We've never seen anything like this recording of a landing on another world. @fireflyspace

The U.S. Senate on Friday unanimously passed two bipartisan bills that aim to address stigmas around mental health in aviation and clarify what medications pilots can take. vist.ly/5jw8d #aviation #mentalhealth #bills #aviationmentalhealth

This was the first tune I played at the first Astro Awards the K&D version of Bug Powder Dust piped.video/AXVAod1fX3s?is=cWIy…

There are understandably a lot of comments about 'Fastest computers' that are surprised that @SpaceXAI Colossus-2 system doesn't appear in the Supercomputer charts. They don't appear because they never ran the benchmark and published it. There are multiple possible reasons, the Colossus datacenters are built for AI rather than physics simulation. The LinPack benchmark is based around Double precision math, essential to simulations like hydrodynamics, finite element analysis and Kerbal Space Program. AI doesn't need that, models are trained with much lower numerical resolution, there, AI tuned hardware frequently neglects double precision math. Secondly the network is hugely important, in a supercomputer the nodes need to be tightly interconnected to work on a single problem. But if you're running a datacenter then only the training side needs that tight integration, the inference side used by customers can run some models on single GPU's with no need to cluster. So, It's likely that Colossus-2 can only bring a portion of its processors together into a single task. To run the benchmark the team might need to make configuration changes to get respectable performance, it would take time away from the real tasks. Maybe @elonmusk doesn't care enough about artificial benchmarks and is happy to let the supercomputer people compare their numbers while Colossus does actual work. So for now China gets the prestige of claiming 'Fastest Computer in The World'. And Microsoft can point to their top 10 ranking over Macrohard. piped.video/watch?v=HlsyZAWn…

RFE/RL takes apart a Russian Geran-4 drone to uncover what makes the jet-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) faster, harder to intercept, and capable of operating deep inside Ukraine -- from its turbojet engine and advanced camera to foreign-made communications and navigation components. @cxemu @radiosvoboda

In July I got to visit El Capitan, built in 2024 as the world's fastest computer. And that needs a whole stack built for performance from the infrastructure, though the CPU's, Networking, storage, operating system and Software. piped.video/HlsyZAWnOu8 It's more than just cramming as many GPU's into a datacenter as possible, they need to be able to work on the same task together.

I've got a new feature length video on the El Capitan supercomputer, which was the fastest computer in the world when it debuted in 2024. I wanted to explain what makes a Supercomputer, Super. It's more than just the number of processors in a datacenter. patreon.com/scottmanley/post…

Can I land on the moon using a DJ Mixer as a controller? patreon.com/scottmanley/post…

Ummm is NASA806 hitting the Sidewinder today or what?! ht: @CCFOC1

So YouTube are introducing A/B testing on videos. Judging by the comments I already have this feature. That’s the only explanation for people getting mad at me for hating on SpaceX and being a SpaceX fanboy on the same video.

Also, the Hawaii flyover could become a Hawaii reentry option, this would be on the second orbit.

Unsurprised to see the hazard areas for Starship Flight 14. Absolutely flabbergasted to see two Starship launches tentatively scheduled for October.

Our team “It’s. not rocket science” got 1st in the pub quiz tonight. We were in 7th place for the final question about tourism, we bet it all and got it right, doubling our points while the others played it safe. And to confirm there was still no rocket science round.

So, I coded up an interface that would let me read inputs from MIDI controllers and send them as control inputs to KSP. So I can do the ‘Space DJ’ thing

Weird Asteroid

trying to think of a metaphor for finding which one of these is good… 🤔

California National Guard put out a 15 minute video with the Chinook crew describing the famous Creek Fire rescue mission. It includes this cool explanation of how they were barely able to gain altitude by cycling between max speed and max engine power. The CGI he talks about is a gizmo that measures mechanical loads on the rotors, loads increased as they went faster in cruise, redline is supposed to be 120% of design load. (ignore the diagram at 0:54, they would enter the climb from level flight)

Some people have questioned what research could be done in developing a modern, air breathing, mach 3+ aircraft since it was already done in the 60's. Well for one, they could make it work with a sensible fuel - JP-7 was very much part of the pioneering engineering required to develop the A-12. The fuel is not only the source of energy but is also used in the engine hydraulic system. During high Mach flight, the fuel is also a heat sink for the various aircraft and engine accessories which would otherwise overheat at the high temperatures encountered. This requires a fuel having high thermal stability so that it will not break down and deposit coke and varnishes in the fuel system passages. The very low volatility, and relative unwillingness of JP-7 to be ignited, required triethylborane to be injected into the engine in order to initiate combustion, and allow afterburner operation in flight. The SR-71 had a limited capacity for TEB, and therefore had a limited number of available 'shots' of TEB for restarts, and those had to be managed carefully on long-duration flights with multiple stages of relatively low-altitude air refueling and normal high-altitude cruise flight. It was also reported to be about the same price as fine, single malt Whisky. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JP-7

Decades after leaving research I have my name on another astronomy paper, one of many names. Mostly people who used @Unistellar eV Scopes. Multiband Color Monitoring of 3I/ATLAS through Ground-Based Relay Observations arxiv.org/pdf/2609.22021 Data shows red coma with little change in color over the apparition.