Ken Kirtland IV
@KenKirtland17
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Industrial Designer - Georgia Tech 2020 - 💍 Caitlin Shelby. Space enthusiast, Apogee YouTube Creator
Joined January 2013
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Spaceflight 2023 Wrapped (BRAINROT EDITION).mp4
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Here is a graphic I made of America's Fairings! Looks like we're going to be bringing some big stuff to space (and the Moon).
All the fairings shown are scale to one another.
@torybruno
@elonmusk
@ulalaunch
@SpaceX
@blueorigin
@Erdayastronaut
@DJSnM
@ThePrimalDino
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Falcon 9 first landing failed!!!! And musk stans are claiming they got “useful data”. LMFAO it EXPLODED!
And they say they are going to “reuse” this. They’ll believe anything.
*7 years later
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"Starship is about to attempt reentry"
meanwhile Starship
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BREAKING: NASA Administrator announces new Mars Helicopter mission "Vengeance" planned for 2028 to conduct targeted ground stike operation on the rock that damaged Inginuity.
NASA's historic Ingenuity Helicopter has taken its last flight on Mars. After 72 incredible flights, that remarkable helicopter flew farther and higher than we ever thought possible.
#ThanksIngenuity
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Gotta be the worst murder in spitter history I mean just absolute carnage
Works pretty good for a “partially assembled” engine :)
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USA with and without SpaceX launches vs China helps illustrate this point somewhat.
The US space program would be in the absolute darkest timeline without SpaceX and I don’t think that is talked about near enough.
When I have time I need to make some infographics that illustrate this point. Because I don’t think people quite understand
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Shoutout SpaceX for just happening to put a camera at the perfect point to watch the craziest shit ever.
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America's Fairings 2.0
I shared a graphic comparing rocket fairings that went further than expected. So I gave it a huge refresh with more details. Let me know what you think!
@elonmusk
@JimBridenstine
@Erdayastronaut
@DJSnM
@SciGuySpace
@torybruno
@SpaceX
@ThePrimalDino
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The US space program would be in the absolute darkest timeline without SpaceX and I don’t think that is talked about near enough.
When I have time I need to make some infographics that illustrate this point. Because I don’t think people quite understand
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GOD THIS GOES HARD
The way the booster engines shut down to pave the way for Starship's engines 😍
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Today is a strong reminder of why NASA sadly cannot use the fast agile development/ testing strategy of SpaceX. A large percentage of the population seems religiously compelled to not understand it.
Applies to publically traded companies as well.
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@Liv_Agar
Mainstream conservative coverage of anti-lgbt terror attacks has moved from: (insincere) condemnation of the attack to “the victims are evil and have to be stopped, but not like this”
Next up: “can you really blame (terrorist)” and then finally, “(attack) is good”
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Imagine the level of Dunning Kruger it takes to look at a room of SpaceX engineers. The people who developed the most reliable rocket in history, first rapidly reusable rocket, returned human spaceflight to the U.S., delivered >50 humans to orbit and call them “morons”
🤡
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People already at the pad.
Road open.
Chopsticks moving.
Tankers arriving.
Reports from insiders that the pad is good.
😍
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I hate to be an "enlightened centrist" on the SpaceX vs FAA stuff but here are my takes: 🧵
- SpaceX violated the law with the F9 stuff and their excuses seem weak
- Nothing Spacex did was unsafe and the laws need updating because they really don't make sense
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SpaceX really completed the entirety of the original Commercial Crew Program missions before Boeings fist crewed test flight 💀
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Something that just hit me that is an imperative.
PUT STARLINK TERMINALS AND CAMERAS ON THIS.
Let us watch ISS go out in a blaze of glory live.
With 6x more propellant and 4x the power of today’s Dragon spacecraft, SpaceX was selected to design and develop the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle for a precise, controlled deorbit of the
@Space_Station
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As NSF is saying. Exactly what you want from a 2nd flight! Not only a clean count and amazing results but importantly:
It fixed every single issue with flight one.
Pad looking healthy
FTS worked
No Engines out
No Fires in the engine bay
Successful staging
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There are already tanker trucks at the road block. 💀
Never change SpaceX
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Soft splash down after a a flap was halfway burnt off due to what seems like a hot gas seal failure!
OH. MY. GOD.
S29 is a DEMON
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POV its 2028 and the Artemis 3 crew just splashed down after spending a week on the lunar surface. You log into twitter and see this
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Someone finally let the drone operator go wild lmao. Insanely cool footage.
Drone footage from Deep Blue Aerospace's VTVL attempt today. Great view of the landing and explosion.
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Leaked image of Northrop's moon train
DARPA selected us to further develop the concept of building a moon-based railroad network that would transport humans, supplies and resources for commercial ventures. Learn more:
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It’s a little crazy that
@NASA
and
@NASAArtemis
haven’t tweeted about Starship full stack yet.
