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#24240930 at 2026-02-10 16:51:12 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #29545: Wizards & Warlocks. Save the best for last. Edition

>>24240928
Stich said a launch attempt on Saturday would be tricky since it creates a longer than ideal transit time from liftoff to the Dragon catching up with the ISS and docking, also referred to as "long phasing."
"It takes quite a number of hours to get to ISS. It's around 42 to 44 hours," Stich said. "We would look at that one very carefully because the Dragon is a great spacecraft, but it has a limited, finite ability to be in space.
And so, we want to make sure we optimize the amount of time we spend on the front versus the time we could spend on the back end."
He noted that they also have viable launch options on Feb. 15-17 as well, if those dates become needed.

Launch preparations
Over the weekend, SpaceX conducted a static fire test of its Falcon 9 rocket at SLC-40 to ensure the health of its vehicle before proceeding to a launch attempt.
During his remarks on Monday, William Gerstenmaier, SpaceX's vice president of Build and Flight Reliability, said they did have to replace a component following the engine burn demonstration.
"We found one check valve that was a little sluggish and held back a little bit of pressure. It's on a transfer tube seal," Gerstenmaier said. "We typically see that with static fires. We haven't done many static fires lately, but in this case, we saw that.
"We removed the check valve, put a new one in. We boroscoped the line. We saw a little bit of moisture in the line. That's probably indicative of what caused the problem.
There's likely some ice formation that may have caused a slight pressure rise, but again, that's part of the diligence we go through to make sure everything is absolutely ready to go fly."

Following that work on Sunday, on Monday morning, NASA and SpaceX went through a launch day rehearsal with the flight team of Crew-12 along with the rest of the launch support team.
The so-called dry dress rehearsal went smoothly, according to Gerstenmaier.
"This is only our second launch from pad 40 with crew, so this is a chance for us to make sure things were really ready and that activity went extremely smooth this morning."
Part of the reason why Crew-12 and future Dragon flights are set to launch from SLC-40 is because of work towards future Starship flights at Launch Complex 39A and also focusing on Falcon Heavy missions at that pad as well.

Additionally, teams are working to remove the crew access arm at LC-39A to do some repair work.
"We're going to do some maintenance on some bearings on the crew arm.
I think the general plan is we'll keep the crew arm on the ground after we do those repairs, but we're ready to put the crew arm back up again, if we need to go back and launch crew from pad 39A," Gerstenmaier said.
"It doesn't say we're backing away from 39A for crew flights. We'll just have it in reserve when it's needed and we need to do this repair of the bearings on the arm."

Gerstanmaier said the crew access arm needs to come down from the tower in order to get to the bearings. SpaceX attached a crane to the arm last week and has been doing some work from cherry pickers in preparation for its removal.
"These are the bearings that actually hold the arm to the tower. They're unique to 39A. They're very different than they are for the arm that's on 40 and to physically get access to those, the arm needs to be removed," Gerstenmaier said.
"Those bearings have to come out and they have to be reinstalled. We'll do that work at the Kennedy Space Center. And the intent there is, we don't need to put the arm back up because, again as I described [...] when we get a call up for a mission and we have to go fly a mission, if it requires that, we have plenty of time to get the arm back up. That's the easy piece."

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#23177102 at 2025-06-14 15:28:09 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #28262: Patriots Rise Up, Show Out Today Edition

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/crack-on-astronaut-shubhanshu-shuklas-rocket-how-isros-intervention-averted-fatal-disaster-8667532

NDTV Exclusive: Falcon Rocket's Close Call: How ISRO Helped Prevent A Space Disaster
Jun 14, 2025 18:50 pm IST

The timely detection of a "crack in an oxidizer line" in the first stage of the Falcon-9 rocket - which will take four astronauts, including India's Shubhanshu Shukla, to the International Space Station - averted a major disaster.
The fault was observed following a demand for due diligence from the Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman, Dr V Narayanan.

The Falcon-9 rocket will carry four astronauts - part of the Axiom 4 mission - to the International Space Station, where they will spend 14 days and conduct several experiments.
The "leak" has been fixed, and the ISRO has confirmed a new launch date for the mission - June 19. The back-and-forth between the ISRO and Axiom Space continued for several days.
The mission was postponed five times before getting a new launch date.

