There was a brilliant flash of lightning in the distance right after the Falcon 9 booster landed on the droneship tonight!
Alec Griffiths
@alectrospace1.bsky.social
Slava Ukraini 🌻 - 🚀 Space enthusiast, model rocketeer, occasional amateur astrophotographer. My YT channel: https://www.youtube.com/@alectrospace
Awesome pictures of Starship still afloat in the Indian Ocean almost 4 days after launch! It'll be interesting to see whether they'll tow it to shore to recover it. Looking ahead, if the data looks good, we could see a full orbital flight and first catch attempt on Flight 14!
Lukas C. H.@gewoonlukas.bsky.social · last wk.Following Starship's 13th Flight Test, Ship 40 didn't blow up upon splashdown. The ship and recovery vessel GO Australis, which has been following it, have now been imaged by a SAR satellite from Umbra earlier today at 03:56 UTC!
Before 99% of people had ever heard of starship/BFR, back when I was doing the podcast I predicted it'd be "shuttle-like": the thing would fly and serve some use, but wouldn't come *close* to achieving what was claimed. I still think I'll be proven right in the end. arstechnica.com/space/2026/0...
Experts warn current Starship heat shield tech is a "dead end" for rapid reuse
NASA has not made substantial investments in thermal protection research for decades.
arstechnica.com
Here’s the original un-cropped view, for context. (credit: SpaceX) Now I’m beginning to wonder if the cropped version has been upscaled? The amount of detail in the clouds vs the smoothness of the heat shield just looks a bit peculiar.
Alec Griffiths@alectrospace1.bsky.social · 2w agoNot a bad view of Starship when it was about 55 km up. 😎 (image credit: SpaceX)
Not a bad view of Starship when it was about 55 km up. 😎 (image credit: SpaceX)
So… the Starship upper stage finally works, but the booster remains broken. Have I got that right?
This is really, really bad. This is one of the complexes we use to communicate with spacecraft in deep space. The effects of climate change are extending out into the Solar System.
Andy Scollick@andyscollick.bsky.social · 2w agoThe Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex at Robledo de Chavela municipality in the Community of Madrid, Spain on fire. Burgohondo wildfire. 📷 via Infues Avila
The Baby Bertha rocket is complete! First flight should be next month.
It’s just insane how you can see small flashes of lightning around the rocket right before the big bolt strikes. 👀
Cosmic Penguin@cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 2w agoBack to Xichang, someone captured the lightning strike from another angle: m.weibo.cn/detail/53239...
Also I wonder if these induced lightning photos will be interesting for academic studies - it's common to see airplanes hit by lightning, but chemical propelled rockets with different trails of combustion products is another matter. m.weibo.cn/detail/53239... m.weibo.cn/detail/53239...
No words
Cosmic Penguin@cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 2w agoThis is the 6th of the 2nd generation "Chinese TDRS" satellites beaming data from other satellites & in-flight rockets, the 4th launched in the last 2 years. It certainly had a wild ride... Photo by 黑白猫名字被占用: m.weibo.cn/detail/53239... (+) Note: human intervention required
We’re having quite the thunderstorm today. Also, this is the first time I’ve ever gotten a photo of lightning! ⚡
Absolutely going to use this example next time someone asks me why it took so long to get back to the Moon.
Nina Metz@ninametz.bsky.social · 2w agoWhy Aren’t There More Imax 70mm Screens for ‘The Odyssey’? variety.com/2026/film/ne...
"Man’s conquest of Nature turns out, in the moment of its consummation, to be Nature’s conquest of Man." - C. S. Lewis
e.w. niedermeyer@niedermeyer.online · 2w agomy view is that we have reached the historical moment in our relationship with technology where this maxim ceases to be inspirational and increasingly reads as a dire warning
I finally completed the Estes “Leo Space Train.” This thing should look super cool when it launches for the first time! 🚀
After years of borrowing my dad’s tools to do my projects, I’ve officially reached a new level of existence. Now my dad is borrowing my tools to do his projects. 😎
A newspaper reporter and a pilot constantly argue while having to work together to investigate giant stealing machines.
Adam Roberts@adamroberts.bsky.social · 3w agoThree friends take a somewhat zig-zag walk through the countryside to a room.
#PPOD: As of June 23, 2026, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has spent an incredible 17 years orbiting the Moon, and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) has been hard at work ever since. 🧪 🔭 👩🔬 #planetaryscience
I’ve currently got a thunderstorm passing over my home town, and I got to see actual lightning bolts for the first time in probably 10 years. Usually the clouds obscure the bolts, but not this time! ⚡
