I generally avoid the city. The South Bay, with the resurgence of the space industry and many start ups, remains in better shape.
[Update late morning]
LA 2025: Welcome to America’s future.
I hope not.
Category Archives: Space
On The Trump-Musk Feud
Beyond the Trump-Musk fallout?
— Victor Davis Hanson (@VDHanson) June 6, 2025
At first impression, it makes no sense that Musk would start firing away at the (admittedly imperfect) budget bill, or escalate to DefCon 1, by tweeting nonsense about impeachment, the Epstein files, or disengaging his space efforts from the U.S.…
Assuming that Trump is serious, wait until he hears that there's no Golden Dome or Mars without SpaceX.
— Not-So-OK Boomer (@Rand_Simberg) June 5, 2025
[Saturday-evening update]
Sorry about the formatting issues. I’m trying to get used to the WordPress update, which munged everything up in terms of how I post. Among other things, it made it a lot more effort to insert HTML.
Blue Origin Speaks
It’s time for NASA to get out of the launch business.
I’ve only been saying this for over two decades.
Don’t read the comments, though.
[Tuesday-morning update]
Bob Zimmerman is very encouraged about the future of America in space.
Light posting today if at all, because I’ll be at the Space Tech Expo in Long Beach all day.
[Thursday-morning update]
Bob has a follow up post. I do think the proposal to reduce crew size on the ISS is penny-wise pound-foolish.
Elon’s Presentation On Mars Plans
Bob Zimmerman has it, and summarizes.
Flight 8 Report
With approval for another flight as early as next week, SpaceX has released a report on what happened on the last two flights, and what they’ve done to prevent a repeat of either.
[Tuesday-morning update]
For those with X, Elon is about to talk about getting multi-planetary, as a prelude to this afternoon’s launch attempt. For the Xless, just go to SpaceX.com.
[Update a few minutes later]
It just changed the start time from 1015 PDT to 1800. So after the flight, instead of before?
Return To Flight
FAA has approved Starship’s return to flight. pic.twitter.com/NtxV5TY9jz
— Marcia Smith (@SpcPlcyOnline) May 22, 2025
The Next Starship Flight
…won’t be catching the booster.
Lunar Water
An interesting essay. I’m working with several people to pursue LASSO. It’s primarily a tech demo for low-altitude lunar orbit, but if it works, we could get a good map of the resource.
The Current Artemis State Of Play
A good article from Irene Klotz.
[Afternoon update]
What comes after Artemis III?
The Musk derangement is strong in comments.
And this had me rolling my eyes: “”…one friend in the industry predicted a future without them to be so dire that Artemis III would be the last US human spaceflight of our lifetimes.”
An Amusing Scam
An account on X called @Gwynneshotwell7 claiming to be Gwynne Shotwell followed me the other day. Out of curiosity, I followed it back. It then initiated a DM conversation with it as following:
Scammer: Hello this is Gwynne Shotwell president of SpaceX Yesterday, 6:10 PM
Me: It obviously is not. Yesterday, 9:24 PM
Scammer: Yeah it true this is my private account and SpaceX is giving new opportunities to everyoneSpaceX. Is giving investment opportunities Potential benefits include substantial monthly revenue, potentially reaching $50,000 per week or more, depending on your investment and agreement. You would also have opportunities to participate in government contracts and partnerships, and contribute to decision-making in pioneering U.S. technology. Furthermore, there’s the exciting prospect of lunar and Martian travel, offering the chance to be among the first to explore new frontiers developed by SpaceX. 4:14 AM
Me: I know Gwynne. You are not Gwynne. 8:49 AM
Scammer: Yeah of course this is me and this is my private account Have we meant before? 10:35 AM
Me: Gwynne is grammatical and knows how to spell.10:52 AM
Scammer: It was likely a typographical error, as previously stated. This is the best chance to build generational wealth; it’s an opportunity you might never see again. Throughout my career as a financial engineer and investor, I can confidently say that this represents the most significant investment return I have ever seen. And of course this is Gwynne Shotwell 11:15 AM
Me: Of course you’re a scam artist. Your account will be ended shortly.
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It doesn’t know that I emailed Gwynne this morning about it. I think she knows someone who can do something about this…