Engr student, SF writer, & space nerd. My favorite person is @veejericaodd ❤ The universe is probably littered with the one planet graves of cultures... - R.M.
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The payloads planned today will probably be the last intended for expendable launch vehicles. HWO may launch on New Glenn 9x4, for example, but it's not going up until the 2040s anyway.
Same with electrical engineers, probably moreso. And I'm a mechanical student. But we can do some nutty things today if you look for it.
Payload Space estimated ~$100m a while back. If R3s are cheaper than 2s, it probably went down.
Imho, expendable launch, even partial, needs to die. Go for distributed lift and/or use orbital refueling. And if you need something bigger than the vehicle, construct it in space.
I think in some ways, boring is great, because then nothing went wrong (ignore the booster), but the ship side was pretty smooth, which allowed for orbit on 14.
I think for me, it's;
Flight 4 (the little flap that could!)
Flight 5 (first booster catch!)
Flight 13 (the ship survived!)
Flight 15 could steal 1st or at least 2nd if both stages are caught. But there's something about Flight 4 surviving against all odds that's hard to beat.
If you could bring along your own hydrogen for CH4, it's a little better, but it's still a mark against it, since you can't source water for life support or propellant.
Venus is interesting further in the future if we can thin out its atmosphere and get to the surface safely.
And do what? The upper atmosphere is a trap, no natural resources, similar gravity and air pressure works against you, since you need to bring along a MLV/HLV to get back into space (esp. since ISRU is limited to CO/O prop), and the upper atm experiences hurricane force winds.
It's supposed to hold 60, but yes, assuming Starship has the payload capacity, Starlink is more volume limited than mass limited.
60 sats at 2t a piece (if the mass figures from older sources still hold) would work out to 120t to LEO. Or 102t assuming 1.7t in line with dumblinks
Based on a previous Starship episode, they mentioned the overall payload mass on Flight 12 was 37.5t, which works out to 1.7t per satellite. But I think the operational Starlinks are supposed to be 2t according to various news sources (though I can't find a direct reference).
We need telescopes like HWO yesterday! I want to see planets with life so badly. It's almost worse that there's so many little discoveries that aren't life, but could point there, like exoplanets in the habitable zone, organic molecules on objects/in space, and subsurface oceans.
Hopefully they're just saying shit then, because if any of that is true, that's.... rough.
But, also, if they're an actual employee leaking videos this blasé, they might just not care about their job, and want to stir the pot or something before they leave.
David King retweeted
[Press Release]
Launch time of the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft aboard H3 Launch Vehicle Flight No.10
global.jaxa.jp/press/2026/10…
David King retweeted
The MMX spacecraft carries two pieces of NASA hardware: The MEGANE instrument will be key to revealing the origin of Mars’s moons by measuring their elemental composition.
The P-Sampler demonstration will advance capabilities for surface material acquisition in low gravity. ½
ALT An artist’s concept of JAXA’s MMX spacecraft at Mars. Credit: JAXA
David King retweeted
LAUNCH! JAXA's H3-24L launches MMX to Phobos.
Overview:
nasaspaceflight.com/2026/10/…
Live:
youtube.com/watch?v=Fn6gzuGa…
David King retweeted
That was the 10th post in my “Every single rocket launch in history” series, so here is a poster with the first decade of spaceflight:
