Keith’s note: according to NASA: “NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission safely splashed down early Thursday morning in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, concluding a more than five-month mission aboard the International Space Station.”

Keith’s note: the other day Russia broke the only launch pad it has that can launch Soyuz or Progress missions to the ISS. Space social media is all over the place with what needs to be fixed and how long it will take, cost, etc. NASA has not said much of anything other than admitting “yea, we noticed”. SpaceX is doing just fine. Boeing Starliner – well, not so much and they are not going to be in a position to do much heavy lifting for a while until they prove – for the fourth time – that their system works. As was the case after the loss of Columbia we’re back to a single string of crew launch capability i.e. no back-up. And you will recall all of the arm waving and fuss that the incoming Administration had about two “stranded” astronauts on ISS. Cargo supply to ISS is better off (Dragon, Cygnus, JAXA). Yet, when you add in the ticking clock for splashing ISS and what a reimagined Artemis will look like and NASA is going to have its hands full in 2026. With fewer staff and a significantly smaller budget projection, this is going to be a challenge. ‘Per Aspera’ is going to be more pronounced as we do the whole ‘Ad Astra’ thing.

Keith’s note: In a nutshell, acting/interim/(maybe)actual NASA Administrator Sean Duffy says that SpaceX is behind “schedule” on its Artemis stuff. OK this may well be true. Yet Duffy can’t say when Artemis II, III, etc. will launch i.e. according to a “schedule” with dates etc. or if there’s an actual firm budget to stay on “schedule” or if his new ideas to try other approaches have a “schedule” or if a landing will have a NLT 19 Jan 2029 in its “schedule’. “Notional” won’t get us to the Moon, beat China etc. Just sayin’.

Keith’s note: SpaceX Launched the 11th flight of Starship this evening. The first stage came back exactly as planned. Ship made it to orbit and worked smoothly. Payload doors opened and all Starlink simulators were deployed. When operational, each Starship launch will deploy an additional 60Tb of coverage to the orbital Starlink constellation – 20 times the amount of satellites that a Falcon 9 workhorse currently does. The upper stage then landed precisely on target in the Indian Ocean after doing some wild banking maneuvers on the way down. I did launch coverage on Bloomberg Radio (audio) and I was on Deutsche Welle TV to do landing coverage. (audio)

Keith’s note: I was just on CNN International doing live commentary during the launch of Crew 11 to the International Space Station on board a SpaceX Falcon 9/Dragon [Audio]. I was on CNN again at 6:40 pm EDT. [Audio]

Keith’s note: I was just on Bloomberg TV for the SpaceX Crew 11 launch which was scrubbed due to weather. I stayed on and talked about NASA layoffs, budget issues, and Ted Cruz’s support for the International Space Station – and moving the Space Shuttle to Texas. Let’s see what happens tomorrow. [Audio]

Keith’s note: a few minutes ago, during a routine pre-flight test, SpaceX Ship 36 blew up. Video below.

Keith’s note: Michael Altenhofen – who joined NASA from SpaceX in January 2025 as a “special “Senior Advisor to the NASA Administrator” has been named as Deputy Chief of Staff according to his LinkedIn page. If he was a ‘Special Government Employee (SGE)’ then his 130 days will be up very soon.

Keith’s 28 May Update: I just did an interview with Al Jazeera about the SpaceX Starship 9 flight Audio. Keith’s 27 May note: I just did live coverage of the SpaceX Starship Flight 9 mission on Bloomberg Radio. After two last minute holds the rocket lifted off re-using a first stage that had already flown – 29 engines were being re-flown – and one of them was being flown for its third flight. After staging the first stage was brought back – but under heightened stress loads to test the vehicle. Just as the landing burn was going to happen telemetry stopped and SpaceX confirmed that “Heavy just demised” in SpaceX lingo. The Ship (second stage) made its way into space and tested some engines. The plan was to deploy 8 Starlink demonstrators but the payload door would not open properly so that task was aborted. Upon re-entry the vehicle lost control and spun and was eventually lost.

Keith’s note: According to House Democrats probe Elon Musk’s conflicts of interest with NASA, Axios: “Rep Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.) and Rep. Gery Connolly (D-Va.) sent a letter to Iris Lan, NASA’s chief legal officer, requesting information and documents by April 21. They asked how NASA is ensuring that Musk isn’t exploiting the agency to enrich himself and his companies, which they said would violate ethics rules for his position as a special government employee. … “Mr. Isaacson’s fortune is tied to Shift4, the payments processing company he controls. In 2021, Shift4 entered into a partnership with Starlink, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mr. Musk’s SpaceX. Shift4 estimated that its partnership with SpaceX will generate $100 billion in Starlink subscription payments.” Full letter text below.