Jonathan Nikkel

I’m assembling a team of exceptional operations and automation engineers to further automate Falcon 9 launch site processing. DM me if interested. job-boards.greenhouse.io/spacex/jobs/83…

Holy shit, we’re finally building a Moon base! arstechnica.com/space/2026/03/…

NASA is advancing nuclear power and propulsion in space to accomplish President Trump’s national space objectives. With SR-1 Freedom, launching in 2028, we will demonstrate nuclear electric propulsion and deliver SkyFall helicopters to Mars. In collaboration with @Energy, these capabilities are key to future missions to Mars and beyond. A new chapter of deep space exploration begins. 🚀

REMINDER: Americans support Voter ID regardless of race: Black Voters: 76% White voters: 85% Latino voters: 82%

@grok @SciGuySpace @grok Can you think of a better acronym or a simple short name to avoid the dumb acronyms?

NRHO = Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit: a weirdly elliptical lunar orbit (3,000–70,000 km from surface) originally picked for the (now-dying) Lunar Gateway. EPO/CoLA = Elliptical Polar Orbit with Coplanar Line of Apsides: a much lower, more efficient alternative (~100 km closest approach) that lets landers like Starship or Blue Moon dock with Orion way easier and burn less fuel. NASA's basically ditching the Gateway hassle for these.

Without a requirement to dock in Gateway’s orbit things get more interesting for lunar landers. Say goodbye to NRHO and hello to EPO/CoLA? arstechnica.com/space/2026/03/…

NASA does not have a top-line problem. We receive roughly $25 billion in annual appropriations, including more than a $10 billion plus-up from President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill. If that is not enough to run a lunar exploration program and do all the other things across science and discovery, then what is the right number? We don’t need to blame budgets or continuity of decision-making as the common excuse, as if a billion dollars is somehow not a billion dollars and troubled programs should perpetually stay troubled programs. NASA, like the federal government, cannot spend our way out of every problem, nor can we perpetuate bad decisions. That means not getting spread thin across too many imposed endeavors or jumping straight to the “dream state,” which is how everything becomes over budget and behind schedule. Instead, we concentrate on the needle-moving objectives, the reason NASA exists in the first place. We execute with urgency, in an iterative and safe way, and empower the workforce and our partners to get the job done. That is how we changed the world on July 20, 1969, and it is how we will do it again. Expect more from NASA and start believing again.

@CJHandmer @ulalaunch The halls of golden bullshit being passed around in the context of this risk must breathtaking to behold

Does @ulalaunch get a refund if an SRB breaks?

@TheBTCTherapist Idk but there are objectively at least 24 million people in the USA alone that can easily afford 1 BTC at this price.

I’m still waiting for someone to explain to me how over 2 million Bitcoin were purchased by ETFs and treasury companies over the last few years and we are still below $69,000.

Had the same reaction. But in the limit, after initialization, as propulsion and propellant production matures, the “transfer window” will widen, because the cost of the time wasted will far outweigh the savings in mass transfer. If we allow doubling available deltaV, the transfer window becomes nearly continuous, and ToF decreases. Time is the most valuable commodity.

@Teslaconomics Launch windows are the same.

Hey Elon - if we establish a permanent base on the Moon, doesn’t that fundamentally change our launch cadence to Mars? Right now, Earth-to-Mars missions depend on the 26-month transfer window, but if we launch from the Moon, with its lower gravity and different orbital dynamics, I would assume we could • launch more frequently • reduce energy requirements • enable more flexible transfer windows • even support continuous Mars missions Curious what the Moon-to-Mars window might look like compared to Earth-to-Mars, if this is the case… Thanks.

@elonmusk @TheBabylonBee Little bit of goop

@TheBabylonBee Not much gaming for me these days, apart from 15 mins of ARC Raiders here and there. Workload is too intense.

Elon Confirms Mars Voyage Delayed Again After 'Diablo II' Update buff.ly/nz628RP

Scrappy!

@profontheright @JMilei lol

The Turin shroud, brought to life by AI

March 1, 2019 just hours before the Demo-1 launch, first flight of Dragon 2. I was just behind Elon on the crew tower as we were giving Bob, Doug, Victor and Mike a tour along with the NASA Admin. I remember seeing him looking out at the Cape and feeling just as inspired and excited (also nervous for the launch!). So I took a photo… 😎

In the past five years, the Falcon 9 rocket has launched 30% of all active objects currently in orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base. There is an opportunity to help optimize and further automate Falcon 9 flight vehicle processing, which includes recovery, refurbishment, final integration, and runway operations. Our goal is to enable Falcon 9 processing to become almost entirely technician driven! job-boards.greenhouse.io/spacex/jobs/83…

@bscholl @MeghanEMurphy And if you aren’t one at the start of the journey, you might be by the end!

@MeghanEMurphy Only lunatics would want to live on the Moon

Serious question: why would anyone want to live on either Mars or the Moon? x.com/elonmusk/statu…

@elonmusk You should come try powered paragliding on the central coast. We have a great trainer. Your worries will melt away up in the sky like that.

Whoever said “money can’t buy happiness” really knew what they were talking about 😔

@RepCarbajal 🙄

Estuve frente a la sede de ICE en Washington, D.C. para pedir la destitución de la Secretaria Noem. Bajo Noem y Trump, ICE está fuera de control. Agentes enmascarados están asesinando a ciudadanos, deteniendo a niños inocentes y aterrorizando a nuestras comunidades. ¡Fuera, Noem!