Dwayne Day

Yeah, my weekly tithing was all those action figures.

My new article is up: thespacereview.com/article/5169/1

“…stunning special effects, imaginative sets, handsome production…”

While STAR TREK gets criticized now for “cheap sets and effects,” this 1967 review is a good reminder that, at the time, it was an expensive and impressive show.

USNS Waters (T-AGS-45) submarine navigation-system and ballistic missile flight test support vessel coming into Port Canaveral, Florida - March 2, 2026 SRC: X-@JConcilus

Jeff Richelson wrote a book about gathering intelligence on nuclear programs. I think that NEST was a chapter in that book.

Aerial Measuring System (AMS) The Aerial Measuring System has airborne radiation detection systems to provide real-time measurements of low levels of air and ground contamination.

www.energy.gov/nnsa/aerial-...

Yes. They also have (or did have) UH-1 Hueys. The Hueys have pods on the outside, the AW139s do not (or at least I don't think they do). Part of this:

To be clear, I am not sure it was this exact helicopter. But I am sure it was one of these. I've seen one of them up close.

Drove into downtown Washington, DC, this morning and saw this helicopter flying very low over Capital One Arena/G Street. This is the Aerial Measuring System helicopter for sniffing out nuclear materials, like nuclear bombs (or so-called "dirty bombs"). Never seen it low and over downtown before.

The experienced people might have suggested a long-term plan, but anytime they brought it up, they probably got shouted down. Look at Hegseth's comments at the presser where he essentially said we're just here to blow stuff up and leave. And I've seen MAGA types echo that. Thinking is woke.

USS Enterprise Refit

My Space Review article this week will be on this:

Just got up. Looking forward to a slow news weekend. Hope nothing is going on...

#starshipdesign
#startrek #startrekfanart #sciencefiction #oberth #startrekfanart #blender3d #photoshop
Mesh is not finished, but sometimes I get an urge to beautify a wip capture.

When I was working on the Columbia accident investigation in 2003, I went to a talk by a NASA guy who was working on a Hubble de-boost spacecraft that would reenter it at end of life. That was almost 23 years ago.

I think that Sary Shagan really is one of the more overlooked Soviet test sites. During and after the Cold War there were books that discussed the rocket launch sites, but nobody paid much attention to Sary Shagan. Not in the 1990s up to today.

Interesting quote from Scott Hubbard that the risk is supposed to be to the quality of the science data, not to the operation of the spacecraft. (So the spacecraft is not supposed to fail.) I never heard that before. They certainly should not scrimp on testing.

LM also messed up on the X-59. My suspicion is that they are flush with DoD contracts and they are not putting good people on their NASA contracts. That still raises the question of oversight.

So the second photo shows missile launch sites. Any idea on the missiles? Not a Star of David pattern for the SA-2. Must be later missiles.

l think that this shot of the torpedo was filmed on a soundstage, but the sunlight through the trees was shot outdoors, right? I know it was done over Nic Meyers' objection.

Agreed. But first we need to see if the space program will survive the next few years relatively intact. I don't want to be too pessimistic, but the current administration has shown a resemblance to this classic commercial:

I remember hearing a JPL senior engineer explain that they were in denial about Europa from around 2011-12. They get caught up in their solutions. They are unable to back out and ask if they can change an assumption or a requirement to bring the cost down.

And I think something similar happened with EJSM in the 2000s. When the 2011 decadal survey said it was too expensive, re-do it, for a YEAR JPL thought that was impossible and the DS was stupid. Then they redid it and came up with Europa Clipper.

I sat through several briefings (some to the SSB) about what went wrong with MSR. One of the problems seemed to be that once JPL starts with a set of assumptions, they don't back out and change, or question them. They get 75% done with something that is too expensive before they say "oops"

I think that MSR fell apart for slightly more complicated reasons than they go into. No mention of the leadership revolving door in PSD. I also think they're right to mention last year's proposed budget cuts. My suspicion is that 2025 was as bad as the pandemic in terms of productivity.

I think the most important thing to most of the current collectors is that they get their act together and ship the right products on time. Their fulfillment process is a mess.

Will also touch on this:

My next article will be about space aliens, but I have something about this in the works as well:

Just cannot believe how Stormzy is now.

And I get to see him on Sunday in his new home!!!

My own views on these. 1- Somebody sold the NASA administrator a fantasy, and none of his people talked him out of it. 2-I think it was badly/chaotically managed. 3-I think that many people knew it was unaffordable, which explains why they did not have good people working on it. They stayed away.