Thoughts from Peter Hague.
As someone who has never cared much about Mars, I’m very happy to see this.
[Title fixed, sorry!]
Thoughts from Peter Hague.
As someone who has never cared much about Mars, I’m very happy to see this.
[Title fixed, sorry!]
Who knew that liquid hydrogen could have leak issues?
Notice the subtle shade from Jared: ““With more than three years between SLS [Space Launch System] launches, we fully anticipated encountering challenges.”
[Update a few minutes later]
[Late-morning update]
The Artemis vision began with President Trump, but the SLS architecture and its components long predate his administration, with much of the heritage clearly traced back to the Shuttle era. As I stated during my hearings, and will say again, this is the fastest path to return… https://t.co/bu0SvThwS9
— NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (@NASAAdmin) February 3, 2026
It’s not even the fastest path, but it is probably the one with lowest risk. We could get back to the Moon faster and at lower cost, but we’d have to accept more risk than NASA and Congress have demonstrated the ability to do.
I’ve been busy with the conference, compounded by the fact that I brought the wrong mouse with me for the laptop, so light posting. But it’s worth noting the anniversary of the loss of Challenger. Which is also (as always) my birthday.
…has an impressive turnaround on the first booster it recovered.
Sorry, I’ve been at a conference in Orlando (AIAA SciTech), and pretty busy. Driving down to West Palm tomorrow to catch a flight home.
Bob Zimmerman says to take them off the flight.
NASA would never allow SpaceX to do something like this.
But it’s a tremendous waste of money either way.
[Friday-afternoon update]
Eric Berger reports on a meeting at NASA to discuss the issue. Jared owns it now.
[Bumped]
[Midnight update]
Charlie Camarda responds.
Stephen Clark has a round up of both domestic and international planned activities, with probability estimates.
Phil Metzger’s top 20:
🧵 1/ Here are the 20 things I’m watching in 2026 as potential disruptors of the space industry (positive & negative). They include things outside the space industry that may have oversized impact inside the space industry.
— Phil Metzger (@DrPhiltill) January 1, 2026
First item on the list:
1. Declining launch costs and… pic.twitter.com/2RtFM68Psu
A clarion call, if we are to not be defeated by China:
I know some people think I only post silly videos and make ridiculous comments.
— Sovey (@SoveyX) January 2, 2026
I joined this platform to write long form articles.
Unfortunately, no one reads more than 280 characters. https://t.co/nsqtmNXkcq
This past year has been good for a number of reasons, but I’m hoping that next year will be even better, both in general, and for space policy and activity.
I’m hoping that the economy will improve sufficiently to prevent the Democrats from taking Congress. I’m also hoping that there will finally be some accountability for all the corruption and lawlessness for the past decade, and not just in Minnesota.
I expect Jared to be aggressive in moving out on his agenda, and I expect Starship to start flying on a more-regular basis. In terms of technology in general, I suspect that we are entering interesting times, in the Chinese sense of the word.
We’re having people over for brunch today, with fresh bagels with lox, quiche, deviled eggs, meats and cheeses, and holiday cookies, while we watch a soggy Rose Parade and football games. The parade and Rose Bowl have been living a charmed life for the past couple decades in terms of weather, but looks like their luck may have run out. One of the things that motivated people to come to California was seeing the people in teeshirts and sunshine on New Years Day while they themselves were snowed in or cold. Maybe this will also dampen the enthusiasm people have had for immigrating here. The Democrats certainly continue to encourage them to leave.
Speaking of football, I was a little surprised, but not shocked, to see Ohio State lose, and I was disappointed, of course, to see Michigan do so, but they were playing only for pride. With the new coach, perhaps they’ll be on track for a better season next year. They’re doing well in basketball, but I hate basketball.
Anyway, that’s all for now. Be kind in comments.