The Associated Press @AP]

BREAKING: Immigration officers are asserting sweeping power to enter homes without a judge’s warrant, a memo obtained by AP says. https://t.co/r3uyyj3LWL

[David Robie @drobie22]

Look at this beauty! (My wife is here too)

[David Robie @drobie22]

@CSI_Starbase @DJSnM Also, can you discuss why (you think) the engines didn’t cut when attitude control was lost? Seems interesting the avionics left the remaining engines running for that long

[David Robie @drobie22]

@CSI_Starbase @DJSnM Definitely a time to discuss how even improving V2 is obsolete given that raptor V3 is planned to be implemented later this year, esp if it is a plumbing issue

[Scott Manley @DJSnM]

I’m sure that when the ‘hire on merit only’ crowd find out that women are generally better candidates for long term Spaceflight they’ll tell NASA to stop hiring men.

Equal performance, but lower mass, requiring fewer consumables and better radiation shielding around reproductive organs.

If they’re going to ignore the multitude of good reasons for a diverse astronaut corps then it’s time to start factoring in these advantages, otherwise NASA is wasting money by putting big men into space.

[Everyday Astronaut @Erdayastronaut]

This is SUCH a complicated topic and many people are voicing opinions with some basic facts missing. Please allow me a few minutes to explain this situation in depth:

Let's start at the beginning...

SpaceX and Boeing were hired in 2014 to provide commercial crew services to the ISS for NASA. SpaceX was the first to successfully fly and safely return crew with operational flights beginning in 2020.

Boeing had an unsuccessful test flight in 2019 which required a redo in 2022 which was considered successful despite a few thruster malfunctions, it safely flew the mission to and from the ISS.

It should be noted, that Boeing received nearly double the amount SpaceX did for the Commercial Crew Program, mostly for "timeline assurance" - ironic

This eventually led to the flight of Boeing's Starliner Crew Flight Test with Butch and Suni in June, 2024. Immediately once on orbit, the vehicle experienced thruster issues and small helium leaks which were more off-nominal than they would've liked.

The safest thing to do was to dock to the ISS where they could further test and figure out the exact issue and determine the safest thing to do next.

The ISS was their original destination and once on Station, the Crew was safe AND had work to do as highly trained NASA astronauts, station keeping, and doing research and science.

During this period, there technically wasn't a known, safe way to get Butch and Suni back, so NASA and SpaceX devised a way to have them return as the 5th and 6th crew on the Crew-8 Dragon, C206 Endeavour in the case of an emergency on station.

After a few months of testing, NASA decided the safest thing to do was to have the Boeing Starliner return uncrewed, which would free up that docking port to allow the Crew-9 SpaceX Dragon Capsule a place to dock.

So in September, the malfunctioning Starliner returned (safely), uncrewed, and for about two weeks the official way off the station in an emergency was by being the 5th and 6th crew inside the Crew-8 Dragon capsule, but then on September 29th, Crew-9 docked to the ISS.

THIS MEANS, THE SPACEX CREW DRAGON CAPSULE THAT IS DEEMED TO "RESCUE" / UN-"ABANDON" / "SAVE" BUTCH AND SUNI HAS ALREADY BEEN DOCKED TO THE ISS SINCE SEPTEMBER. People seem to be missing this point.

And here's where this all gets pretty complicated...

NASA / Roscosmos flew Crew-9 with only Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov so there would be two seats available to return Butch and Suni from the ISS. They even brought up two SpaceX space suits with them since the Boeing Starliner ones weren't compatible with Dragon.

Normally, the ISS crews do 6 month stays with overlapping "expeditions" where half the crew basically rotates out every three months. What it really means is, GENERALLY, you go up on one spacecraft, you come down on that same one.

And crewed spacecraft come up every 3 months, basically play a game of tag, and they swap with half the crew that's currently onboard. They alternate, US Commercial Crew and Russian Soyuz vehicles. Sometimes these schedules change, and sometimes missions have crew on much longer than 6 months, with the record and the safe timeframe being considered about one year.

So the plan has been to have Butch and Suni join Crew-9. This means they are part of Expedition 71, 72 AND 73 on the ISS. Basically they got to do an extra expedition, something that I think most professional astronauts might see as a good thing.

