Ken Kirtland IV @KenKirtland17 Twitter profile

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

7 months

Spaceflight 2023 Wrapped (BRAINROT EDITION).mp4

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Last Seen Profiles

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

1 month

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

4 years

Here is a graphic I made of America's Fairings! Looks like we're going to be bringing some big stuff to space (and the Moon). All the fairings shown are scale to one another. @torybruno @elonmusk @ulalaunch @SpaceX @blueorigin @Erdayastronaut @DJSnM @ThePrimalDino

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

1 year

Falcon 9 first landing failed!!!! And musk stans are claiming they got “useful data”. LMFAO it EXPLODED! And they say they are going to “reuse” this. They’ll believe anything. *7 years later

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

4 months

"Starship is about to attempt reentry" meanwhile Starship

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

6 months

BREAKING: NASA Administrator announces new Mars Helicopter mission "Vengeance" planned for 2028 to conduct targeted ground stike operation on the rock that damaged Inginuity.

Bill Nelson

@SenBillNelson

6 months

NASA's historic Ingenuity Helicopter has taken its last flight on Mars. After 72 incredible flights, that remarkable helicopter flew farther and higher than we ever thought possible. #ThanksIngenuity

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

3 years

These absolute mad lads did it

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

9 months

USA with and without SpaceX launches vs China helps illustrate this point somewhat.

Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

9 months

The US space program would be in the absolute darkest timeline without SpaceX and I don’t think that is talked about near enough. When I have time I need to make some infographics that illustrate this point. Because I don’t think people quite understand

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

1 month

Shoutout SpaceX for just happening to put a camera at the perfect point to watch the craziest shit ever.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

4 years

America's Fairings 2.0 I shared a graphic comparing rocket fairings that went further than expected. So I gave it a huge refresh with more details. Let me know what you think! @elonmusk @JimBridenstine @Erdayastronaut @DJSnM @SciGuySpace @torybruno @SpaceX @ThePrimalDino

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

2 years

The competition is really heating up!

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

9 months

The US space program would be in the absolute darkest timeline without SpaceX and I don’t think that is talked about near enough. When I have time I need to make some infographics that illustrate this point. Because I don’t think people quite understand

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

8 months

GOD THIS GOES HARD

Tina Debove Nigro ᯅ

@tina__nigro

8 months

The way the booster engines shut down to pave the way for Starship's engines 😍

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

1 year

Today is a strong reminder of why NASA sadly cannot use the fast agile development/ testing strategy of SpaceX. A large percentage of the population seems religiously compelled to not understand it. Applies to publically traded companies as well.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

2 years

@Liv_Agar Mainstream conservative coverage of anti-lgbt terror attacks has moved from: (insincere) condemnation of the attack to “the victims are evil and have to be stopped, but not like this” Next up: “can you really blame (terrorist)” and then finally, “(attack) is good”

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

1 month

Imagine the level of Dunning Kruger it takes to look at a room of SpaceX engineers. The people who developed the most reliable rocket in history, first rapidly reusable rocket, returned human spaceflight to the U.S., delivered >50 humans to orbit and call them “morons” 🤡

Goodwin Higgenbottom

@GoodwinHig30984

1 month

Phil… Please… shut up. For once.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

8 months

People already at the pad. Road open. Chopsticks moving. Tankers arriving. Reports from insiders that the pad is good. 😍

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

1 month

Sound on 😭

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

10 months

SpaceX really completed the entirety of the original Commercial Crew Program missions before Boeings fist crewed test flight 💀

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

8 months

As NSF is saying. Exactly what you want from a 2nd flight! Not only a clean count and amazing results but importantly: It fixed every single issue with flight one. Pad looking healthy FTS worked No Engines out No Fires in the engine bay Successful staging

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

3 years

I love The Falcon and The Winter Soldier

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

10 months

Its time someone says it

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

8 months

There are already tanker trucks at the road block. 💀 Never change SpaceX

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

1 month

Soft splash down after a a flap was halfway burnt off due to what seems like a hot gas seal failure! OH. MY. GOD. S29 is a DEMON

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

4 months

POV its 2028 and the Artemis 3 crew just splashed down after spending a week on the lunar surface. You log into twitter and see this

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

4 months

Leaked image of Northrop's moon train

Northrop Grumman

@NGCNews

4 months

DARPA selected us to further develop the concept of building a moon-based railroad network that would transport humans, supplies and resources for commercial ventures. Learn more:

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

3 years

It’s a little crazy that @NASA and @NASAArtemis haven’t tweeted about Starship full stack yet. I don’t want to make a big deal of it but like… not only did your long time partner just build the largest most powerful ever. But it’s literally your HLS lander!

