David King

@zoi716 Super Falcon-1 I wonder what you could do with that. Similar to the Delta IV? W/ a weaker 1st stage, much more powerful 2nd The BE-3U would be comically overpowered, even if it set to >1/2 throttle. The overall vehicle would be >2.5m diameter to be flush with the upper stage.

When are we getting New Glenn 1x1

@SpaceKoala Neutron in the 1st poll, NG on this one. I don't know where Starship will be. We'll be more than halfway through the year when F13 goes, and even assuming F14 is orbital a month later, that leaves 3-4 months in the year. They could fly the the long duration flight in Q4 26.

Which do you think will be most delayed if it hasn't happened by the end of the year?

What's more likely by the end of the year?

This is ... ambitious. arstechnica.com/space/2026/06/…

@Gateway2Space Less than a year is different than before 2027. I think it could very well slip into next year, but would overall take less than a year if their optimisim is warranted.

Bro's putting his balls on the line

@deltaIV9250 Assuming $214m/launch (based on NSSL contracts last year), that's $6.8b a year. A lot, but for $3.4b per Lunar mission, and being able to do 2 a year, that's a bit better than today. Cost can be lower too (NSSL went as low as $119m, 3.8b total here). How long are the missions?

Napkin-mathing a reusable NRHO->Surface single stage lunar lander for an alt hist timeline 15 tons dry, 55 tons wet. However, needs as many as 8 Vulcan/Atlas V Phase II tanker launches per sortie Mind you, 2 crew sorties and 2 cargo sorties per year. 32 Vulcans a year. Grim

Can I get a hell yeah.

I fully understand New Glenn booster "No, It's Necessary" now, it took out the horrible horizontal infrastructure forcing them to move to vertical integration earlier

@NeuralinkApe @SawyerMerritt They were already planning to do it, and had some of the upgrades on the side ready to go. But it still took them 7 months. And as much damage as IFT-1 caused, a lot of it was repairable, not just broken. The tower, for instance.

@SawyerMerritt How come SpaceX fixed theirs and added water cooling in like couple of weeks

@TAbusnardo I wonder how many will be active in a decade, or how many will be canceled. Like the small lift rocket 'boom' we saw a while back. A lot of different rockets, but only a handful of companies are left standing (and almost all pivoting to medium lift).

List of recent and upcoming new Chinese launch Vehicles as of June 2026. Chinese launch companies organised 8 maiden launches in the past 6 months, and dozens more are planned over the next few years, this list gives an overview of the various current project.

So what's the next reusable launch vehicle from the US? China has 3 active now, and the US also has 3*. Terran R progress looks good, but I'm wondering when the launchpad will be ready. Neutron's page says everything up to 1st stage static fire is in progress, how close are they?

@Echo5550 @ThePrimalDino They don't need to make a launch window for TLI, so a day launch is definitely possible!

@ThePrimalDino I’m for it as long as it's also a mandatory day launch

They should give Artemis III SLS the white paint scheme. Reasons: > It’s not launching until a lander is ready so there’s plenty of time to do it > It’s not sending anything to TLI, so mass is not a concern > It looks cool

@BenHsiao0522 @pintleinjector Does Mk 1s diameter of 3.08m not include the legs? Or are they not retracted on launch?

@Spaceception @pintleinjector FCC documents indicate that Blue Moon MK1 Mission 1 will be deployed to LEO, which is feasible in terms of payload capacity, but Vulcan fairing may not be wide enough to accommodate the landing leg.

Actually nvm Vulcan makes so much more sense for this if ULA can lock in and get that thing flying again and add an LH2 line for fuelling the spacecraft

Today China succesfully launched yet another reusable rocket, the Long March-12B! This brings China's total count of flown reusable orbital rockets up to 3 making them tie with the United States! The three Chinese lifters are Zhuque-3, LM-12A, and now LM-12B all of which have debuted in the last 5-6 months and were all succesful in the mission objectives! And the three American lifters are currently Falcon, Starship, and New Glenn. Although Terran R and Nova are making fast progress, Nova will not have reuse on the first flights and it's unknown if Terran R can make its NET date of late 2026, this means China will surpass the US in active reusable rockets jumping from the now 3 reusable rockets to 4 in a month and 5-6 by the end of the year. China's space program is ramping up faster than even America's during the Apollo program.

January 2020 - November 2020 BO pad team moved fast once, i imagine once a plan is set and in motion they can do it again.

