More than anything, the idea that factories should be automated with humanoid robots instead of, you know, robots made for whatever task they're doing, is the surest sign that this whole thing is vaporware. Not just the Moon factory, the entire humanoid robot craze

FinTwitter@fintwitter.bsky.social · 11h ago

$SPCX - SPACEX PLANS MOON FACTORIES POWERED BY HUMANOID ROBOTS

"SOVIET MILITARY CAPABILITIES S-100-18-85 BOX 1 OF 2," slide 9 of 40 [gallery]

Lunar rover BattleBots brought to life wonderfully by @spectralidax.bsky.social! Who'd win? Yes, I know Luno was unmanned but it could carry a stranded cosmonaut in emergencies.

Lunar rover BattleBots brought to life wonderfully by @spectralidax.bsky.social! Who'd win? Yes, I know Luno was unmanned but it could carry a stranded cosmonaut in emergencies.

Misses most of the history of US MSR - not doing MSR has been a US space program passtime since the 1960s (first "serious" efforts were in response to Viking in the 1970s). In 2003, MSR actually *ended* (for the Nth time) after the loss of Mars Surveyor '98. US MSR is always ending and starting.

MIT Technology Review@technologyreview.com · yesterday

The Mars Sample Return mission got off to a promising start, hunting for potentially humanity-changing space rocks. How did it fall off the rails?

Video version of our episode on Soyuz-23, featuring @mattlowne.bsky.social , is now up on youtube!

Soyuz-23: Ice-Fishing for Cosmonaut (w. @MattLowne)

YouTube video by Failure to Launch Podcast

youtu.be

Crew of Soyuz-23, post recovery, after 11 hours under a freezing lake Love a good "I went to space and regretted every minute of it" image

𝗙𝗧𝗟 | 𝗔𝗨𝗚𝗨𝗦𝗧 𝗦𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗗𝗨𝗟𝗘 If you want to follow along with our series on Boris Chertok, a Soviet rocket designer who was with the program from the 40s to the 90s, 𝗼𝗿 if you want to hear us do bad improv pretending to be Expanse characters, sign up for the FTL Patreon www.patreon.com/failuretolau...

"Just get it done!" A statement that has historically always worked in space exploration.

Element115Art@element115.bsky.social · 5d ago

"We can just do things." / "Less debate." / "More frequent." Having a NASA administrator with this mindset makes me itchy.

We spent 3.5 hours on this recording, driving ourselves insane trying to analyze 2001: A Space Odyssey. Give it a listen!

F.A.B. Podcast (Tom, Harry, Moira)@fabthepodcast.bsky.social · 5d ago

BONUS 15 - 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY ft. Failure to Launch 👨‍🚀🐵👶 A film about tapirs, spaceflight, monoliths, and a giant space baby. But mostly tapirs. Also, Ed Bishop is here! We're rounding off our trilogy of '60s Kubrick films - our Kubricked-Up era - with some special guests!

Everyone celebrates the ejection seat working No one ever credits the chute

Been rewatching Battlestar Galactica recently So obviously seeing news that a pilot literally named "Starbuck" has just crashed their fighter jet by flying recklessly is putting me into a dissociative state (pilot ejected safely)

As long as I'm tralking about EVA suits today - here's a blog post I wrote about the ambitious Gemini EVAs NASA planned immediately after Leonov's spacewalk, before it became known outside the USSR how poorly his suit and other equipment performed. spaceflighthistory.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-...

The Spacewalks That Never Were: Gemini Extravehicular Planning Group (1965)

The story of spaceflight told through missions and programs that did not happen - that is, the great majority of them.

spaceflighthistory.blogspot.com

I'm only just now getting to this episode but I knew what needed to be done. You guys get so much mileage out of this meme.

Failure To Launch Podcast@failuretolaunch.bsky.social · last wk.

New FTL We talked with @mattlowne.bsky.social about the Almaz secret military space stations and Soyuz-23, the only time a Soviet spacecraft ever touched down on water. The crew nearly drowned, froze, and asphyxiated.

A certain fawning access space journalist comes to mind Wild how many people will sell their integrity for the chance to wander around a factory

Asif Siddiqi@historyasif.bsky.social · last wk.

Every conscientious journalist covering the space program should use descriptors 'white supremacist' or 'fascist' every time when referring to E__ M__. Really puzzled at the free pass given by space enthusiasts/journalists. See @jamellebouie.net in NYTimes today: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/o...

Interesting to see the different ways countries got started. Iran's ballistic missile families stem from North Korean and Libyan Scuds supplied during the Iran-Iraq War. Ukraine has legacy missile talent because of many Soviet missile and space bureaus being in its territory, like OKB-586.

Gerry Doyle@mgerrydoyle.bsky.social · last wk.

the hyperfixation on drones may have led everyone to overlook an interesting fact: the world is entering an unprecedented age of ballistic missile proliferation (a free link for you, the people) www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

New FTL We talked with @mattlowne.bsky.social about the Almaz secret military space stations and Soyuz-23, the only time a Soviet spacecraft ever touched down on water. The crew nearly drowned, froze, and asphyxiated.

Soyuz-23: Ice Fishing for Cosmonauts (w. Matt Lowne)

Failure To Launch · Episode

open.spotify.com

Labour are now anti-science on medicine, climate, gender, and space.

Politics UK@politicsuk.com · last wk.

🚨 NEW: The UK’s largest telescope for studying space is now set to close after the Government pulled its funding It supported various Apollo missions and tracked Soviet rockets in the Cold War

Climbing out of the recording with @failuretolaunch.bsky.social discussing why robots can do murder, misogyny is the secret sauce to film making and how sometimes a movie can just be stuff you recognise via cultural osmosis. The next special @fabthepodcast.bsky.social episode is gonna be WEIRD

New Battletech bonus available on our Patreon! This week we talked to Randolph P. Checkers (aka Tex Talks Battletech) about the Tatsumaki Class destroyers, the ill-fated Kuritan attempt to build Lostech WarShips by hiring the worst dockyard in the entire Inner Sphere.

Tatsumaki Class (w. Tex Talks Battletech) | Failure To Launch

Tatsumaki Class (w. Tex Talks Battletech) by Failure To Launch on Patreon. Join Failure To Launch 's community for exclusive content and updates.

patreon.com

Its still really amazing how SpaceX is effectively trying to blow themselves up to force pretty much everything onto Starship.

George Pearkes@peark.es · 2w ago

They really don’t understand the rocket equation huh.

The U.S. Secretary of Defense just stated that—so far—the war with Iran has cost $37.5 billion dollars. That's since February. That same amount is how much the United States spent on planetary science from FY2013 through FY2026 inclusive. Thirteen years of planetary science or five months of war.

Nope, even the tornado warning I just got can't bring down my mood today

I'm being told that we have been "discovered"

Real ones celebrate moon not landing day

Brief update: Battletech bonus episode will go out on Patreon for all paid tiers on Friday, July 24.

Failure To Launch Podcast@failuretolaunch.bsky.social · last mo.

FTL JULY SCHEDULE New this month: CHERTOK The life and times of Soviet space engineer Boris Chertok. Korolev's longtime deputy and a man who was involved in Soviet space from 1939 to 1991. He was never "in charge" but he was always there, involved in every phase of the Soviet Space Industry.

Discovering a fun trend in Soviet space OKB politics: Chelomei's OKB-52 annexing some old aircraft manufacturer, turning them into a space bureau, and then a few years later OKB-1 swoops in and "frees" them. Competition between Soviet space bureaus was alarmingly fierce and dog-eat-dog.