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Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) with a tree in the foreground standing on some grassy ridge.

#APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day

Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) captured from Slovenia about a week ago.

Credit: Uroš Fink www.urosfink.com

www.star.ucl.ac.uk/~apod/apod/a... 🔭🧪

anyone here gonna be at estec this Sunday (or just lives in/near Amsterdam or Noordwijk and wants to say hi)

Former Administrator Nominee Isaacman On NASA And His Future | Aviation Week Network Leading the U.S. space agency will fall to someone else, as the former Trump administration nominee contemplates his next steps.

Reading this article emphasizes to me how much Isaacman clearly was in over his head. No understanding of the HQ/Center structure, savior mindset (I'll pay for the launch...), lack of Congressional experience, ... aviationweek.com/space/budget...

A starship in a suit and tie refuses a gum named Orbit. Not my image.

China's crewed Moon plans: China's human spaceflight agency plans both a pad abort test and an in-flight escape test at Max-Q for the Mengzhou crew spacecraft in 2025. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/kfKIn_Bpz-...

A friend just asked me what I do to stay hopeful and I told him one of my favorite strategies…I stay hopeful by remembering that no one has any idea what the fuck is going to happen, so as long as we don’t know, we gotta do what we can.

fuck yeah! congrats!

Eric Berger @SciGuySpace · 16m A likely disaster for NASA. There were two final choices for admin six months ago. One was a budget cutter. The other was Jared.

SpaceX's PR team at Ars Technica seems pretty upset about this development

A promotional image from Boeing's 100 year anniversary. The text on the image says "The Next 100 years". The image background contains SLS and its mobile launch tower at the pad before Artemis 1.

Edit of the Onion article to include the Space Launch System which says "Well Well well not so easy to find a booster that doesn't suck shit, huh?"

Approved for immediate release in all media

wearing this with blazer and jeans

TANK vs TESLA

"We've crushed fascism before and we'll crush it again"

- ⁠WW2 veteran Ken, 98, in the tank

Giant frog trading card

What’s your favorite bit of weird Passover lore? @kaijupoet and I are doing a Passover podcast and have a ton of fun ideas. The giant frog!🐸 The angel of death! ☠️ The immortal Serach bat Asher and Joseph’s⚰️But we want to know your fav’s! We’ll do our best to include them!

oh yeah? did the simpsons predict THIS? [blows my brains out with a snubnose .38]

The final commands have been sent to Gaia. This is the last time that the spacecraft will ever hear from its team on Earth. The final commands include those to shut down the spacecraft's communication systems and central computer.

TS/SCI means the information must be transmitted over Text or Signal with Some Civilians Invited

The nominated NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman does not appear positioned to fight for the agency.

"People shouldn't waste heartbeats on rumor and speculation." followed just 2 days later by the exact rumors coming to fruition with the agency not even trying to fight back.

One could go on. Much of the space community has been puzzled as to why NASA has been spending on the order of half a billion dollars to develop a Lunar Gateway in an odd orbit around the Moon. It remains years away from launching, and if it ever does fly, it would increase the energy needed to reach the surface of the Moon. The reason, according to multiple sources at the agency when the Gateway was conceived, is that the lunar space station would offer jobs to the current flight controllers operating the International Space Station, which is due to retire in 2030. In recent years, NASA has been in the midst of a difficult transition. The agency deserves a lot of credit for nurturing a commercial space industry that now is the envy of the world. But as part of this, NASA has been moving away from owning and operating its rockets, spacecraft, and other hardware and buying services from this commercial space industry. This transition from traditional space to commercial space marks an important step for NASA to remain on the cutting edge of exploration and science rather than trying to compete with US industry. But it is also a painful step.

Eric Berger is a malicious actor, as proven by this absolute dreck posted to @arstechnica.com, which goes beyond both sidesing NASA cuts, and basically justifying them in the process.

Only one Elon Musk mention basically in passing. @sciguyspace.bsky.social is a Paid SpaceX/Musk promoter. Block him

"I'm the rocket guy, I'm the weather guy, which is why I will continue to vaguely allude to Musk as a 'controversial CEO' and leave it at that while he illegally guts NASA and NOAA. Gotta make sure I can get a book deal to document Musk's upcoming no bid government contract to build gas chambers"

A goose, it says "I think I will cause problems on purpose."

The Project for Awesome is a very fun and silly but also important event that raises millions of dollars for global health and other charities voted on by YOU. It has just begun. Please join us at ProjectforAwesome.com/live

The Current administration is gutting climate and weather forecasting as an entire field but worry not, Eric Berger (who I am loathe to admit is actually a good weather explainer) is busy tweeting about his internet beef with a small discord server

Eric Berger is a paid SpaceX propagandist

Big news! We’ve just launched some new accounts 🎉

Give them a follow:
🔭 @esascience.esa.int
🧑‍🚀 @esaexploration.esa.int
🚀 @esatransport.esa.int
🌍 @esaearth.esa.int
📡 @esaoperations.esa.int
⚙️ @esatechnology.esa.int
🛰️ @esaconnectivity.esa.int

Stay tuned for exciting things ahead! 💙✨

CNES to Develop Reusable Upper Stage for Heavy-Lift Rocket CNES has launched Project DEMESURE, an initiative to develop a reusable upper stage for an Ariane 6-class rocket.

CNES has launched Project DEMESURE, an initiative to develop a reusable upper stage for an Ariane 6-class rocket.
europeanspaceflight.com/cnes-to-deve...

Getting word that spaceships aren't supposed to do this

dragon moment 💀