I don’t want to make a big deal of it but like… not only did your long time partner just build the largest most powerful ever. But it’s literally your HLS lander!
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SpaceX engineers after a hard day of winning every NASA contract by making existing product longer and adding moar engines
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NASA's Crewed Mars Mission Architecture (Current Plan)
This infographic describes NASA's mission plan in detail from first launch to final touchdown back on Earth. (You may need to zoom in to read everything)
NASA plans to update this mission profile in "a few weeks".
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Man Starship streams are going to be so fun when this vehicle gets operational. If they can maintain these type of views throughout all reentry eventually
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41K likes on a post that puts the safest / most reliable rocket in human history on par with the 737 MAX and Oceangate Sub.
In case you needed a reminder where the general public knowledge on space stuff is at.
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BREAKING: Rocket 3.3 has ascended from the bottom of the ocean and is back on its way to orbit.
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Aight spitter, which thumbnail you clicking?
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The FAA has gone above and beyond and literally has worked as fast as SpaceX has (twice now)
SpaceX fans should be singing their praises
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Starhopper flew less than 2 years ago.
Here we are today. Orbital launch tower, 5 full scale starships. 2 full scale superheavy. Countless tests. Orbital Superheavy virtually done with 29 engines. Orbital Starship close to done.
All in less than 24 months.
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The Lotte World Tower in South Korea cost $2.5B
Lord help us, the new cost estimate of NASA's Mobile Launcher-2 project is now a mind-boggling $2.7 billion.
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Speed up crewed Mars mission timeline.
Bring him home
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Just like SpaceX should do stuff correctly, so should the FAA.
Haven’t kept a close eye on this drama but really not a good look for the administrator here to be so wrong on all of this.
FAA Administrator Whitaker made several incorrect statements today regarding SpaceX. In fact, every statement he made was incorrect.
It is deeply concerning that the Administrator does not appear to have accurate information immediately available to him with respect to SpaceX
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When you're trying to diss your competitor but you don't want to show how much better they are so you just lie.
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@blueorigin
There was a competition. You lost.
However if you’re saying it needs redundancy I agree. Self fund your lander and get it to the moon I’m sure NASA will buy your services.
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BREAKING:
@blueorigin
has posted another graphic regarding NASA's decision to choose Starship as the HLS lander.
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Quick look at SUSIE,
@ArianeGroup
vision for a cargo & astronaut vehicle, in context of some other crew vehicles!
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My guess at NASA's play here:
1. Pick Starship because its cheapest and great choice
2. Congress flips out, says don't sole source to SpaceX too much risk
3. NASA says, well we could've chosen 2 if you gave us the funding we asked for.
4. Congress gives them $
5. ALPACA added
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Why are we paying SpaceX to deorbit the ISS just let Russia dock a module to it that ought to do the trick
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120 lightyears? That all you got?
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If you’re wondering how involved Elon is with Starship rn.
SpaceX wrote the 63 items themselves and the FAA signs off that they agree with them.
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YouTube just recommended a Japanese Vtuber live stream of Starship flight 4 this is amazing. 😂
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How Falcon Big Is Starship?
An infographic displaying the enormous proportions of SpaceX's next generation rocket in terms of their current workhorse, the Falcon 9.
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Anyone know the advantages to catching at this height? I can really only think of disadvantages tbh..
Imagine if this is the scene when Booster 12 returns during Flight 5!
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Starliner test record:
Pad Abort: Parachute failure
OFT-1: Failed to reach station
OFT-2: Service module replaced, then thruster issues
CFT-1: Thruster and leaks, mission not completed.
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I kind of want to hear from all the people espousing this all the way in 2023.
What are you thinking? How do you explain the current status Falcon 9? Just lucky 100s of times in a row?
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How can we get FWS and FAA to make streaming the launch on YouTube a legal requirement?
Vehicle is ready for the second test flight of a fully integrated Starship, pending regulatory approval
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Allow me to introduce you to the conversation you'll be having for the next 2-3 years
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May actually be the craziest thing I ever see in my life
You're looking at the first direct image of another planetary system located about 300 light-years away around a star like our Sun.
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Anyone thinking SN-15 is do or die for Starship has zero understanding of how SpaceX tests things, for some this misunderstanding is purposeful.
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Without SpaceX, the US would currently have had 13 successful orbital launches so far this year.
Of these 13, only 4 would be from a Medium+ Launch Vehicle.
The remaining 9 are small launch (8 from the currently grounded electron)
SpaceX has 73 + 1 Starship test
The US space program would be in the absolute darkest timeline without SpaceX and I don’t think that is talked about near enough.
When I have time I need to make some infographics that illustrate this point. Because I don’t think people quite understand
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Huge LOL to the people who thought a crunched pipe delayed SpaceX by 3 years.
