Stephen Smith 🇺🇦
I am a long-time advocate of space exploration, settlement and commerce. Migrated from @WordsmithFL on Twitter.
Joined Nov 2022
From #Bloomberg ... This report is unconfirmed so far by other sources. The accidents reportedly happened at the #BlueOrigin factory up the road on Space Commerce Way.
From #FloridaToday: #SierraSpace will maintain #DreamChaser spaceplane in new facility to be built south of #KSC Vehicle Assembly Building.
#NASA has an audio-only telecon coming up at 1 PM EDT / 10 AM PDT to update on the status of the #Boeing #Starliner #CFT. Listen live at the link.
If you've never seen "The Dream is Alive," the 1985 IMAX space movie, it's on YouTube. Jon McBride was one of the astronauts who filmed the on-orbit scenes.
Narrated by Walter Cronkite!
Astronaut Jon McBride passed away today at age 80.
Jon was the one who hired me in 2011 to do education lectures and tours at #KSCVC. He retired from the park a few years ago.
If you've seen the IMAX movie, "The Dream is Alive," you've seen Jon's work. He filmed much of it while on orbit.
http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-080724a-nasa-astronaut-jon-mcbride-obituary.html
#Space #ISS Here's the video of today's #NASA #Boeing #Starliner #CFT audio-only telecon.
I listened to most of it ... No, they're not stranded..
This is a test flight. They're conducting tests. A lot of tests. The whole lot of tests have led to understanding what caused the thruster problems. It appears the problem is corrected, but how to prove it?
As a *contingency* NASA is looking at crew return options *if* they have to use a Dragon. That's what testing is for.
This afternoon's #NASA #Boeing #Starliner #CFT presser is an audio-only telecon, which again suggests to me we're not getting a final decision. Here's the link for the 12:30 PM EDT event.
#NASA has posted an updated press release on today's #Boeing #Starliner #CFT update. Administrator Bill Nelson is *not* one of the participants; since he told reporter Eric Berger that he would make the final decision about CFT, his absence suggests to me they haven't made a decision.
Anyway, 12:30 PM EDT on NASA TV.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-to-provide-crew-flight-test-space-station-missions-update/
The latest #NASA update on the #Boeing #Starliner #CFT status. Administrator Bill Nelson told Eric Berger of Ars Technica that he will make the final decision for how the CFT crew return home.
Media telecon tomorrow at 12:30 PM EDT.
From #FloridaToday ... The attention whore claims:
* Earth is flat
* #NASA faked the moon landings
* The Challenger astronauts are still alive
* The #ISS is not real.
Now he's suing Brevard County for not allowing him to use county meetings to spew his beliefs.
Strictly my speculation ... Mark Kelly just posted this on Zombie Twitter:
"My background is a bit different than most politicians. I spent my life serving in the Navy and at #NASA, where the mission always comes first. Now, my mission is serving Arizonans."
That last sentence has me wondering if he's out of the #Harris VP sweepstakes.
Mission Control #Cygnus update from Bill Harwood:
*****
"Also, on the previous burns, sounds like (not understandable) erroneously stopped the burns. The Cygnus team thinks that the engines are still good, and so now it's just a matter of coming up with a new burn plan to try to still get (capture on) Tuesday. So they're still working on that. They probably won't have that by the time you go to sleep, so by the time you wake up, we'll know what the plan is."
BREAKING From Bill Harwood of #CBSNews:
Something is wrong with the Northrop Grumman #Cygnus that launched earlier today on a #SpaceX #Falcon9 from #CCSFS.
*****
Mission control just alerted the ISS crew to a possible issue with the Cygnus cargo ship: "Just to let you guys know, good comm with Cygnus, we're going to have solar array deploy in about an hour. The first two burns were not performed by Cygnus, so they're re-assessing what's the current state of the burn plan."
Stephen Smith 🇺🇦
I am a long-time advocate of space exploration, settlement and commerce. Migrated from @WordsmithFL on Twitter.
Joined Nov 2022