Solutionist. Astrophysics PhD and scientific software engineer. Dad of 2. Let’s colonise the solar system together. Please visit the link below to read my blog:
UK
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I very often get asked why I’m so concerned with the UK advancing in space, when the country seems to be falling apart. Don’t we have better things to focus on?
Not really. If we don’t have a great civilisation project, the what is the point? What exactly are we trying to fix? Is Britain just about keeping the pension system going another year? Worshipping the NHS? What are we doing here that will matter 100 years from now.
Space isn’t a distraction, it’s our destiny
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Ed Sheeran has disgracefully refused to take sides on the question of whether a planetary surface is the best place for an expanding industrial civilisation.
You cannot remain neutral in the face of near term space colonisation!
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No shock there. Apparently we just don’t care about plagiarism and fraud now.
Cambridge is no longer planning to investigate Jason Arday’s academic record or the university’s decision to hire or cover for him.
Instead, the investigation will focus on “his welfare, his care, his well-being” and “whether the school offered him sufficient support amid accusations that he plagiarized.”
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SpaceX could build some kind of airlock on to their EVA suits to let visitors go directly on the surface for this purpose.
"That's one small dump for a man..."
I recently had a conversation with a NASA JPL engineer that was bemoaning the fact that the internal “Planetary Protection” department at NASA threw up substantial roadblocks for Mars missions in the name of protecting the pristine Martian environment. They will surely be apoplectic about this.
I kind of think we should just get it over with and empty a septic tank on mars so nobody can imagine it needs dedicated protection. Project Vandalize Mars.
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Oh, I’m afraid I’m going to have to disagree with @jamespriceglos on a few points.
1. As I’ve banged on at length to so many people, Black Arrow was not the missed opportunity. It was tiny and useless. Blue Streak was our chance
2. Entrepreneurs alone can’t do this, nor did they in America. To scale, space companies need large public contracts spanning decades, like the ISS re supply one that turned SpaceX from a small launch startup running out of money into a space titan.
🧵Britain did actually have a space programme, launching the amazingly well named Black Arrow rocket in 1971 to put a satellite into orbit.
✍️@jamespriceglos
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How the hell are people blaming the Jews for this?? I assumed it was some kind of nudge unit nonsense, not a grand conspiracy!
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“Failure to comply with a notice to make disclosure” means “didn’t unlock his phone for us”
Basically the state can presume you’re a criminal purely on the basis of you not helping them with their open ended fishing expedition into your private life.
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The trick to getting A+ public servants to run your departments, is not high pay apparently - it’s to let them play with the cool classified stuff…
This might be the only possible way that you could fly an SR-71. Become a billionaire. Finagle your way into becoming NASA Administrator with a mandate to do big things so you have cover to take back an SR-71 trainer and refurb it for flight as an X-plane. Respect.
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Yeah, longhousing the SAS is a fantastic idea, HR ladies! Can’t see any downside.
EXCLUSIVE: Special forces soldiers believe they are “untouchable” and not all of them are the heroes they think they are, according to a former female civil servant who worked alongside them.
Monica Grenfell, who was employed at the Special Air Service (SAS) headquarters in Credenhill, near Hereford, for three years, said some of the elite troops were “feral” and it was “the nasty characters who really ruled the roost”.
She has given evidence under oath to the Afghan Inquiry and has now been interviewed by @thetimes
thetimes.com/article/5706a8a…
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Remember this woman pretended she didn’t understand what a server was, in order to deny allegations of destroying evidence.
We're used to thinking of open-source models as an unadulterated good. But in the case of AI, they can actually pose additional dangers, as @ReidHoffman and I got into at #CGI2026. I appreciated this nuanced discussion.
Community note
All recent large-scale cyberattacks have been performed by proprietary AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic.
No evidence that open-weight models present any additional cybersecurity risks.
nytimes.com/2026/09/23/tec…
anthropic.com/news/investiga…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenAI%E2…
opensource.org/blog/openness-…
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If the two launches in October are followed by the same in November and December, that gives 9 Starship flights for the year. If another pad comes online at the start of 2027, and a further one halfway through the year, and all can launch monthly, that would mean 42 flights next year. This assumes vehicle manufacturing and propellant supply can keep up and feed all five pads at the current rate.
The figure sounds crazy, and I'm sure would be dismissed out of hand by many. If there is a serious anomaly it would chip into that figure considerably. But getting anywhere close would be an earthquake for the launch industry.
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My 2026 predictions from the end of last year:
- I'm probably too pessimistic on Starship by 1-3 flights
- Falcon 9 won't make that many flights due to pad retirement
- I didn't see New Glenn going bang, so I was wrong there
- Too bullish on Neutron
- Correct about China and Artemis 2 (not hard calls)
planetocracy.org/p/mass-valu…
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Previously in the test program SpaceX managed to get near monthly cadence from one pad, so it’s no shock they would get two flights in a month from two. And it’s only going to accelerate from there…
This is super provisional!
Starship Flight 15 - NET October 19
Starship Flight 16 (Starlink 30-1) - KSC 39A - NET October 30.
You can bet those dates will slip, but it shows some of SpaceX's forward planning.
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