https://europeanspaceflight.substack.com/ - arguably the best Europe-centric #space newsletter out there. Created by one and only Andrew Parsonson, who's "just" a fan of the spaceflight turned into a top-notch spaceflight #CitizenJournalist after he realized there's so little coverage.
https://orbitalindex.com/ - great US-centric newsletter without the typical biases American spaceflight reporters suffer from.
My favorite #SpaceShuttle fact: on STS-31 (the launch mission for Hubble) and two other DOD-related missions, the Space Shuttle carried Detailed Secondary Objective 469.
What was that cryptic carry-on? A Human Skull.
More elegantly known as the In-flight Radiation Dose Distribution, the skull was wrapped in plastic, cut into ten slices, and covered in dosimeters to measure how much #radiation astronauts get on their noggins.
Now they took in #KathyLueders, NASA's Associate Administrator of the Human Exploration and Operations - person responsible for awarding SpaceX a multi-billion dollar contracts.
Another on a long-list of NASA's higher-ups landing on a golden pillows at SpaceX. The most notable of them being William Gerstenmaier - NASA's Chief of Human Spaceflight hired in 2020 right as he left the agency.
Listening to a status update on our ESA #JUICEmission to Jupiter & its icy moons from Project Manager Giuseppe Sarri.
The word “nominal” is repeated many times and it is a beautiful thing 🛰️
Still some instruments to be turned on & hardware to be deployed, but after the release of the stuck RIME radar boom, the team is feeling quite relieved 👍
My good friend @bbcamos spotted this superb slo-mo video of the #JUICEmission#VA260 Ariane 5 emerging from behind the launch tower on 14 April – it was among a B-roll compilation from Arianespace released on our ESA website.
It was also tweeted yesterday by @esa with a Holst soundtrack.
So here's my version: speeded up to real-time, starting with the Vulcain & EAP ignitions, then the tower shot, with representative audio.
Outstanding news from our ESA #JUICEmission to Jupiter & its icy moons, launched on 14 April 🚀🛰️
The 16-metre long RIME radar antenna, designed to probe up to 10 kilometres into the icy crusts of Ganymede, Europa, & Callisto, has now been successfully deployed, after earlier problems 👍
Excellent work by our project & operations team, & fantastic news for all of the scientists involved 🙇♂️
Finished! “THE FUTURE IS HERE”, another view of the historic @SpaceX#Starship launch on 4/20/23. Watercolor and ink on cotton, 6x12”. The borders are painted in metallics, video to follow. (Also pictured: me.)
While the FAA mishap investigation is only beginning with all Starships being grounded, this is an interesting attempt to explain what was observed from publicly available coverage. Besides the violation of the 1 mile debris zone assertion required for launch approval, it looks like this warrants a detailed investigation of all aspects.
An update on our #JUICE mission to Jupiter & its icy moons, describing the problems we’re having deploying the big RIME radar antenna designed to penetrate the icy surfaces 🚀🛰️
Fingers crossed that our expert project engineering & spacecraft operations teams can find a solution 🤞
Otherwise deployment & commissioning progress is nominal 👍
Context for the Starship explosion, if anyone wants it:
It’s not actually a failure. It would be better if it hadn’t exploded, of course, but most of us expected it to explode. Rocketry is just a controlled explosion.
I'm Joff, I live in Melbourne/Naarm in Australia. Originally from Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Some form of #leftist#queerish#enm cis-human who ideally would live in some sort of technohippie commune with all my friends
Things I'm very into #aviation I've been (very slowly) working on getting my Private Pilots Licence. I currently hold an RPL. Planes are cool! #photography Nice photos! #swingdancing. Okay, it's been quite a while since I've done that, but I'm still gonna count it. #spaceflight and #rockets.
Playing all together far too much #RocketLeague
The few grey hairs in my beard are the evidence I've been a software engineer for quite some time now. Done most things, but I have a special place in my heart for #Elixir and #DevOps. Trying hard not to make this my entire personality. Currently working in the #ClimateChange space