Callsign: Iron Pilot 🌌. Aerospace Engineer & UM alum. Supporting NASA ops on ISS & Starliner. 🚀✨
Houston
Joined May 2023
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Alex Smith retweeted
Isar Aerospace (@isaraerospace) is hiring to align with their plans to launch their Spectrum rocket from Maritime Launch's ($MAXQ.NE) Spaceport Nova Scotia in Canso, Canada. Currently, four roles are posted.
Alex Smith retweeted
And we're off! 🚀
The Fall 2026 IceCube collaboration meeting is underway in Madison, Wisconsin! 🇺🇸 IceCubers had a lot to celebrate this morning, including the newly minted Nobel laureate Professor Francis Halzen. 🏅
#IceCubeNeutrinoObservatory #FallCollaborationMeeting2026
ALT A bunch of wrapped chocolates of the Nobel medal on a table.
ALT A room of people sitting at round tables with someone in the room giving a talk at the podium.
ALT An auditorium full of people sitting at round tables.
Alex Smith retweeted
Japan will launch its audacious MMX sample-return mission to Mars today (Oct. 19), and you can watch the historic action live. space.com/astronomy/mars/jap…
Alex Smith retweeted
🇯🇵 Japan is one of the few to successfully return samples from deep space. While Phobos is small, it is orders of magnitude larger than Ryugu & Itokawa, enough to support wheeled rover and sophisticated robotic arm coring to extract deeper, higher-volume regolith samples
#JPSPACE
I slowed JAXA's 20x animation of the #MMX IDEFIX rover deployment down to 1x real time so you can see just how weak Phobos gravity is (~1/1,700th of Earth).
Alex Smith retweeted
Astronomy, NOW! 👀 The Orionids #meteor shower peaks this week on 21 Oct
Use your naked eyes to take in as much sky as possible & wrap up warm – patience is your best tool!
For tips on getting started, check out our free beginner's guide 👉 sbee.link/tcmkrbwnfj
Alex Smith retweeted
A Solar Power Plant in Space That Works at Night and Could Power Entire Cities! ☀️🛰️🌍
Alex Smith retweeted
🚨: A Mysterious Signal Reached Us From When The Universe Was Just 3 Billion Years Old
Alex Smith retweeted
🏆 Are you ready to celebrate #spaceachievements and excellence?
Join the #BritishInterplanetarySociety for #TheArthurs#SirArthurClarkeAwards
#BIS
BUY YOUR TICKET: f.mtr.cool/rsflbwvqag
Alex Smith retweeted
OTD - 1989 Launch of Atlantis STS-34 carrying the Galileo Jupiter probe. Photos by Joel W. Powell my co-author for SpaceShuttleAlmanac.com
Alex Smith retweeted
How do we know dark matter exists if we cannot see it?
Galaxies rotate faster than their visible matter can explain, and their gravity bends light from distant galaxies. Both reveal mass we cannot account for with stars and gas alone. We can measure its gravitational effects, but after decades of research, we still do not know what dark matter actually is.
Alex Smith retweeted
Through the Webb Telescope, the star-forming processes of spiral galaxy NGC 2090, 40 million light-years out, are laid bare. The image details the elegant choreography of cosmic materials resulting in the birth of stars.
(Credit: SA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Leroy)
Alex Smith retweeted
Another milestone day for the Starbase Gigabay project as one of the bridge cranes was lifted for installation. Thanks to @NASASpaceflight's Gage Telesz (@RoughRidersShow) for getting us the close up views.
nsf.live/starbase
Alex Smith retweeted
Interesting area on Mars..
This image was taken by Mast Camera (Mastcam) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 726 (2014-08-21 21:12:35 UTC).
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
mars.nasa.gov/raw_images/192…
Sol 726: Mast Camera (Mastcam)
This image was taken by MAST_LEFT onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 726 (2014-08-21T21:10:13.000Z)
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
mars.nasa.gov/raw_images/192…
Alex Smith retweeted
📡Giants after a spring storm🌩️
The ALMA antenna array, at an altitude of 5,050m, deployed on the Chajnantor Plateau, Chile
📷: @jcrojas819 ALMA Photo-ambassador.
Alex Smith retweeted
Fancy naming the UK's first ever space debris removal mission?
Enter our competition to get your name on the spacecraft!
Our Active Debris Removal Mission, led by @ClearSpaceToday will remove two defunct satellites from orbit. 🛰️
Learn more and enter 👉 space.blog.gov.uk/2026/10/15…
Alex Smith retweeted
This shit could carry packages to the other side of the planet in under an hour and deliver them to customers. The ultimate Amazon killer!
Maybe humanity aren’t ready to ride Starship yet, but cargo is.
Alex Smith retweeted
The discovery of surprising molecules of methanol and associated maser activity has expanded the inventory of the chemical starter kit that builds planets in young star systems. space.com/space-exploration/…
Alex Smith retweeted
Good overview of this brilliant achievement 👇🔴 #Mars
NASA’s #Perseverance rover has broken the off-world driving record.
On 11 Oct. 2026, it reached 45.22 km on #Mars, surpassing Opportunity’s 45.16 km.
It hit the mark in five and a half years, compared with nearly 15 for its predecessor, on the 2,006th Martian day (sol) of the mission.
Much of the credit goes to AutoNav: Perseverance maps the terrain in 3D while moving and picks its own route between points chosen by Earth.
Over 90% of its total distance has been driven this way, processing 600,000 points per look versus Sojourner’s 20.
It can cover up to 412 meters in a single sol.
The record fell as the rover headed toward Idubi in the Lac de Charmes region on the edge of Jezero Crater, exploring some of the oldest terrain in the solar system in search of possible hydrothermal systems.
The original plan called for no more than 20 km; systems remain fully operational and it will keep adding distance.
Video Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
More: jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-pers…