Near Earth space combat as envisaged in the 1980s. Art by John Berkey (first slide) and Wilf Hardy

OK, we've let go of about 20% of the NASA workforce, the Administration seems to want to force this 24% NASA overall budget cut & 47% science budget cut down the agency's throat by any means necessary, the lander is still the long pole in the tent & we're going to the Moon in 2 years? Sure, Sean.

If you want to learn more about the X-37B's first 7 missions, check out @swfoundation.bsky.social's fact sheet here: www.swfound.org/publications...

The new Soviet Space Substack is out!

graphicsnickstevens.substack.com/p/cosmonauts...

Lots of different subjects covered, and I'm looking for feedback on what direction to take the publication.

Mar 27, 2013: Security forces and their dog patrol the train track to the Soyuz launch pad ahead of the upcoming launch.

www.nasa.gov/image-article/guarding-soyuz/

The Big Ugly Bill wastes $300 million of taxpayer money to move our space shuttle Discovery to Texas for no good reason. I am doing everything I can to fight this. Save Our Shuttle!

I'm listening to yesterday's earnings call from #RocketLab. Q: What would a successful launch be? " Sir Peter Beck: "Well you are not going to hear some rubbish about just clearing the pad as a success.... We'll declare success when we're in orbit. " Nice expectations, no nonsense.

A recurring theme in the Shuttle's early history is the program's entanglement with the USAF, and its utility to the late-Cold-War military-industrial complex. Starting today, we'll be taking a look at SLC-6, the planned Shuttle launch facility at Vandenberg AFB, and the DoD's Shuttle aspirations. 🧵

Excellent listen from the #TalkingSpace podcast detailing just how ridiculous (and downright impossible) Discovery's proposed move to Houston is.

A while later, I knew that I was going to have an opportunity to meet Slayton, and go out to dinner with him. I gave him an 8x10 of the pic, and had him autograph one for me.
He asked me, "What was I mad about?"
I replied, "ALT-5", and he just said "Oh."

This just reminded me of one I took in 1977. It was at the presser after the final approach and landing test of the Space Shuttle (ALT-5). It was a pretty rough landing, and former astronaut Deke Slayton was the managing the project - he wasn't pleased.
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Mar 18, 2021: Space shuttle Enterprise is offloaded at Redstone Arsenal Airfield before moving to Marshall for vertical ground vibration testing, marking a pivotal moment in shuttle history.

www.nasa.gov/image-article/march-18-1978-space-shuttle-enterprise-arrives-vibration-testing/

Millie was a medical researcher from Texas who devoted much of her work to medial astronautics, osteology, and oncology. Though she never flew again, she sent no less than seven experiments to orbit from 1996-2013, and was a leading researcher on spaceflight-induced osteoporosis. She died in 2021.

STS-40 was also the first mission to include three women on its crew: PS Dr. Millie Hughes-Fulford, and MSs Rhea Seddon and Tammy Jernigan.

You can see Dr. Hughes-Fulford talk about some of the mission's scientific aspects alongside a very 90s animated jellyfish here youtu.be/FvjVKAAvIn8?...

ESA's Spacelab module LM1 began its third flight aboard STS-40 on June 5, 1991, paving the way for ESA's first forays into modular space station construction. Along with its crew of seven, Columbia carried dozens of rodents and 2,478 (!) jellyfish to orbit. 🚀🧵