PJYoung said:

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NEWS: NASA is planning a bigger @SpaceX Moon mission role using Starship, in a massive blow to Boeing.

With the new proposal, Boeing's SLS would no longer be used to boost Orion close to the moon. Instead, Starship and Orion would dock in Earth orbit, giving Starship the pivotal…

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) March 19, 2026

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So how are they getting Orion into low earth orbit? With a $4 billion SLS?

Kenneth_2003 said:

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Meteor Entered over Ohio this morning...

Space related, but not in that way...

Quote:

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Starting off this morning with some breaking semi-weather related news. Shortly before 9 am EDT this morning many residents of the lower Great Lakes and upper Ohio Valley regions were startled by a loud explosive sound, which appears to have been the result of a meteor entering the Earth's atmosphere. This story from EarthSky gives an update on what has been reported along with some videos of the daytime fireball that many people observed.

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I've been in Pittsburgh this week on business and the boom rattled the windows Tuesday morning … didn't see it in real time, but made quite the buzz among the yinzers

If we have to use Orion, can it be put on top of a Falcon Heavy (or New Glenn if NASA is adamant about diversifying suppliers) and we can finally kick SLS to the curb?

In other news, the NASA WB-57 just flew over my house. The landing gear was extended.

It's the first time I've seen it in the air since the mishap.

If memory serves, NASA has two, so this is probably the one that didn't crash.

Maximus_Meridius said:

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If memory serves, NASA has two, so this is probably the one that didn't crash.

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I believe they had three before the crash landing.

Ah, good to know. I thought I'd heard there was only one in flying condition, and the others were either mothballed or scrapped.

TexAgs91 said:

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So how are they getting Orion into low earth orbit? With a $4 billion SLS?

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Yes. The question in my mind is why use Orion at all? But that's been the case since the HLS program was conceived really. Fine, starship won't be human rated by nasa anytime soon, but the whole point of Gateway was to supplement the TLI capabilities of Orion using SLS (block IIB or whatever with EUS).

Now, using SLS just to put Orion into LEO seems absurd at best. Why not just launch the astronauts on Crew Dragon and dock that to HLS Starship? Vastly cheaper/easier than the ridiculousness that is SLS.

NASA may be handing SpaceX the keys to the Moon!!!

According to a Bloomberg article just posted today, instead of Boeing’s SLS rocket doing the heavy lifting, Starship could now dock with Orion in Earth orbit and take astronauts all the way to the lunar surface. Big win for… pic.twitter.com/lRljSoQNln

— Ellie in Space 🚀💫 (@Ellieinspace) March 19, 2026

There is a real argument I think that could be made that Orion is safer for flight to/from the moon outside of the van allen belts than a notional Starship HLS will be, but that's about all I can come up with, and it should be possible to put it up into LEO also using New Glenn.

I don't know, but just have to assume more big changes in plans will be announced over the next year.

Yes, the obvious answer is use Falcon 9 to launch/land astronauts on earth. But this is also obviously political.

pic.twitter.com/WIRugkzj25

— X Freeze (@XFreeze) March 19, 2026

🚨🚨 Blue Origin - FCC Docket SAT-LOA-20260310-00118

SpaceX has filed a letter with the FCC requesting that the agency apply the same regulatory scrutiny to Blue Origin’s recent satellite application as it does to SpaceX’s own orbital data center proposal. To facilitate this,… pic.twitter.com/6NpUa0C7xf

— FCC Filing Alerts (@fccfilingalerts) March 20, 2026

I think you're right about the radiation shielding but to the equipment instead of for people. Orion probably has better shielding for its electronics than Dragon because it has never been projected do anything other than LEO.

Announcing TERAFAB: the next step towards becoming a galactic civilization https://t.co/xTA70LOU0e

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 22, 2026

SpaceX has released a new video of the electromagnetic mass driver it plans to build on the Moon, which will shoot massive AI satellites into orbit. The satellites will use Tesla chips. pic.twitter.com/Dzagqkmn4q

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) March 22, 2026

This is crazy because I just finished Critical Mass and the electromagnetic rail gun is one way that the book uses to get mined ore off of the moon and into low orbit for use (no need to blast it out of the moons gravity)

And to throw rocks down the gravity well.

Hurry up while we are still around to see this cool stuff

Musk called BO's plans 'cute.' Yes, SpaceX showed more of what they plan via 'Terrafab' yesterday;

Everyone is covering Terafab as a chip factory.

It is not a chip factory.

Last night in Austin, Elon unveiled a facility that makes masks, fabricates chips, and tests them inside a single building with a nine-month recursive improvement cadence. No such loop exists anywhere… https://t.co/eFvxCLjb1S pic.twitter.com/icUB8QTekw

— Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡ (@shanaka86) March 22, 2026

Pretty exciting goals...will see if/how it works out. I have my skepticism about the scale/operation.