How ISRO Played A Big Role
Experts who assessed the safety told NDTV that had the crack not been detected, the rocket could have suffered a major failure at lift off since liquid oxygen is highly inflammable.
A day before the lift off on June 10, William Gerstenmaier, Vice President for Build and Flight Reliability, SpaceX said "We found a LOX (liquid oxygen) leak that was previously seen on the booster during its (Falcon-9) entry on the last mission and discovered that we had not fully repaired the booster during refurbishment, or we didn't find the leak and didn't get not correct it.

We have now gone out to the launch pad. We're continuing to troubleshoot that," the SpaceX official said.
"We should complete it today, and we will have that back in configuration. We are installing a purge that will essentially mitigate the leak if it continues…So we will be fully ready to go fly," Mr Gerstenmaier added,

Despite admitting to a fuel leak, the SpaceX team decided to launch the ailing rocket on June 11.
However, after learning of the "leak", ISRO chief, Dr Narayanan, strongly disagreed with the decision and demanded full correction, with validation by proper tests, including low-temperature leak tests.
His insistence on due diligence to rectify the leak forced the SpaceX team to call off the launch on June 11.

SpaceX teams went back to the launch pad and carried out inspections, which led to a surprise and shocking detection of a "weld crack" - A big flaw in one of the liquid oxygen lines.
This crack had gone unnoticed, even though the first stage is a recycled and refurbished one.

The cracked portion has been replaced after Dr Narayanan's insistence, and adequate tests have been carried out on the health of the repaired system.
Today, ISRO said, "During a follow-on coordination meeting between ISRO, Axiom Space, and SpaceX, it was confirmed that the liquid oxygen leak observed in the Falcon 9 launch vehicle has been successfully resolved."
NDTV requested a response from SpaceX, asking several questions via email, which remain unanswered. NDTV even tweeted to SpaceX, seeking answers to the questions emailed to them, but got no response. Emails sent to Axiom Space seeking more clarity remained unanswered, too.

However, in an oblique admission and acknowledgement of the role played by ISRO in averting a near disaster while ensuring safety, Mr Kam Ghaffarian, Executive Chairman, Axiom Space, on Thursday said, "We appreciate all the incredible work of our customers, NASA, and SpaceX on this Mission.
This is the right thing to do for Axiom Space, for NASA, and our customers. We will continue to work with all of our partners to finalise a new launch date and look forward to flying the Ax-4 Mission soon."
Earlier, ISRO stated that "During the appraisal of technical issues by Axiom and SpaceX to the ISRO delegation on June 10, ISRO recommended to carry out in-situ repairs or replacement and conduct a low-temperature leak test to validate system performance and integrity, before proceeding with launch clearance."

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#23153396 at 2025-06-10 14:12:58 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #28235: GM Tuesday Truths Unfolding, Fuck Illegals Edition

Close watch on weather at NASA's Florida spaceport ahead of Axiom-4 launch
Tuesday, 10 June 2025

SpaceX, NASA and Axiom Space are closely watching weather patterns at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida where Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three others look forward to their travel to the International Space Station (ISS), now scheduled for Wednesday.
Addressing a pre-launch press conference, SpaceX Vice President William Gerstenmaier said engineers had fixed some snags in the Falcon-9 rocket that were discovered during the static fire test and had gone unnoticed during the post-flight refurbishment of boosters.

The Axiom-4 commercial mission to the ISS had to be put off by a day to Wednesday evening due to inclement weather conditions in the flight path of the SpaceX rocket that would lift off from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
Gerstenmaier said engineers had discovered a locks leak that was previously seen on the booster during its entry on the last mission and was not fully repaired during the refurbishment.
"We are continuing to troubleshoot that. We should get that completed today and we will have that back in configuration. We are installing a purge that will essentially mitigate the leak if it still continues… On the launch day," he said.

Gerstenmaier said engineers also discovered an engine 5 thrust vector control problem and the components associated with that have already been changed.
"We will be complete with all our work this (Tuesday) evening and we will be ready to support launch as early as Wednesday," he said.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman V Narayanan said on Monday that due to weather conditions, the launch of the Axiom-4 mission for sending Indian Gaganyatri to the ISS was postponed from June 10 to June 11.
"The targeted time of launch is 5:30 PM IST on 11th June 2025," Narayanan said in a post on X on Monday.

Jimmy Tager, the Launch Weather Officer, 45th Weather Squadron of the US Space Force, said there was surface high pressure to the south east of central Florida, which typically produces south west flow across the area.
"Now over the next couple of days, the surface high pressure is going to move further towards the north and that is going to switch our primary flow towards the south east.
South east flow does tend to create some more isolated scattered showers to thundershowers in the morning time," he said.

