Max Evans

Meatball and the flag made it to the Moon and back

Here’s a glimpse of the New Glenn-3 flight profile.

5 spots left for this evening’s sunset launch pad trip to see New Glenn from approximately 1,000 y/m away!

The first flight of the Block 3 Starship took a major step forward following the successful Static Fire tests for both Booster 19 and Ship 39. ➡️youtu.be/UkmhtBcWt58

I understand some in the community have an affinity for specific hardware, but the focus should be on outcomes. With respect to SLS, the desired outcome is launching crewed Orion spacecraft at a reasonable cadence, rebuilding muscle memory, and buying down risk so we can land astronauts on the Moon. This is until such time as there are multiple crewed pathways that allow us to undertake lunar missions with even greater frequency and at lower cost, so that Artemis can live on for decades into the future. The idea that Artemis II was only held up by the heat shield is not correct. Administrator Bill Nelson stated in December 2024, two years after Artemis I flew, that we would refly the same heat shield design on Artemis II, yet the mission did not fly until April 2026. On a side note, if leadership knew at the time that Artemis II would not launch until April 2026, it probably would have made sense to replace the heat shield altogether. Even with as clean of a mission as Artemis II, it is hard to imagine waiting until 2028 to fly again and jump right to a lunar landing. SLS and Orion must launch with a reasonable cadence, and we need every opportunity to learn. That is why we added Artemis III, an easy trade against funding programs overbudget and behind schedule, in advance of a landing on Artemis IV. You cannot point to the ML-2 structure and a single EUS tank and say it was “pretty much done" and you certainly have no specifics as to the suitability of stage adapter. The Government Accountability Office has been clear on the timing and remaining costs for both ML-2 and EUS, based on a history of OIG oversight reports. Simply put, we would be committing billions more to troubled programs when we can work cooperatively with the OEM and its joint venture to leverage an in-production upper stage with decades of flight heritage and get very good at turning ML-1. Of course, we retain the option of working with industry on ML-2, converting it to the SLS standard, or harvesting parts. I am not here to favor companies or perpetuate underperforming programs. I do not want to throw away billions of taxpayer dollars, and time we do not have, on a flavor of a rocket that is not necessary to return astronauts to the moon. Those billions could go toward more Artemis missions or more science and discovery. Our focus must be on the immensely hard task of sending astronauts to the Moon with frequency and safely so we can land and stay. Above all else, I care about outcomes, and so does the hardworking team at NASA, focused on delivering for the American people and everyone around the world who eagerly await the headlines we all experienced this past weekend.

Falcon Heavy will launch the Rosalind Franklin rover to Mars in late 2028

@BigImpactHumans That you do

You need a very big building for very big rockets

We calculated a propellant flow rate into the booster of ~700 gallons PER SECOND during peak loading on today's test. ~35 mins to load a Super Heavy booster from empty. BONKERS

@blueorigin @AST_SpaceMobile

🚀 Launch Alert | We're targeting New Glenn's third launch no earlier than Sunday, April 19, 2026, from LC-36. The two-hour launch window opens at 6:45 a.m. / 10:45 UTC. NG-3 will send @AST_SpaceMobile's BlueBird 7 satellite to low Earth orbit. Learn more: bit.ly/4vzPF0B

"It flew like a dream." Different members of the Artemis II crew comment on what it was like to manually pilot the Orion spacecraft during their lunar mission.

@Alexphysics13 Too long.

Less than two weeks to Falcon Heavy's return. It's been about a year and a half since its last flight.

Back to the VAB to get ready for Artemis III 🇺🇸

LIVE: Back at home in Houston, our Artemis II astronauts are talking about their mission around the Moon. twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…

Whoah. Falcon Heavy to launch major European Mars mission. science.nasa.gov/blogs/mars-ros…

Some video of our successful 19 second hot fire today.

@shortmsger @NASASpaceflight x.com/davill/status/…

@_MaxQ_ @NASASpaceflight Just an FYI clarification - the engines aboard the NG3 booster are replacements however Blue Origin did not say they were the new version of the engines. They could be the new ones but that would require a LOT more than just slapping them on.

~20 second hot fire of New Glenn's first stage is complete! Waiting on official word regarding test results and a new confirmed launch date target from Blue - the upgraded BE-4's seemed to have performed well! 📸 - @NASASpaceflight

The hits just keep on coming!

✅ NG-3 integrated hotfire complete.