🚀 Space exploration timeline: 1903 — Tsiolkovsky publishes the rocket equation 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 — Goddard writes first paper on liquid propellants as fuel for rockets 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 — Goddard patents designs for a liquid-fueled rocket and a multi-stage rocket 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 — Goddard publishes "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes" 1920 1921 — Goddard begins experiments with liquid oxygen and gasoline rocket engines 1922 1923 — Goddard successfully tests first liquid propellant engine 1924 1925 1926 — Goddard launches world's first liquid-fueled rocket 1927 — VfR (Society for Space Travel) founded in Germany; von Braun joins as a teenager 1928 1929 — Goddard launches rocket carrying first scientific payload (barometer & camera) 1930 1931 — Korolev co-founds GIRD (Group for Study of Reactive Motion) in Moscow 1932 — Von Braun becomes chief engineer of German Army rocket program 1933 — Korolev leads launch of USSR's first liquid-fueled rocket 1934 — Von Braun's A-2 rockets reach 2.4 km altitude 1935 1936 — Korolev designs RP-318, USSR's first rocket-powered aircraft 1937 1938 1939 — Von Braun's A-5 rocket reaches 8 km altitude 1940 1941 1942 — Von Braun's A-4 (V-2) rocket becomes first human-made object to reach space (100 km) 1943 — V-2 production begins; JPL formally established in USA 1944 — V-2 used as weapon against London and Antwerp; first ballistic missile attacks in history 1945 — USA recruits von Braun 1946 — USA and USSR independently begin reverse-engineering V-2 1947 — First animals (fruit flies) launched to space aboard a V-2 1948 — Korolev's R-1 rocket successfully launched 1949 — Albert II, a rhesus monkey, becomes first mammal in space aboard a US V-2 rocket 1950 1951 1952 1953 — Korolev begins design of R-7 1954 — Korolev writes letter to Moscow advocating for an orbital satellite program 1955 — USA announces Project Vanguard 1956 — Von Braun's Redstone rocket successfully tested; R-7 development nears completion 1957 — Korolev's R-7 becomes world's first ICBM; Sputnik 1 — first artificial satellite in orbit; Sputnik 2 carries Laika — first living creature in orbit 1958 — USA launches Explorer 1; NASA founded; first US attempt at Moon probe (Pioneer 0) fails 1959 — Luna 1 (USSR) — first spacecraft to escape Earth's gravity; Luna 2 — first human-made object to reach the Moon; Luna 3 — first photos of Moon's far side 1960 — First weather satellite (TIROS-1) launched by USA; first communications satellite (Echo 1); two Soviet dogs (Belka & Strelka) orbit Earth and return safely 1961 — Gagarin — first human in space, April 12; Alan Shepard — first American in space, May 5 1962 — Mariner 2 — first spacecraft to fly by another planet (Venus); Telstar 1 — first active communications satellite 1963 — Tereshkova — first woman in space 1964 — Ranger 7 — first close-up photographs of the Moon's surface 1965 — Leonov — first spacewalk; Mariner 4 — first close-up images of Mars 1966 — Luna 9 — first soft landing on the Moon; first orbital docking (Gemini 8); Surveyor 1 — first US soft Moon landing 1967 — Apollo 1 fire kills three astronauts; Venera 4 — first probe to enter another planet's atmosphere (Venus) 1968 — Apollo 8 — first crewed mission to orbit the Moon; famous Earthrise photograph 1969 — Apollo 11 — first humans on the Moon; Apollo 12 — second Moon landing 1970 — Apollo 13 — Moon mission aborted after explosion; Luna 16 — first robotic Moon sample return; Lunokhod 1 — first lunar rover 1971 — Salyut 1 (USSR) — first space station; Mariner 9 — first spacecraft to orbit another planet (Mars); Apollo 14 & 15 Moon landings 1972 — Apollo 16 & 17 — final Moon landings; Pioneer 10 launched toward Jupiter; last humans on the Moon 1973 — Pioneer 10 — first spacecraft to fly by Jupiter; Skylab — first US space station 1974 — Mariner 10 — first gravity assist maneuver; first flyby of Mercury

"And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof thru the night that our flag was still there." "Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: “In God is our trust!” I still believe in the American experiment. It will endure.

@Truthful_ast Wait, are they static like easter eggs, or did they figure out how to make animals in the game?

Hundun, an exotic Kerbin-like planet full of vegetation and tall creatures similar to dinosaurs roaming the planet From Cosmic Serenity, a newer planet mod for Kerbal Space Program.