He added that even though the Probability of Violation (POV) was lower for the initial attempt (June 10), for the next attempt on Wednesday, the POV does increase to 20 per cent.
"And as we get to Thursday (June 12), the backup opportunity POV increases a little bit more to about 25 per cent. So though it is on the lower end, it does look like there could be a possibility of isolated scattered thunderstorms near the area at the launch time," Tager said.
"But for the ascent corridor, even though the winds are pretty strong right now, it does look like winds are going to be improving over the next couple of days. As we get to Wednesday, winds will be even better, and Thursday, even better than Wednesday," he added.

Dana Weigel, Manager, International Space Station Programme, NASA, said that there are launch opportunities till June 30. She was responding to questions on the launch window for the Axiom-4 mission due to unfavourable weather conditions.
"I think we will have the vehicle ready, the crews trained and the cargo loaded. I think we're ready from a hardware standpoint.
It is just kind of waiting for the weather to get there. In terms of launch opportunities, we have launch opportunities all the way through June 30," Weigel said.

She said the Russian cargo vehicle 'Progress' will undock from the ISS later and a new one will dock for which there would be a brief cut-off for other launches.
"Then, we have a brief cut-off for high Solar Beta. Then we pick up again like in the middle of July. So, plenty of opportunities to fly the vehicle," Weigel said.

The Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission comprises Commander Peggy Whitson, pilot Shukla and specialists Tigor Kapu of Hungary and Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland.
The 14-day mission will "realise the return" to human spaceflight for India, Poland, and Hungary.

https://www.dailypioneer.com/2025/trending-news/close-watch-on-weather-at-nasa-s-florida-spaceport-ahead-of-axiom-4-launch.html

#22725062 at 2025-03-08 15:09:48 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #27762: Patriots WINNING Edition

NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 Proceeds Toward Launch, Hosts News Conference
March 7, 2025

NASA, SpaceX, and international partner teams polled "go" to continue launch preparations following the conclusion of the Flight Readiness Review today at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 remains targeted to launch at 7:48 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 12, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy.

The Flight Readiness Review allows teams to move forward with spacecraft and launch vehicle processing, review closeout of readiness review action items, assembly, check out anomalies of spacecraft, tracking support, range support, open work, and launch constraints.
The mission will carry NASA astronauts Anne McClain, commander and Nichole Ayers, pilot, along with mission specialists JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, to the International Space Station for a long-duration mission.

During their mission, the Crew-10 crew is scheduled to conduct material flammability tests to contribute to future spacecraft and facility designs.
They will engage with students worldwide via ham radio and use its existing hardware to test a backup lunar navigation solution.

Astronauts themselves will also serve as test subjects, with one crew member conducting an integrated study to better understand physiological and psychological changes to the human body to provide valuable insights for future deep space missions.
Following the agency's Flight Readiness Review, NASA leaders will hold a mission overview teleconference at 6:30 p.m. EST (or no earlier than one hour after the conclusion of the Flight Readiness Review) to discuss the mission.

Participants include:
Ken Bowersox, associate administrator, Space Operations Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters
Steve Stich, manager, NASA's Commercial Crew Program, NASA Kennedy
Dana Weigel, manager, NASA's International Space Station Program, NASA Johnson
William Gerstenmaier, vice president, Build and Flight Reliability, SpaceX
Junichi Sakai, manager, International Space Station Program, JAXA?

https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/commercialcrew/2025/03/07/nasas-spacex-crew-10-proceeds-toward-launch-hosts-news-conference/
https://www.youtube.com/live/Xq5CH-d4IuU
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/crew-10/

#22713817 at 2025-03-06 16:15:24 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #27749: Wake Then Bake - NCSWIC Edition

SpaceX's Crew-10 Launch Set for March 12 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center
March 6, 2025

BREVARD COUNTY - FLORIDA - NASA will provide coverage of the upcoming prelaunch and launch activities for the agency's SpaceX Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station.
Liftoff is targeted for 7:48 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, March 12, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The targeted docking time is approximately 10 a.m., Thursday, March 13.

Coverage of the mission overview teleconference will be available on the agency's website. The crew news conference, launch, the postlaunch news conference, and docking will be live on NASA+.
Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will carry NASA astronauts Anne McClain, commander; and Nichole Ayers, pilot; along with mission specialists JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov to the orbiting laboratory for a science mission of about four months.
This is the 10th crew rotation mission and the 11th human spaceflight mission for NASA to the space station supported by the Dragon spacecraft since 2020 as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program.