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

6 months

NASA's Crewed Mars Mission Architecture (Current Plan) This infographic describes NASA's mission plan in detail from first launch to final touchdown back on Earth. (You may need to zoom in to read everything) NASA plans to update this mission profile in "a few weeks".

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

2 years

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

4 months

Man Starship streams are going to be so fun when this vehicle gets operational. If they can maintain these type of views throughout all reentry eventually

maks

@galopujacy_jez

4 months

WHAT

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

3 months

41K likes on a post that puts the safest / most reliable rocket in human history on par with the 737 MAX and Oceangate Sub. In case you needed a reminder where the general public knowledge on space stuff is at.

679 Enthusiast

@marionumber4

3 months

I’m putting together a team

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

3 years

BREAKING: Rocket 3.3 has ascended from the bottom of the ocean and is back on its way to orbit.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

4 months

Aight spitter, which thumbnail you clicking?

Big Tech Alert

@BigTechAlert

4 months

🚀 @SpaceX has started following @MrBeast

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

10 months

The FAA has gone above and beyond and literally has worked as fast as SpaceX has (twice now) SpaceX fans should be singing their praises

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

3 years

Starhopper flew less than 2 years ago. Here we are today. Orbital launch tower, 5 full scale starships. 2 full scale superheavy. Countless tests. Orbital Superheavy virtually done with 29 engines. Orbital Starship close to done. All in less than 24 months.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

8 months

BRUH THE NEW FTS AINT NO DAMN JOKE LMFAOOOOO

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

3 years

When you're trying to diss your competitor but you don't want to show how much better they are so you just lie.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

6 months

Speed up crewed Mars mission timeline. Bring him home

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

3 years

@blueorigin There was a competition. You lost. However if you’re saying it needs redundancy I agree. Self fund your lander and get it to the moon I’m sure NASA will buy your services.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

3 years

BREAKING: @blueorigin has posted another graphic regarding NASA's decision to choose Starship as the HLS lander.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

2 years

Quick look at SUSIE, @ArianeGroup vision for a cargo & astronaut vehicle, in context of some other crew vehicles!

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

3 years

My guess at NASA's play here: 1. Pick Starship because its cheapest and great choice 2. Congress flips out, says don't sole source to SpaceX too much risk 3. NASA says, well we could've chosen 2 if you gave us the funding we asked for. 4. Congress gives them $ 5. ALPACA added

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

15 days

Why are we paying SpaceX to deorbit the ISS just let Russia dock a module to it that ought to do the trick

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

10 months

120 lightyears? That all you got?

NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

10 months

@aureoaj K2-18 b is about 120 light-years from Earth.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

10 months

If you’re wondering how involved Elon is with Starship rn. SpaceX wrote the 63 items themselves and the FAA signs off that they agree with them.

Elon Musk

@elonmusk

10 months

@FAANews @SpaceX What are the 63 items?

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

2 years

Rocket failing pain scale

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

1 month

Starship performing a soft splashdown

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

30 days

YouTube just recommended a Japanese Vtuber live stream of Starship flight 4 this is amazing. 😂

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

11 months

How Falcon Big Is Starship? An infographic displaying the enormous proportions of SpaceX's next generation rocket in terms of their current workhorse, the Falcon 9.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

1 year

I kind of want to hear from all the people espousing this all the way in 2023. What are you thinking? How do you explain the current status Falcon 9? Just lucky 100s of times in a row?

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

9 months

How can we get FWS and FAA to make streaming the launch on YouTube a legal requirement?

SpaceX

@SpaceX

9 months

Vehicle is ready for the second test flight of a fully integrated Starship, pending regulatory approval

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

1 year

Allow me to introduce you to the conversation you'll be having for the next 2-3 years

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

8 months

People on twitter regularly releasing blockbuster movie level animations.

Alex Svan

@AlexSvanArt

8 months

20 seconds from a parallel universe where Starship's OFT-2 and hot staging happened today. Best wishes to SpaceX for the upcoming Orbital Flight Test 2! #SpaceX #STARSHIP

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

6 months

May actually be the craziest thing I ever see in my life

Curiosity

@MAstronomers

6 months

You're looking at the first direct image of another planetary system located about 300 light-years away around a star like our Sun.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

9 months

Without SpaceX, the US would currently have had 13 successful orbital launches so far this year. Of these 13, only 4 would be from a Medium+ Launch Vehicle. The remaining 9 are small launch (8 from the currently grounded electron) SpaceX has 73 + 1 Starship test

Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

9 months

The US space program would be in the absolute darkest timeline without SpaceX and I don’t think that is talked about near enough. When I have time I need to make some infographics that illustrate this point. Because I don’t think people quite understand

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

3 years

Anyone thinking SN-15 is do or die for Starship has zero understanding of how SpaceX tests things, for some this misunderstanding is purposeful.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

2 years

Huge LOL to the people who thought a crunched pipe delayed SpaceX by 3 years.

