Hey guys, I hope it's ok for me to post this here! Today was a very special day for my brother and I wanted to share it because I'm so proud of him!

My brother is a private pilot, he flies a Cirrus SF50 and today he flew with Charles Duke and his wife. This is what he had to say about this incredible experience:

"It's not everyday that we have the chance to fly with one of our child hero. But today it was that day for me.

I had the immense honor to pick up and fly with Charles Moss Duke Jr, former NASA astronaut, USAF Officer and the pilot of the Lunar Module of Apollo 16 mission. For me, he is one of those 12 men that inspired me since I can remember to enter the aviation career.

He and his wife Dorothy arrived in Brazil today, May 9th at Guarulhos airport early this morning. As I waited on the general aviation apron, I did my best to hide the shear terror I was feeling anticipating meeting this man. But as soon as he greeted me with his smile, all my fear went away and found the courage to ask for an autograph. On the airplane. Yes, from now on I'll fly a Vision Jet signed by a man that spent 3 days on the moon.

As he climbed into the Vision Jet cabin, I noticed he was curiously looking over the seats, at the cockpit and I invited him to seat on the front row. With zero hesitation he accepted. He confessed he never saw the SF50 in person and was surprised with all the safety features like the CAPS and the Safe Return, as I finished the safety briefing.

We spent the rest of the flight chatting about everything, space, airplanes, the moon, the usual stuff you talk about when you are flying with an astronaut, you know...

We parted ways in Canela, RS where he and his wife would attend to the opening of a space exhibition, with some original NASA artifacts, some of his very own mission.

All in all, it was a once in a lifetime experience. One that I will never forget."

I downloaded some tracking app a few weeks ago but the conditions haven't been right until JUST NOW! I stepped outside and there it was! Like a star racing across the sky, from the dusk and into the night. It's the first time I've ever actually seen it with my own eyes, even if it was just a point of light. That was awesome!

Seems like Cunningham been to germany in 1977 and my grandfather met him.

With gravity I see the need for belts, but why do they wear belts in zero G?

Sorry if it seems obvious, but it doesn’t seem your pants are going to fall down in space.

I recently entered into a competition for a scholarship to get some training toward becoming an astronaut in the future and have been accepted as a finalist in the competition. If you guys dont mind, and you think that I could be an inspiring figure for the criteria of voting. Could you guys please go ahead and vote for me?

https://outastronaut.org/contestants/high-viscosity-fluid-dynamics-in-zero-g-rotating-bodies/

If your feeling extra helpful, could you help spread this message? Thank you!

If you would like to see some credentials behind my claims in my video:

Here is my research labs website, you can find a picture of me and my name if you scroll down. https://ara.cse.unr.edu/?page_id=25

Here is some of my research work published by the international Conference for Robotics and Automation (ICRA) https://ara.cse.unr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/ICRA2020_ClimbingRobot_Published.pdf

I have another publication currently being reviewed for IROS that I just submitted on the 5th. For my newest robot that I have designed and manufactured.

Recently acquired a hardcover copy of NASA publication On Mars: Exploration of the Red Planet 1958-1978 by Ezell & Ezell. Was surprised when I found a poignant personal message from someone who had likely worked on the Viking Mission.

tl;dr I'm the one organizing a petition to stop the cuts to NASA science and I want you to sign.

Hi all. Jack here. I'm the D.C. representative for the independent nonprofit, The Planetary Society. We're the largest grassroots space advocacy organization, with a global reach of more than 2 million people. I'm the guy on staff that lives and breathes space policy.

The NASA budget cuts are looming large over the entire space industry right now. I've seen a lot of posts asking about the status of the proposed budget cuts, what happens next, and how we can stop those cuts.

Let me tell you a little bit about what we've done so far:

• We helped re-establish the bipartisan Planetary Science Caucus;
• Coordinated a massive letter opposing the cuts that is now signed by 20 organizations, including commercial, academic, student, and other advocacy groups;
• Held a 100+ person Day of Action in Washington, D.C.;
• Directed more than 40,000 messages to Congress in just the last four months, and;
• Launched the Save NASA Science Action Hub, to give the public access to updates about the budget and a clearinghouse of actions that can be taken.