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As I predicted, they will sue. Blue Origin has zero shame, they are in it for the ego & glory and nothing else. They are a feckless child in the aerospace industry.
As always this is not directed at the average BO employee. This is about Bezos and Bob Smith.
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People will be “Team Space” and “I love all space companies” and then reject an architecture that could take 6X as many people to the moon for less money because “it’s too much SpaceX”
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Quick comparison of active and planned crew vehicles!
Scale should be pretty close, excuse the rough quality, made it quickly at work.
Left to Right:
Starliner, Crew Dragon, Orion, Rocket Lab Capsule, Dream Chaser, SUSIE, Starship
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Next Big Things
An infographic comparing Starship and New Glenn. The giant next gen rockets coming online soon!
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Yo I think the ULA policy backfired cuz I straight up didn’t even know they launched this morning and usually my timeline is absolutely flooded when Atlas goes 😬
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Mfs be like “starship isn’t good for deep space only for hauling a bunch of stuff to LEO” yeah bro, a bunch of propellant. Get in we’re going to Trappist-1b
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So the next Starship flight. Barring NEW unfound issues (which are still likely this early) should make it to reentry test.
A flight this smooth is very confidence inspiring for starship.
Looks like we are about ready to move on to the fun stuff!
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Ladies and Gentlemen, the lander which gave us this beautiful tweet has, in fact, performed a propulsive landing in the lunar regolith.
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Checkout this Starship crew interior layout I came up with. Any feedback?
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Orion thoughts 🧵
Orion is a crew capsule has been in development for close to 2 decades and has cost ~$28B so far in 2024 dollars.
The main items remaining for development are:
1. Heatshield
2. Life Support
3. Docking Capability
This is not good.
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Insane. The lunar program we could’ve designed around this vehicle will forever haunt me. But no one (including me) would’ve believed this was possible ~13 years ago. Hell, I would’ve doubted it 5 years ago.
Falcon launched 67 missions in the first 6 months of 2024, delivering nearly 900 metric tons to orbit so far this year
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NASA: “We want your lander to be able to land in places which are known to often be in darkness”
BO: *Designs a landing guidance system that requires light
BO: “The target landing sights are too hard for our lander and we weren’t expecting to land in darkness”
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Wow. Even skipping over the horrendous taste of this post it’s just so stupid.
Comparing an uncrewed developmental test flight. To the Columbia tragedy, the 113th operational crewed flight of Shuttle.
Shameless, Distasteful, Stupid.
@WerhnerVKerman
@Orbital_Perigee
Today I learned the Colombia disaster was a resounding success actually
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Most powerful rocket ever to fly
Largest rocket ever to fly
Largest manmade supersonic object
Least separate stages after stage separation
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National Team's ILS (2020) vs Blue Moon (2023)
Name a bigger glowup
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Some (very) early pics of a project I’ve worked on in the background for a bit.
A series of bottles that look like popular rockets.
Here are Falcon 9 and Super Heavy prototypes. (Falcon 9 should have a white tumbler).
Thoughts?
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It’s worth remembering Starliner has yet to ever have a clean test.
Pad Abort - failed parachute
OFT-1 - the big one (too much to list)
OFT-2 - service module 2 year delay due to service module issues, thruster issues on orbit
CFT - ongoing (leaks, thruster issues)
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Kind of surprised there is no video of SH return. Im certain SpaceX had cameras positioned for that. And I’m surprised no amateur shot did it yet either.
How many kilometers off of the coast was it?
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Also big RIP to all the people who constantly said “Billionaires don’t have liquidity” or “SpaceX can barely afford Starship”
Elon is willing to drop 2X NASA annual budget on a whim for literally no reason.
Believe it or not, billionaires are rich!
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Starliner getting possessed is like the perfect after credits scene to the Starliner saga.
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Fly a drone like this during IFT-3 liftoff you cowards 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
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NASA has asked both SpaceX and Blue Origin for cargo variants of their HLS landers 🔥
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If I recall correctly, the ENTIRE budget including lander, launch, and all payloads was ~$120M
Yeah.
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China moment
Here is Space Pioneer's Tianlong-3 series of reusable launch vehicles.
Tianlong-3 is capable of delivering 17,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit or 14,000 kilograms to a 500-kilometer sun-synchronus orbit.
Tianlong-3H is capable of sending up to 68,000 kilograms to low Earth
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Rogozin after Starship is fully stacked, SLS rolls out to the pad, more starlink recievers arrive in Ukraine, Falcon 9 launches more starlinks, and the Soyuz crew arrives on station wearing Ukraine 🇺🇦 colors all in 24 hours
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It's here! 🪇
Spaceflight 2023 Wrapped Expansion Pack (Extra Brainrot Edition)
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