In 1949 rocket engineer Qian Xuesen unveiled a design for a passenger rocketplane. It was based on the same aerodynamics as the V2, and would have carried ten passengers from NYC to LA in 45 minutes.

Dad rock sci fi: Movies such as Titan A. E. and Armageddon

Party time

Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon

"It was all a stage set, a series of elaborate props for playing at living in the future." - William Gibson, The Gernsback Continuum

USS Pantaleon (NCC-4115), Sasser-class medical vessel, commissioned 2351, own design. Roughly Miranda-class sized, the Sasser-class was a vessel optimized for medical support in dangerous places like backwater colonies or combat zones.

In 1949, Qian Xuesen (also, Tsien Hsue-shen) designed a rocketplane while working at CalTech. The spacecraft was based on V2 aerodynamics and designed to carry 10 passengers from New York to Los Angeles in 45 minutes with a vertical launch to space and glide back to Earth.

Somebody should write a short story about this phenomenon among other problems in our AI world... Oh wait... What's this? www.bloodhoneylit.com/fiction/fpv

I'm sure everything's going to be fine, but watching Isaacman's decisions with Artemis after reading "Challenger" by Adam Higginbotham has got me feeling a little

Call me a square but I find Isaacman arguing with people on the X content system (powered by Grok, a subsidiary of SpaceX) to be very distasteful.

With summer right around the corner it's time to get hyped up. There's no better way than reading a giallo-inspired, first-contact-themed slasher set in New Mexico! Check out my story "Darkness Gathers Her Lambs" at @APCON_MAG apocalypse-confidential.com/2025/12/21/d...

WMAP in microwave light. One of the more famous scientific probes, WMAP operated from 2001 to 2010 making all-sky surveys of the cosmic microwave background, the radiation left over from the recombination epoch which occurred roughly 380,000 years after the Big Bang.

Skylab renders

Almost missed Thomas Pynchon's birthday. Hope he had a nice day, he deserves it.

Boards of Canada - "Introit / Prophesy at 1420 MHz" Music Video

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) was a NASA science mission operating from 2001 to 2010. The probe orbited at the L2 Lagrange point and conducted full-sky mappings of the Cosmic Microwave Background, the radiative relic of the Big Bang that fills all space.

May the 4th be with you

12,000 Artemis II shots have now been released. These are some of my favorites.

Don DeLillo, Mao II: "She goes inside and finds a bottle of Midori melon liqueur. She can hardly believe there is such a thing. She has seen it advertised at airports and convention centers, the walk-through places of the world, but never thought it was more than a gesture..."

If you see this, post your black and white art!

Psychedelic astronaut photography III

Sulis 1, a crewed solar expedition, against the sun's corona. The design is based on the symbol for the sun: a massive heatshield protects a rotating toroidal habitation section.

New short story out: "Test Site" in Literally Stories. Link below. Ghost hunters often claim that spirits use electromagnetic energy to appear in our world. Operation Hierophant, a secret underground nuclear test, is designed to generate enough EM energy to punch through to the other side...

Sulis I descends down the gravity well, passing the inner planets as it approaches the sun. This is my design for a crewed solar expedition based on the symbol for the sun: a large circular heat shield protects a spinning habitation torus. We're looking in from the shield's edge.

Film you've watched more than six times with a gif (or vid). Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Marvel, Disney, or Ghibli.

Ocelus Transfer Laboratory: my design for a spaceship based on the symbol for Mars. This would be used to fly a route to Mars and back, while testing long-term habitation technologies on the way.

Sulis I, a crewed mission to the sun. I based this design on the astronomical (and astrological) symbol for the sun. The crew lives in a spinning torus that is protected by a massive, flat sunshield.

Happy Earth Day. Images from the original Landsat mission. We live on a really neat planet.

New short story out: "Test Site" in Literally Stories. Link below. Ghost hunters often claim that spirits use electromagnetic energy to appear in our world. Operation Hierophant, a secret underground nuclear test, is designed to generate enough EM energy to punch through to the other side...

Photo edits: Radome (1/4)

James Webb Space Telescope (inspired by the new Boards of Canada video)

New story out on Monday. In the meantime, check out my most recent one.

Skylab, the first US space station.

The primary scientific instrument on Skylab was the Apollo Telescope Mount, a solar telescope with instruments that allowed Skylab to observe the sun in soft x-ray, ultraviolet, and visible light. It used film, and the astronauts had to conduct EVAs to switch out the cannisters.

Artemis II, new Boards of Canada on the horizon, The Faith of Beasts released... What an April!

"if you were in charge of star trek, what would you do" - Post-Dominion War series focusing on forging Alpha - Gamma Quadrant relations. Very little combat, just politics. - Intentional Delta Quadrant expedition. Generations living on board a massive starship + support fleet.

Shout-out to the guy wearing a Turnstile t-shirt on the NASA Livestream.

I've always wondered what this looks like!

I've ended up becoming the unofficial Public Affairs Officer for my friends and family. Very fun.

New story out: "FPV" in Blood+Honey (link below): Syl Caillet, a drone pilot vet, works as a remote operator at the Serva Corporation, a company that builds humanoid robot servants. They imply the robots are run by AI, but it’s underpaid workers like Syl who control them behind the scenes...

Had "9:39" by Global Communications playing in the lead up to LOS. Perfect vibe.

Apollo lunar observation guide -> Artemis lunar observation guide

Tomorrow's lunar flyby schedule. Well done Jännät!

Does anybody have a schedule of events for the lunar flyby? Not just curious for myself, but I'd love to give my friends and family some key events to watch. Closest approach specifically.

I have a new short story out: "Skipping Ahead" in Poetries in English (link below): Lyle Fischer is looking for any way out of the climate disaster of the 21st century and signs on to a 300-year interstellar surveying mission to Gliese 667 Cc, a nearby exoplanet... (cont'd)

Black and white photos from Apollo. Incidental minimalism.

On board camera shot of a sunlit Artemis II.

Apollo mission control -> Artemis mission control

Artemis II is now on its way to the moon.

CAPCOM has Artemis the cat from Sailor Moon behind her!