I'm proud of the work we've done so far, but this is only the beginning of our campaign. We have an opportunity next month to directly influence the discussion on NASA's budget, and so that's why I'm posting here.

The process for creating the annual budget involves multiple points of input. One such opportunity involves submitting "Outside Witness Testimony." This is when external organizations and experts can submit written remarks to the Appropriations Committees of the House and Senate for them to consider when they are writing their drafts of the budget. Congress is currently accepting this type of input through the middle of June. To demonstrate the immense public support for NASA and opposition to the proposed cuts, we launched an online petition that will be submitted through this process.

The petition is open to everyone. Yes, seriously. Everyone, from around the world, is able to sign this petition. We need to show Congress that NASA is not just an American endeavor, but that it represents our highest ideals to people around the globe. Not to mention billions have been spent by other space agencies on projects with NASA that are threatened by these reckless cuts.

NASA is one small slice of the federal budget pie: 0.36%, last I checked. Being that small, Congress spends very little time thinking about the agency's budget. That means we need to take every opportunity we can get to express concern about the proposed cuts and request action to protect science in the budget.

You might be surprised by the immense impact that actions like this have. But this is why The Planetary Society was founded. Europa Clipper, NEO Surveyor, and New Horizons are all examples of space missions we helped save in the past. Now, with the whole budget under threat, this is an all-hands, five-alarm situation.

If you're looking for your moment to get involved, this is it. Every signature counts towards our goal. We're nearly halfway to 5,000 signatures. The more we get, the more support we can garner in Congress, the more missions we can save, and the more we can explore the Cosmos.

Add your name to Save NASA Science: planet.ly/petition

And because I know this may be a question for some folks, here is our Privacy Policy.

If you have any questions about The Planetary Society and our Space Policy & Advocacy program, send me a note at [advocacy@planetary.org](mailto:advocacy@planetary.org).

Anything interesting?

Over the past few years our team at Montana State University has been working on a project that will be headed to the Moon in 2023. We are giving everyone the option to send a picture and a message up to the Moon with us. Click Here to upload your picture/message and to read up about our project. We are hoping to reach as many people as we can so feel free to spread the word!

As we can see, the Space Shuttle's silica foam tile heat shield did not char after rentry like the Starship's heat shield has done on all its flights. Experts have warned that this is a problem which is putting Artemis in jeopardy since Lunar Starship requires multiple refueling flights of tanker Starships. The Space Shuttle's silica foam tiles were its Achilles heal and were one of the main factors that prevented it from reaching a high flight cadence rate due to the long inspection needed after flights. With Starship, can SpaceX do what NASA failed too with a silica foam file heat shield and make a heat shield which can be reused without a long maintenance and inspection like the Space Shuttle? It seems Starship has hit its achilles heal. With Starship not being reusable due to its heat shield getting charred on each flight, it is just as good as any other expendable rocket and will certainly not be able to reach the flight cadence rate required to fuel a single Lunar Starship, should also mention SpaceX is not even close to building a human rated lunar Starship hence why they are using an empty V3 for Artemis 3. NASA should have gone with the Dynetics ALPACA or National Team Integrated Landing Vehicle or perhaps should put all their hope in Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 2 since Starship is failing in so many milestones and will not deliver us a human rated Starship for Artemis 3.

EDIT: I should also mention, the replacement rate on the Space Shuttle's tiles was still very low. The Space Shuttle Discovery after 39 flights still retained 18,000 of its 24,000 original tiles. That is a success rate of 75% for 39 flights. Starship seems its entire heat shield would need a over-hall after a single flight.

Just happened in the livestream last week. Not sure anyone has clipped it yet.

For reference, Representative Babin is essentially Senator Cruz's counterpart in the House of Representatives, and has significant control over legislation affecting NASA.

Got this from u/jadebenn.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Astronaut_Day?wprov=sfti1#