Pretend you’re Slim Pickens and yell yeehaw on the way down.
I’d say at 2025 levels of automation there’s less and less all the time.
Real piloting is dealing with the failures your machinery can’t handle on its own. I could imagine scenarios were the triple-redundant whatever-sensor has a failure and the remaining channel(s) can’t decide which readings are reality and which are spurious. Hand off to the human to get it right or die trying. Rather than having the machine pick one to believe and maybe kill them all trying.
In less exciting news, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is likely to be cancelled, even though it’s almost complete:
How about striking the superhero landing pose - One knee and the fist to the ground?
I missed what was on written on Katy Perry’s butterfly. It was her upcoming concert tour.
Maybe if they quickly rename it after a man, it’ll get saved?
Given Trump’s egomania, I can’t say he wouldn’t order it saved if it was renamed for him. 
When I saw your post, my first thought was, “Why is anyone naming a telescope after that obnoxious true crime reporter, Nancy Grace?” I never heard of Nancy Grace Roman before, so thanks.
NASA has released the trajectory of the Lunar Gateway combined “Power & Propulsion Element” (PPE) and “Habitation and Logistics Outpost” (HALO) modules, which will be launched together on Falcon Heavy.
Since the Gateway needs electric thrusters to maintain its NRHO orbit over 15 years, NASA decided to let those thrusters take it to the moon as well. The thrust is very low compared to chemical combustion engines, so it will slowly spiral out from the earth over a number of months, before executing a phase inversion for NRHO.
Huh. Is that new? I think that was originally planned for SLS. Falcon Heavy is certainly less capable than SLS, expecially for high-energy orbits, but this thing is in no rush, so they may as well let the electric propulsion do its thing and save ~$2B on the launch.
I knew Rob fairly well. He trained me in aerobatics and we kept in touch sporadically over the years. As close to a “natural” as I’ve ever seen. Incredibly skillful pilot and an excellent instructor.
For years whenever there was an airshow crash I would think, “Please don’t be Rob… Please don’t be Rob…” Well, today’s the day. Goddammit. RIP, my friend. I’m honored to have your signature in my logbook.
Edit: The link didn’t expand as I expected. Rob Holland, airshow pilot and multiple time world aerobatic champion died today in a crash in Virginia. More links:
Dammit, wrong thread. Meant for this to go in aviation. I’ll copy it over. Mods, do your thing, please.
Aerobatics is close enough!
Only if you do an Immelmann turn above the Kármán line.
Sign me up!
Political but related to NASA confirmation.
Jared Isaacman responses to the Senate NASA Committee’s confirmation questions, have been published prior to his confirmation vote as NASA administrator next week.
Some interesting reading for sure. He was at one point sued by Trump’s casino over a gambling debt.
From a NASA perspective, the worst thing is that he has embraced the Musk narrative that NASA is competing with the private sector. That is not true, nor has it ever been true.
He also has walked back his criticism of Blue Origin. He has posted to social media in the past, that all the US needs is SpaceX. Which is amusing in terms of his views on competition, and his proposed role of handing out the contracts.
He continues to double down on his assertion that NASA can pursue Moon and Mars programs simultaneously. He uses the Gemini and Apollo programs of the 60’s as an example. But even the media has pointed out the enormous budget required to do that. NASA has only a fraction of that budget today.
Republican questions:
https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/5C22B600-2AAB-4ACF-AE89-FA78A04E602D
Democratic questions:
https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/13EEBAAD-3523-45C8-BB97-EB1031A01741
If you want the mods to do something, report your mistaken post yourself and ask for what you want. Mods almost never see “Hey mods, please do [whatever]” notes posted into threads.
Stranded in Earth orbit since 1972, a Russian Venus lander is soon to make an uncontrolled re-entery of Earth’s atmosphere. It was designed to survive entry at Venus, so there’s a chance it could crash relatively intact.
I can’t tell if there’s a radioisotope thermoelectric generator on board or not, but I guess they’d say if there was. Would have been a nice addition to my element collection.
Something new wonking about overhead.
Russian nuclear satellite SNAFU:
"A Russian military satellite, Cosmos 2553, believed by US officials to be linked to Moscow’s nuclear anti-satellite weapons program, appears to be spinning uncontrollably and may no longer be operational, according to US analysts.
Launched on February 5, 2022, just weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Cosmos 2553 has exhibited erratic tumbling behavior over the past year. Radar data from LeoLabs and optical observations from Slingshot Aerospace, seen by Reuters, indicate that the satellite is experiencing instability, suggesting a loss of control."
See: