Kevin Zagorski
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kevzag.bsky.social
Kevin Zagorski
@kevzag.bsky.social
currently: building space stations at Vast 🌌
prev: south pole telescope operations 📡
prev: rocket engineer 🚀
always: taco appreciator 🌮
il faut aller voir
always easy to spot the engineers at the star trek event because they're the ones taking selfies with the warp core.
May 12, 2025 at 3:51 AM
brushing up on space station acoustics design is much more enjoyable with a catalina express spicy bloody mary in hand.
April 27, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Super interesting paper cited here on the topic of space station cleanliness. It's not a matter of being "too dirty" or "too clean" - the variety and distribution of microbes on your station can have a huge impact on astronaut health.
www.sciencenews.org/article/inte...
The International Space Station lacks microbial diversity. Is it too clean?
Hundreds of surface swabs reveal the station lacks microbial diversity, an imbalance that has been linked to health issues in other settings.
www.sciencenews.org
March 26, 2025 at 12:17 AM
harvest your dinner from oil rig support beams. you can just do things.
March 12, 2025 at 2:08 AM
Woke up at 5am on a Saturday to hang out with sea lions. Back home in time for lunch. You'll have to pry California from my cold dead hands.
February 23, 2025 at 6:53 PM
I get a real kick out of diving with my Orca Edge which was the first commercially available dive computer released in 1983. Still works great even though it looks like an aluminum brick! Always have a modern backup though...
February 21, 2025 at 4:48 AM
@michaelsheetz.bsky.social was not expecting that twist! congrats!
February 19, 2025 at 2:57 PM
After fixing a mailing address snafu I finally received my Antarctic Service medal. It's one of the few DoD medals that civilians are eligible for. Pretty neat.

Qualifying for the medal itself only requires 10 days of service on continent. The "Wintered Over" bar takes a little bit longer to get...
February 9, 2025 at 8:54 PM
"Crucially, Vast just set the bar for how to be taken seriously as a space station company, with transparency around when it aims to complete milestones leading up to the first crewed mission reaching Haven-1. Every other company working on a space station take note"

via @michaelsheetz.bsky.social
Overview: Station Arrivals
Father Time has a funny way of sneaking up on us. It’s somehow been nearly four years since NASA announced the Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD) program, its plan to replace the International Space St...
www.linkedin.com
February 6, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Realizing I haven't updated the blue place on my new gig: I started a few weeks ago in the Flight Safety & Mission Assurance group at Vast. We're vying to build the replacement to the International Space Station. It's really cool!
February 5, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Building big space stations means building big doors.

File under: "Things you don't appreciate until you're doing it"
February 5, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Every Jan 1st at the South Pole the summer season crew unveils the new geographic pole marker which is designed and fabricated on-site by the previous winterover team. I had the privilege of machining the 2025 marker with my buddy Luke and I can finally show it off.
January 2, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Beelining for Japan after a year in Antarctica was the pro-est move
December 12, 2024 at 12:34 AM
13 months in Antarctica.
Finally saw a penguin (in NZ).
December 2, 2024 at 7:07 PM
Last footsteps in Antarctica after 13 long months.
December 2, 2024 at 6:16 AM
In my hotel in Christchurch. Can't escape 😂
November 30, 2024 at 8:24 PM
Attempts to leave South Pole are becoming more desperate by the day.
November 25, 2024 at 2:05 AM
Moving to places where the default orientation of globes is *not* Antarctica-up is going to take some getting used to...
November 19, 2024 at 8:20 PM
365 days at South Pole station, about a week left to go. We spent the day training the new winterover crew and posing for Radio Telescope Men Quarterly.
November 17, 2024 at 9:06 PM
Be not afraid, the 600 foot-pound torque wrench is your friend.
November 16, 2024 at 2:15 AM
One last photo with the whole 2024 South Pole science team before two of our crew flew out last week.
November 11, 2024 at 9:13 PM
Sneak preview of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station winterover crew photo alongside our first aircraft arrival of the season.
October 18, 2024 at 11:46 PM
Continuing my attempts to wean off the other place. Up to this point I've found Bsky to be a bit more dead than mastodon though. Maybe the recent infusion will help?
October 18, 2024 at 11:39 PM
After a long 7 months without seeing a single new face, flight operations have resumed at the South Pole with the arrivals of a pair of de Havilland Twin Otter aircraft.
October 18, 2024 at 11:32 PM
Sun is finally up at South Pole!
September 24, 2024 at 1:08 AM