Since normally you don't have a crew leave the ISS until their replacements arrive, this means Crew-9 isn't slated to leave until Crew-10 arrives.

In December it was revealed that Crew-10 is targeting no earlier than March because the particular SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that was slated to be used for that mission is not yet ready because it is brand new and there was still fabrication, assembly, testing and final integration of the vehicle necessary before it flew.

This Crew Dragon, C213, is the fifth and likely final Dragon Capsule that will be built. So why are they waiting on a brand new spacecraft to launch Crew-10? Why aren't they just using one of the other 5 to fly Crew-10 sooner and get Butch and Suni home sooner?

Well, C207 Resilience flew Polaris Dawn and is modified for free flying and is docking-portless at the moment, and will be flying Fram-2 soon. C206 Endeavor is undergoing refurbishment as planned after its 5th flight. C212 Freedom is currently docked to the ISS and C210 is currently slated to fly Axiom-4.

So what options are there?

What if they really do say "just bring them home already!!!"... well it causes a bit of a mess.

First off, they would abandon their expedition 72 crew mate, Don Pettit, to be the only person onboard the US segment of the ISS. Leaving him alone to do all station keeping, leaving virtually no time to do science or research, he'd become a full time janitor / maintenance man until he was relieved of his duties.

It should be noted that when they increased crew size from a crew of 3 to a crew of 4, the amount of science that could be done nearly doubled, which goes to show just how much time and energy it takes to keep the station operational for a crew.

Another option is rush completion and certification of the C213 Dragon and fly Crew-10 earlier, which I think we all agree is a terrible option, and likely one SpaceX wouldn't sign off on, no matter how much pressure there is from up top.

Another option is to switch Crew-10 to fly on C210, which is also not great since the Crew has been training specifically to certify and test out C213 as part of their mission. Swapping two crews' hardware at this point would be fairly negligent too.

Lastly, the option is to just wait until Crew-10 arrives, swap the crews per usual and allow Butch and Suni to fly home on Crew-9's Dragon Capsule once Crew-10 is settled in and operating the station.

This is the option NASA, and ultimately SpaceX, chose. These are just plain and simple the facts of the situation, hopefully it helps you develop an informed and nuanced opinion on this complicated subject matter.

[SpaceX @SpaceX]

Super Heavy landing burn and catch

[SpaceX @SpaceX]

Tower view of the first Super Heavy booster catch

[SpaceX @SpaceX]

Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster!

[Christian Davenport @SpaceDavenport]

Insane. SpaceX caught a Starship

[Scott Manley @DJSnM]

Remember the CHIPS act that was supposed to increase government funding to science to keep US competitive with China? Looks like Congress forgot about it and funding is still at a 25 year low.
https://t.co/kkwIvrSbRt

[Nic Ansuini @NicAnsuini]

🇺🇸🧹

-@NASASpaceflight

[National Air and Space Museum @airandspace]

Congratulations to @SpaceX on today’s launch of Starship, the tallest & most powerful rocket ever launched! 🚀

Although Starship experienced a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” before stage separation, the test provided good data to the Starship team to prepare for the next one.

[SpaceX @SpaceX]

Liftoff of Starship!

[Nic Ansuini @NicAnsuini]

Hang’n out ‘n build’n rockets

-@NASASpaceflight

[ARCHIVED - NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover @NASAPersevere]

This rock almost looked surprised that I was coming back! Thankfully, I was able to collect another sample here to replace the one I discarded earlier. This may be one of the oldest rocks I sample, so it could help us understand the history of this place. #SamplingMars

[Chris Hadfield @Cmdr_Hadfield]

The revolutionary drop in cost to get things (and sometimes even people) into space.

log scale chart: visualcapitalist https://t.co/qWntxRFDYr

[Bill Nelson @SenBillNelson]

Debris generated by the dangerous Russian ASAT test caused ISS astronauts and cosmonauts to undertake emergency procedures for safety.

It's unthinkable that Russia would endanger not only intl partner astronauts on the ISS but also their own cosmonauts.
https://t.co/8VKJxon9mW

[David Robie @drobie22]

@DJSnM @inspiration4x Why do you think they haven’t shown any pictures or footage from the booster landing?