No, that’s just the little advanced technology fab, where we will be iterating on chip designs.

We couldn’t possibly fit the Terafab on the GigaTexas campus. It will be far bigger than everything else combined there.

Several locations for Terafab are under consideration. It…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 22, 2026

Big day at NASA tomorrow to present implementation of Trump's space policy

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-to-provide-update-on-implementation-of-national-space-policy/

This will be fun, politically speaking, in many ways. There are ranks at Nasa that are the equivalent of USAID/USIP, which are absolutely livid HLS is being touched at all. It's a political hot potato which is why it has been such a protected waste of money for going on 4 decades now in various forms.

It's tough to predict the fallout in the Senate/House but I think a significant further move away, in terms of planning, from the whole Artemis-reliance on SLS is going to wind up happening finally. It's just too embarrassing now for some of it's senate backers (including Cruz.).

Just my guess, I have zero sources, to be clear.

Today at Ignition, we’re aligning the NASA workforce, industry, our international and commercial partners, and the broader space-loving community on how we will execute @POTUS’ national space policy

✅ Return to the Moon
✅ Build a Moon base
✅ Unleash the golden age of space… pic.twitter.com/CIGmks3ucx

— NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (@NASAAdmin) March 24, 2026

To return Americans to the Moon, NASA is shifting to an iterative, execution-focused approach – just as we did during Apollo. 

We are standardizing rocket architecture, embedding NASA expertise across industry, and increasing launch cadence to support sustained lunar operations.…

— NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (@NASAAdmin) March 24, 2026

To build a sustained human presence on the Moon, we are building @NASAMoonBase, prioritizing surface operations and scalable infrastructure. 

- Frequent robotic landings and mobility testing including MoonFall drones 
- Starting in 2027 nearly monthly cadence of equipment and… pic.twitter.com/3T00Y450kO

— NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (@NASAAdmin) March 24, 2026

NASA is building on 25 years of continuous human presence aboard the International Space Station. Before its decommissioning in 2032, we intend to:  
 
- Increase support for commercial crew PAM and cargo missions to the ISS 
- Maximize research missions in low Earth orbit with…

— NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (@NASAAdmin) March 24, 2026

NEW ACCOUNT: @NASAMoonBase has just joined X. pic.twitter.com/1PnMYwuezk

— Ryan Caton (@dpoddolphinpro) March 24, 2026

Intuitive Machines will be launching their NOVA-D lander (a larger version of their NOVA-C lander) to Mons Malapert, a ridge near the lunar South Pole that offers continuous Earth visibility, stable lumination and access to permanently shadowed regions as part of the growing CLPS program.


https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/03/24/3261677/0/en/Intuitive-Machines-Expands-Lunar-Surface-Operations-with-180-4-Million-NASA-CLPS-Award.html

TexAgs91 said:

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Intuitive Machines will be launching their NOVA-D lander (a larger version of their NOVA-C lander) to Mons Malapert, a ridge near the lunar South Pole that offers continuous Earth visibility, stable lumination and access to permanently shadowed regions as part of the growing CLPS program.


https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/03/24/3261677/0/en/Intuitive-Machines-Expands-Lunar-Surface-Operations-with-180-4-Million-NASA-CLPS-Award.html

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Dang you beat me to it!

Sounds like a lot more good science to support a human habitat on the moon.

https://www.intuitivemachines.com/post/intuitive-machines-expands-lunar-surface-operations-with-180-4-million-nasa-clps-award

Lots of news this week

Color me skeptical. The next administration could easily just come along and change all the rules and priorities 180 degrees the moment they take office. A President setting a pathway is not the same thing as Congress and a party (or parties) being unified in a goal.

That's not going to stop SpaceX, or probably Blue Origin either, at this point. If NASA can buy commercial fare to the Moon on existing systems they'll almost certainly do that under any administration.

If sls is scaled back by 2029 it won't grow back imho.

NASA is building on 25 years of continuous human presence aboard the International Space Station. Before its decommissioning in 2030, we intend to:  
 
- Increase support for commercial crew PAM and cargo missions to the ISS 
- Maximize research missions in low Earth orbit with…

— NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (@NASAAdmin) March 24, 2026

He put out a bunch of good tweets today.

NASA needs to morph into a support agency to help guide commercial space development. The days of needing NASA to be the spearhead developing brand new technologies in house or on NASA led giant bloated government contracts need to be winding down. We need to set goals for what we want done and give grants or contracts to private companies that prove they can do it.

anyone have any updates on the next SpaceX launch in Boca?

fullback44 said:

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anyone have any updates on the next SpaceX launch in Boca?

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They are gearing up to test 33 engines on the booster on the pad and of course Starship fully fit with engines as well.

1st round went great.

I assume launch attempt in the 1st half of April.