Eh, it's not our money.

[Heid the Ba]

With the imminent failure of the Astrobotic Peregrine mission to the Moon NASA are very blasé about several hundred million dollars of someone else's money heading in the general direction of "away".

'Speaking to the BBC last month, deputy administrator Pam Melroy, said: "What we have learned from our commercial partners is if we have a high enough cadence, we can relax some of the requirements that make it so costly, and have a higher risk appetite. And if they fail, the next one is going to learn and succeed." '

[Arneb]

Which is a highbrow way of describing what Elon does all day: Launch them and let them pop until they don't - it's a test, not a demonstration. I'd say it worked out pretty well for SpaceX.

[g-one]

This just in: 'Pam Melroy dismissed after being discovered to be an AI PR-bot'.

[Halcyon Dayz, FCD]

The successful first flight for the Vulcan Centaur is a big deal though.

[Heid the Ba]

Yes it is.
Relatedly; I'm sure this means something to some of you but all I got was "Oooh shiny thing now in orbit".
https://www.isro.gov.in/halo-orbit-inse ... ya-l1.html

[Arneb]

Yes it is.
Relatedly; I'm sure this means something to some of you but all I got was "Oooh shiny thing now in orbit".
https://www.isro.gov.in/halo-orbit-inse ... ya-l1.html

It does, and it earns a big round of applause for India.

[Heid the Ba]

SLIM is no longer shady and back up and running.

[Arneb]

Kudos to our friends from Earthquake Archipelago. I think it's an absolutely cool idea to have a spacecraft bellyflop shortly before landing - even if it didn't work, that was for a different reason (an engine nozzle coming loose, if I got that correctly).