Pete Harding

Great photo of HTV-X and Cygnus XL together in space.

Today on the ISS, for the first time ever, all 8 available Visiting Vehicle ports (x4 on Russian Segment, x2 berthing and x2 docking on US Segment) are in use simultaneously! (Image credit: orbital-velocity.com)

Congrats to Blue Origin for the landing/recovery of New Glenn's 1st stage! It's good to have more than one company that can now do this!

International Space Station - NASA The International Space Station Program brings together international flight crews, multiple launch vehicles, globally distributed launch and flight operations, training, engineering, and development ...

Today marks 25 years of humans' permanent presence in low Earth orbit. Via #NASA —an overview of how the International Space Station program started. www.nasa.gov/reference/in...

Views of HTV-X1 berthed to Node 2 Nadir

Hi! Apologies, but I prefer not being on camera. I'm happy to share my text-based thoughts if that's of any use to you. Many thanks.

HTV-X1 was captured and berthed to ISS today! There are now 7 vehicles docked/berthed to Station (tied record from 2024). If schedules hold, when Soyuz MS-28 docks in late November, all 8 available ports will be occupied for the first time -- a new record!

Great to see HTV-X arrive at the ISS (and by my count, this is the last ever time we'll see a brand new type of Visiting Vehicle arrive at the ISS).

For my American followers - VPNs are your friend. 🙂

Once Upon a Time in Space A new perspective. At the dawn of a new space race, the personal stories of those who led us here offer a unique insight into our changing world - and where we are headed.

I highly recommend watching "Once Upon A Time In Space" on the BBC - a great series documenting the early Shuttle years all the way through to today. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

This is a fantastic resource

The evolution of Cygnus 2014-2025

Great photo of the UK at night with the SSRMS in the foreground! (Image taken 14/9/25 @ 00:38 UK time)

YouTube video by Sen SpaceX Dragon CRS-33 Docks with ISS in 4K | NASA Cargo Mission

Amazing video of CRS-33 Dragon docking with PMA-2/IDA-2 in 4K!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmDB...

UK independent space agency scrapped to cut costs Britain's space agency is set to be scrapped - a scientist fears the UK space sector could fall behind as a result

An absolutely stupidly crazy decision by our government. Once again the UK sabotages its own space sector. History on repeat.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

RIP Jim Lovell

NASA is now faced with the perfect storm: Russia effectively at war with the west, Musk gone off the rails, radio silence on Starliner, Artemis still not operational, and an administration intent on killing science.

Hopefully we are witnessing the downfall of Elon Musk. I don't think there's any way back for him now in the court of public opinion - he's alienated himself from pretty much all sides, apart from his wacky die-hard fans on X. I only hope that SpaceX can decouple from him in time - but I fear not.

I used to be attracted to the idealism of it, but now it's been politicised and weaponised like never before, and become a pursuit of manchild billionaires.

I think Russia & Soyuz are beginning to look like a more reliable "partner" at this point! Wow, what a complete dick Musk has turned out to be. The wheels are coming off for SpaceX, and NASA is done IMO. And I think I'm just about done following space.

Wow, who could have foreseen that Musk & Trump, two of the biggest narcissistic, egotistical assholes to walk the earth, would fall out? No-one saw that one coming. It's almost as if the "smartest man alive" isn't actually that smart... 🙄

And BTW, I'm rapidly running out of space exploration entities that I can support - it seems to be a choice now between tyrannical governments or the obscenely wealthy. Not exactly in the spirit of "for all mankind".

Well, that's the end of NASA I think. RIP. Space exploration is now in the hands of billionaires and China.

Of course ISS will need to be retired someday, but it's not ready yet - its only just reaching the apex of its capabilities. Commercial stations are simply not going to be ready to take over by 2030. The US Segment could fly into the 2040s IMO.

The limiting factor is likely to be the Russian Segment, which has some more serious issues (namely leaks). NASA should therefore continue development of the ISS deorbit vehicle, with a view to it one day replacing the Russian Segment to provide propulsion for the ISS.

Many components have far exceeded expectations in terms of their design life, and a healthy stock of spares exists onboard. Almost any component aside from the pressure vessel itself can be replaced if needed.

Despite Musk's rhetoric that ISS is nearing the end of its life, that's far from the truth IMO - the US Segment has many years of life left I think. Its modular nature has allowed it to be upgraded over the years – for example, it has a fully upgraded system of batteries and solar arrays.

Of course there are many providers available to NASA, the issue now is whether or not NASA is going to be allowed to use them. I expect to see contract requirements being written to favour SpaceX. For example, NASA's entire human exploration program now seems to be nothing but Starship.

I used to like Elon in the early days, back when he was a zany rocket scientist. He should've just stuck to tech, instead of getting involved in politics and culture wars.

Commercial space was supposed to free NASA from being dependent on one provider to access space and foster competition, but instead it seems to have made it more dependent than ever and created a de facto monopoly.