If 33 and 1/3 it might be the Ventures performing Telstar.
Some of NASA’s budget hits (I see Musk fingerprints)
– Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) is zeroed out, meaning no NASA vehicle or launch capability.
– Gateway is cancelled with $304M in termination costs
– EUS, ML2, RS-25 production restart, and BOLE are cancelled with unspecified termination costs probably well over a billion.
– the HLS program will be converted to Mars lander after the initial lunar landing (predicted). That lunar landing is required to occur by the end of Trump’s term (to beat the Chinese)
– a new Mars spacesuit program (ostensibly this is the SpaceX suit, as the Axiom suit was already being designed for Mars)
– the MSR, JUNO, DAVINCI, VERITAS, OSIRIS, ENVISION, MAVEN, New Horizons, and Franklin Rover science missions are cancelled.
– STEM is zeroed out, no more interaction of NASA with elementary, middle or high schools
– 30% reduction in NASA civil service workforce
– nuclear propulsion is cancelled, but funding is increased for cryogenic propellants, in accordance with SpaceX doctrine. NASA’s policy had been to develop hybrid nuclear-chemical-electric systems since each has advantages for different phases of flight.
– the Program Affairs Office is reduced by 60%. This is the media wing of NASA that arranges briefings and media conferences before and after every mission, and responds to media and FOIA requests.
Time to rename NASA to SCWA: SpaceX Check-Writing Agency
Surprising:
President Donald Trump announced late Saturday that he is withdrawing the nomination of tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, an associate of Trump adviser Elon Musk, to lead NASA, saying he reached the decision after a “thorough review” of Isaacman’s “prior associations.”
Musk was a key factor behind Isaacman’s nomination as NASA administrator and with his backing, Isaacman was able to skip some of the party purity tests that have been applied to other Trump administration nominees. One mark against Isaacman is that he had recently donated money to Democrats. He also indicated opposition to some of the White House’s proposed cuts to NASA’s science budget.
Musk’s role in the government was highly controversial, winning him enemies both among opponents of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” agenda as well as inside the administration. One source told Ars that, with Musk’s exit, his opponents within the administration sought to punish him by killing Isaacman’s nomination.
No. You guys are gonna wish there were Musk fingerprints all over this change. Why would SpaceX possibly lobby against a bunch of extra missions? They would be in the lead position to bid on all these things, since they’re the only provider even capable of launching more than a few times per year.
Isaacman was highly respected by everyone in the industry, and the AP is being their usual contemptible selves by characterizing him as a “Musk associate.” No, he was a very successful billionaire in his own right as well as a true aerospace enthusiast.
Next guy is gonna be a hatchet man, unfortunately. At least Isaacman gets out of it with his hands clean.
They’re about to have another go at it (landing on June 5 19:24 UTC):
Lunar landers haven’t had a great string of luck lately, but there have been some successes and partial successes. Let’s see if they learned their lessons this time.
Well, they didn’t make it:
No report on what actually went wrong yet. Suggestions from Doppler measurements are that the landing burn was initiated late and so it slammed into the surface at hundreds of km/h. But no indication why or official confirmation of what happened.
TENACIOUS D…OA. (Yes, Discourse, that is "a complete sentence, you worthless fuck.)
Fallout from the Trump-Musk feud.
As President Donald Trump and Elon Musk argued on social media on Thursday, the world’s richest man threatened to decommission a space capsule used to take astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station.
A few hours later, Musk said he wouldn’t follow through on the threat.
My first thought when reading that was “Bet the shareholders were threatening to revolt” but I admit to not knowing a thing about the ownership structure of SpaceX.
The fireworks shows continue.
Longer video:
Seems pretty clear that the explosion began inside the aeroshell, rather than venting gas being ignited outside the vehicle. After that, I think all we can say is we got to see a giant space kablooie.
It doesn’t look like they even got to the static fire test, though - in a sense - they very much did.
That blowed up real good.
Pretty sure it was a complete burn. Impressive 1st fireball but I’m a bigger fan of the secondary blast.
Elon hasn’t said anything about it?
" My contract demands payment regardless of results. I’m 2.6 Billion in on a 4 Billion contract. Fuck, I’m just gonna keep on blowing shit up and those monthly deposits are just gonna keep on rolling in. "
( ** Satire not a true quote but I’d believe it if someone showed it to me. ** )
Space X isn’t getting paid for test rockets that explode.