NASA's mission coverage is as follows (all times subject to change based on real-time operations):

Friday, March 7
2 p.m. - Crew arrival media event at NASA Kennedy with the following participants:
? Anne McClain, Crew-10 spacecraft commander, NASA
? Nichole Ayers, Crew-10 pilot, NASA
? Takuya Onishi, Crew-10 mission specialist, JAXA
? Kirill Peskov, Crew-10 mission specialist, Roscosmos

Watch live coverage of the crew arrival media event on NASA Kennedy's social media accounts.
Follow @CommercialCrew and @NASAKennedy on X for the latest arrival updates.

5:30 p.m. - Mission overview teleconference at NASA Kennedy (or no earlier than one hour after the completion of the Flight Readiness Review) with the following participants:
? Ken Bowersox, associate administrator, Space Operations Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington
? Steve Stich, manager, Commercial Crew Program, NASA Kennedy
? Dana Weigel, manager, International Space Station Program, NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston
? Meg Everett, deputy chief scientist, NASA's International Space Station Program, NASA Johnson
? William Gerstenmaier, vice president, Build and Flight Reliability, SpaceX
? Junichi Sakai, manager, International Space Station Program, JAXA

NASA will provide audio-only coverage of the teleconference.

6:30 p.m. - Crew-10 crew news conference (or directly following the completion of the mission overview news conference) with the following participants:
? Anne McClain, Crew-10 spacecraft commander, NASA
? Nichole Ayers, Crew-10 pilot, NASA
? Takuya Onishi, Crew-10 mission specialist, JAXA
? Kirill Peskov, Crew-10 mission specialist, Roscosmos

cont.

https://spacecoastdaily.com/2025/03/spacexs-crew-10-launch-set-for-march-12-from-nasas-kennedy-space-center/

#22202269 at 2024-12-21 01:48:09 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #27168: AmericaFest 2024 Held by Turning Point USA Edition

SpaceX org chart: The top executives running Elon Musk's space tech company

Executives
Gwynne Shotwell
President and COO

Mark Juncosa
VP of vehicle engineering
A top SpaceX exec, Juncosa, along with Shotwell, is said to oversee the facility and operations of SpaceX's Starbase location.

Bret Johnsen
CFO and president of strategic acquisitions group

William Gerstenmaier
VP, build and flight reliability
Leads SpaceX quality engineering and process development teams. He previously oversaw NASA's spaceflight efforts.

Charles Kuehmann
VP, materials engineering
He also crosses over to work on Tesla.

Michael Sagan
Deputy general counsel

Bill Riley
Senior director, design reliability and vehicle analysis
He worked on the Starship launch vehicle.

Joe Petrzelka
VP, spacecraft engineering

Tim Hughes
Senior vice president, global business and government affairs
He was also recruited to work at Twitter when Musk bought the company.

Will Heltsley
Vice president of propulsion

Phil Alden
VP of starship production

Kiko Dontchev
VP, launch at SpaceX

Jacob McKenzie
VP, Raptor at SpaceX

Richard Morris
Senior advisor, production

Board of Directors
Elon Musk
Antonio Gracias
Founder, CEO, and CIO of Valor Equity Partners, a growth firm that has invested in SpaceX, Tesla, the Boring Company, and Neuralink.

Luke Nosek
Cofounder of PayPal and Gigafund

Steve Jurvetson
Founder of Future Ventures; cofounder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Gwynne Shotwell
SpaceX president and COO

Donald Harrison
President, global partnerships and corporate development at Google

https://web.archive.org/web/20240823082037/https://fortune.com/2023/11/20/spacex-organizational-structure-elon-musk-top-executives/

#19750250 at 2023-10-17 15:29:03 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #24252: As The World Spins Edition

Subcommittee on Space and Science

U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), Chair of the Subcommittee on Space and Science, will convene a subcommittee hearing titled "Promoting Safety, Innovation, and Competitiveness in U.S. Commercial Human Space Activities" on Wednesday, October 18, 2023, at 2:00 PM ET. The hearing will consider human activities in the growing commercial space sector, focusing on safety, global competitiveness and the federal government's role in regulating human activities in space, ranging from suborbital flights to lunar surface habitats. Experts will testify about the importance of streamlined authorization processes, safety regulations for in-space operations and responsibilities of government agencies overseeing commercial human space activities.

