Why is SpaceX really ending those flights?
I agree that Elon wants to see more competition in the industry, and it’s time for the other companies to step up. A prevailing theme of Smallsat this week was the seeming dearth of launch opportunities. If I get my new venture off the ground, it will be a personal concern to me as well.
A brief history of their misbegotten use in spaceflight, by frequent-commenter Mike Puckett.
[Update late afternoon Mountain time]
I want to share my own condolences to Mike on the loss of his beloved cat. But it sounds like she had a good run.
We’re driving up to Salt Lake City for the Smallsat Conference. Staying in Mesquite, NV tonight, then Park City for the first half of the week. I’ll have laptop, but not sure how much posting I’ll be doing. Comments are open.
The president has issued a memorandum. I’m skimming it right now, but new policy was definitely needed with the upcoming planned cadence of launch, landing, and entry.
I’ve known Eric for almost half a century, and Chris for forty years. My colleague Jim Bennett, another founder, is also briefly shown.
Thoughts from Jeffrey Carter.
This resistance to building them down here is probably going to help industrialize space.
Ukraine strikes at the very heart of the Russian space program. https://t.co/YzcYwx5whw
— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) August 15, 2026
— Michelle L.D. Hanlon (@hanlonesq) August 12, 2026
This may be the most visionary and sensible NASA administrator ever.
[Update a while later]
Jared’s post was presumably in response to this:
Reading this is incredibly radicalizing. I want to do the exact opposite after reading this. It also oozes with AI-written prose. Fitting, as it’s anti-human and is intended to stop settlement of Mars. https://t.co/tHunJ5UX6s
— Robotbeat🗽 ➐ (@Robotbeat) August 12, 2026
“fts” sure pic.twitter.com/I66MM1niB0
— Michael France (@michaelsrockets) August 10, 2026
I didn’t know that Chinese rockets even had FTS. Looks more like a Max-Q failure to me.
[Update a few minutes later]
A Chinese CZ-7A was launched today from Wenchang, but the flight ended about ~80 seconds into the flight with an explosion. Reportedly it carried the military geostationary communications satellite ZX 4B.https://t.co/9J6Eo4VR9l pic.twitter.com/prMzeN2ofY
— Gunter Krebs 🚀 🛰 🇺🇦 🇬🇱🏳️🌈 (@Skyrocket71) August 10, 2026
[Update a while later]
It's hard to tell how much the video screen footage is slowed down, but here's a rough attempt at syncing two views: pic.twitter.com/oXiHZNYglK
— Scott Manley (@DJSnM) August 10, 2026
Stephen Green reports on Elon’s earnings call.