If I didn't make these myself I wouldn't believe them.

Today's Artemis II launch is super bittersweet. For NASA to have a super ambitious human space program they need to cut back their other programs or get more funding. NASA is not getting more funding. We discuss the new Artemis plan in EVSN. Premiering 9pm Eastern. youtu.be/WcfpZ_4iPtk

I'm following @genejm1017.bsky.social 's updates in the lead up. (Yes, I could be watching the stream, but I'm trying to program... so I'm getting just the necassary details on BSky)

In honor of (hopefully) today's launch of NASA's Artemis II mission, the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon in more than 50 years, here is a to-scale graphic of exactly how far away the Moon actually is. (Click image to expand.) You could fit about 30 Earths between the Earth and the Moon!

Interview with a supermassive black hole S3.3: Lack of Privacy “You call them ‘flares.’ I call them private moments. Must every transient increase in luminosity be documented & timestamped? Would you like it if I set up a 7m telescope right outside your window? A radio array in your loo?” 🔭 😂😂😂

Best astro-ph April fools paper ever!

Where there were three now there are two. Malachi is so missed.

jupiter wishes you a very happy trans day of visibility 🏳️‍⚧️

I wish to eat my feelings and the only food we have that isn’t frozen that I’m not allergic to is oatmeal. I am eating oatmeal.

I think it will actually launch this time for the simple reason that NASA events and holidays (however small) just like to go together.

If all goes well, Artemis II 🚀 will carry a new toilet 🚽 into space just in time for the East Coast dinner rush, bringing the total number of space toilets to 10. This will be the first space toilet to travel beyond Earth orbit. Oh, and there will also be four humans on a trip around the Moon.

Necessary Dogs

Are you a fan of Moby Dick but worried the whales are just a little too over the top? Have no fear, Sperm Whales are just that badass. I am absolutely here for all the discoveries coming out of using drones to observe whales and other surface activity at sea. www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

I have a whole lot of strong feelings about last week's NASA announcements. I wrote them down and recorded them for our latest episode of EVSN, now available to our $1 and up Patrons. Want a teaser? Check out: patreon.cosmoquest.org/posts/nasa-r...

I saw this first on twitter from @vcdgf555.bsky.social repost. There was a time I’d expect posts from people onboard on Twitter. I’m seeing nothing in Twitter or here. Are we post social media saturation or are they isolated?

Have a blessed Palm Sunday, Christian and Christian-adjacent pals. I hope you can commemorate a historical act of anti-Empire protest with some of your own in the coming days!

By the power of coffee 3, I am working.

Necessary Dog

Ok step one is to make them look less delicious

This is only true for people who understand neither science nor economics. The NIH budget for this year is FIFTY times larger than OpenAI’s $1B pledge. The foundation of US science & innovation is public funding. The private sector cannot replace it. US science is being killed

@starstryder.space 🙃

FCC reply comments are due by 5pm Monday 30 March on Reflect Orbital. If you wrote in a comment, please please please write in again saying that they did not address your concerns in their letter (which is very hard to find in the FCC dumpster-fire-of-a-website). Instructions here […]

Any journalists want to write about this? Or anyone know how to figure out who insures Reflect Orbital? Reflect Orbital will cause eye damage to people using telescopes, as astronomers have previously calculated, and they openly admitted it in their reply. (There is a whole slew of absolutely […]

I’m rereading Starship Troopers and just hit where the neo dogs are referred to as “Stable Geniuses” and as smart as an idiot human…

Brb, gonna go turn off the Solar System. 🫡

CENTCOM told me Iran keeps hitting their high-value assets so I asked how many they have and they said they just go to the Pentagon and get new ones afterwards so I said it sounds like they're just feeding high-value assets to the Iranians and then INDOPACOM started crying

"I Decompiled the White House's New App The official White House Android app has a cookie/paywall bypass injector, tracks your GPS every 4.5 minutes, and loads JavaScript from some guy's GitHub Pages."

Blue hair and green screens in amateur studios don't mesh well.

We are looking for a new volcano-petrology postdoc to join the NERC-funded large grant ‘ex-x: understanding dangerous eruptive transitions’ Based at Bristol University! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRA042/s...

Why do routers list their support of square footage instead of cubic volume? My house is a volume.

There is a particularly good episode of turtle TV in the tank this evening.

I want to be clear - NASA can do mighty things. It just can't do them through unfunded / underfunded mandate.

Actual sentence in this week's EVSN script: "Before I go and eat my feelings, it’s time for a break, and our aerospace segment with Erik Madaus (@kerbal01.bsky.social)" There is an "I'm not an unbiased observer" caveat on this show.

Not sure how many seniors 60 & up are aware that they can audit undergraduate classes on any CUNY campus for $65 +a $15 fee per class. Here's Brooklyn College as an example: students.brooklyn.edu/knowledge-ba...

NASA didn't say the quiet part outloud, but they did write it down. In the quick facts for the NASA Ignition program, the only non-lunar/Mars future missions highlighted are Roman, Dragonfly, an unnamed Earth Sci Mission, & Franklin Rover. www.nasa.gov/wp-content/u...

Looking up numbers to fact check a story. In OBBB, Gateway had $2.6 billion total allocated through 2032, at $750 per year in 2026-2028. The new lunar base is $20 billion & implied funded through savings on deferring Gateway. In telecon yesterday, folks had assumed 1-1 budget. Math not mathing.

The more I think on Tuesday's announcements the more one muttered condemnation pisses me off. Isaacman multiple times eluded to how much money NASA spent in 2025 storing the not-dead-yet VIPER mission as though it were an-internal-to-NASA failing that the lander wasn't yet on the Moon. He also ...

We still need to find $1.4k before the end of the month. Can you help? 1x gift cqx-fy26.org Sub patreon.com/CosmoQuestX

I hate that I now start & end each day making sure bombs haven't taken out friends. With a possible ground war starting, I have to ask, is there any line too far that Congress won’t let our nation illegally cross? Today everyone lives- in my life. But there are so many needless deaths. To what end?

Plea for support. We can only access funds after the first of each next month. An April 1 donation won't hit our books until after May 1. A fluke of dates has our sponsorships slipping from 28th to 1st, & we're going to have a $2k gap. Help? 1x gift cqx-fy26.org Sub patreon.com/CosmoQuestX

Billionaires

When @andreatweather.bsky.social asked @drkatemarvel.bsky.social what working for NASA meant to her, she said: "What a dream, right? Those four letters are magic. They stand for exploration and discovery and doing big things." Read more.

Post a non-religious photo you think of as holy

Wow... just wow. Dr. Gay's whole thread is very much worth reading. The stupid... it burns... "We choose to do these things, not because they are easy, but because we fired or drove out everyone who had a clue, and our heads are full of dead insects and sometimes worms".

Last week's EVSN took a closer look at the changing Lunar Exploration landscape. That story provides solid context for today's announcements. I've stuck it up on Medium: starstryder.medium.com/closer-look-...

We're back for NASA Artemis redesign "Ignition" press conference www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZea...

I am watching today's NASA announcements so you don't have to and sharing here (while possibly devolving into a pile of frustration and coffee). If you want to see this work continue, please consider supporting my team on Patreon.com/CosmoQuestX

A few wks ago, someone highlighted that when the www & Netscape emerged in ~1994, they couldn't build infastructure fast enough to support all the use cases, & people eagerly adopted. Today AI use cases are forced on us while we seek to turn it off... I think commercial space is forced on us next.