Witnesses:

Caryn Schenewerk, President, CS Consulting
Wayne Monteith, President and General Manager, National Aerospace Solutions
Sirisha Bandla, Vice President of Government Affairs and Research, Virgin Galactic
William Gerstenmaier, Vice President of Build and Flight Reliability, SpaceX
Phil Joyce, Senior Vice President of the New Shepard Business Unit, Blue Origin

Details:

WHAT: Subcommittee on Space and Science Hearing on Commercial Space
DATE: Wednesday, October 18, 2023
TIME: 2:00 PM ET
LOCATION: Committee Hearing Room, Russell 253
LIVESTREAM: The hearing will stream live on the Committee website, Twitter and YouTube.

https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2023/10/promoting-safety-innovation-and-competitiveness-in-u-s-commercial-human-space-activities

#19750105 at 2023-10-17 14:33:24 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #24251: Spammers Delight Make My Day Edition

Subcommittee on Space and Science

U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), Chair of the Subcommittee on Space and Science, will convene a subcommittee hearing titled "Promoting Safety, Innovation, and Competitiveness in U.S. Commercial Human Space Activities" on Wednesday, October 18, 2023, at 2:00 PM ET. The hearing will consider human activities in the growing commercial space sector, focusing on safety, global competitiveness and the federal government's role in regulating human activities in space, ranging from suborbital flights to lunar surface habitats. Experts will testify about the importance of streamlined authorization processes, safety regulations for in-space operations and responsibilities of government agencies overseeing commercial human space activities.

Witnesses:

Caryn Schenewerk, President, CS Consulting
Wayne Monteith, President and General Manager, National Aerospace Solutions
Sirisha Bandla, Vice President of Government Affairs and Research, Virgin Galactic
William Gerstenmaier, Vice President of Build and Flight Reliability, SpaceX
Phil Joyce, Senior Vice President of the New Shepard Business Unit, Blue Origin
Details:

WHAT: Subcommittee on Space and Science Hearing on Commercial Space
DATE: Wednesday, October 18, 2023
TIME: 2:00 PM ET
LOCATION: Committee Hearing Room, Russell 253
LIVESTREAM: The hearing will stream live on the Committee website, Twitter and YouTube.

https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2023/10/promoting-safety-innovation-and-competitiveness-in-u-s-commercial-human-space-activities

#9252048 at 2020-05-20 16:29:51 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #11841: Politics Will Not Save Them Edition

NASA's head of human spaceflight resigns days before historic launch of astronauts

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. - The chief of NASA's human spaceflight directorate resigned Monday, a surprising development from an agency scheduled to launch astronauts from American soil next week for the first time since 2011.

In a statement issued Tuesday, NASA confirmed Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Doug Loverro resigned from his position on Monday. He had just been selected for the role in October.

The agency did not disclose why Loverro, previously of the secretive National Reconnaissance Office, decided to leave the team that is on the cusp of meeting human spaceflight goals.

The shakeup comes just a week before Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley launch from Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, a milestone set to fill the gap a lack of American-led human spaceflight has left behind. The veteran astronauts are set to launch from pad 39A at 4:33 p.m. May 27.

It remains unclear whether or not his departure will have any impacts on the mission timeline.

According to a Politico-obtained message Loverro sent to his team, "personal actions" were the force that drove the departure. He told the publication it was not due to a disagreement between him and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, but rather a "mistake."

"My leaving is because of my personal actions, not anything we accomplished together," he told Politico.

His acting replacement: Ken Bowersox, currently the deputy HEO administrator, who is a former astronaut and retired Navy aviator. He also spent several years at SpaceX.

"Bowersox has previously led HEO in a time of transition, and NASA has the right leadership in place to continue making progress on the Artemis and Commercial Crew programs," NASA said in a statement.

Former space shuttle astronaut and current SpaceX consultant Garrett Reisman said via Twitter the timing is not ideal, but added that Bowersox is capable of rising to the task.

"Timing on this is not good, but I'd be a lot more concerned if it weren't for the fact that Bowersox is more than capable of overseeing this important week in human spaceflight," he said. "His deep experience at NASA and SpaceX makes him the ideal replacement for Loverro, actually."

Before Loverro, longtime NASA veteran William Gerstenmaier was in charge of human spaceflight operations until his ouster. He now consults with SpaceX.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/nasas-head-human-spaceflight-resigns-121815655.html