Mary

@BocaChicaGal

2 years

Booster 7 has arrived at the launch site! 🤩🚀 ⁦ @NASASpaceflight ⁩

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

3 years

As I predicted, they will sue. Blue Origin has zero shame, they are in it for the ego & glory and nothing else. They are a feckless child in the aerospace industry. As always this is not directed at the average BO employee. This is about Bezos and Bob Smith.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

3 years

People will be “Team Space” and “I love all space companies” and then reject an architecture that could take 6X as many people to the moon for less money because “it’s too much SpaceX”

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

2 years

Quick comparison of active and planned crew vehicles! Scale should be pretty close, excuse the rough quality, made it quickly at work. Left to Right: Starliner, Crew Dragon, Orion, Rocket Lab Capsule, Dream Chaser, SUSIE, Starship

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

2 years

I think @Erdayastronaut now has the perfect name for his "not a Falcon 9" models. 🧹

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

8 months

So the next Starship flight. Barring NEW unfound issues (which are still likely this early) should make it to reentry test. A flight this smooth is very confidence inspiring for starship. Looks like we are about ready to move on to the fun stuff!

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

5 months

Next Big Things An infographic comparing Starship and New Glenn. The giant next gen rockets coming online soon!

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

5 months

Ladies and Gentlemen, the lander which gave us this beautiful tweet has, in fact, performed a propulsive landing in the lunar regolith.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

8 months

Checkout this Starship crew interior layout I came up with. Any feedback?

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

2 months

Orion thoughts 🧵 Orion is a crew capsule has been in development for close to 2 decades and has cost ~$28B so far in 2024 dollars. The main items remaining for development are: 1. Heatshield 2. Life Support 3. Docking Capability This is not good.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

3 years

NASA: “We want your lander to be able to land in places which are known to often be in darkness” BO: *Designs a landing guidance system that requires light BO: “The target landing sights are too hard for our lander and we weren’t expecting to land in darkness”

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

9 days

Insane. The lunar program we could’ve designed around this vehicle will forever haunt me. But no one (including me) would’ve believed this was possible ~13 years ago. Hell, I would’ve doubted it 5 years ago.

SpaceX

@SpaceX

9 days

Falcon launched 67 missions in the first 6 months of 2024, delivering nearly 900 metric tons to orbit so far this year

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

4 months

Wow. Even skipping over the horrendous taste of this post it’s just so stupid. Comparing an uncrewed developmental test flight. To the Columbia tragedy, the 113th operational crewed flight of Shuttle. Shameless, Distasteful, Stupid.

Max Twang

@kmh

4 months

@WerhnerVKerman @Orbital_Perigee Today I learned the Colombia disaster was a resounding success actually

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

1 year

Later this year at Starbase:

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

1 year

Most powerful rocket ever to fly Largest rocket ever to fly Largest manmade supersonic object Least separate stages after stage separation

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

1 year

National Team's ILS (2020) vs Blue Moon (2023) Name a bigger glowup

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

3 years

Seen it a thousand times. (No joke more than 20)

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

7 months

Some (very) early pics of a project I’ve worked on in the background for a bit. A series of bottles that look like popular rockets. Here are Falcon 9 and Super Heavy prototypes. (Falcon 9 should have a white tumbler). Thoughts?

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

2 years

Also big RIP to all the people who constantly said “Billionaires don’t have liquidity” or “SpaceX can barely afford Starship” Elon is willing to drop 2X NASA annual budget on a whim for literally no reason. Believe it or not, billionaires are rich!

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

1 month

Kind of surprised there is no video of SH return. Im certain SpaceX had cameras positioned for that. And I’m surprised no amateur shot did it yet either. How many kilometers off of the coast was it?

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

2 years

2023 tho...

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

7 months

Fly a drone like this during IFT-3 liftoff you cowards 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

SpaceX

@SpaceX

7 months

Slow motion view of six-engine static fire

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

6 months

NASA has asked both SpaceX and Blue Origin for cargo variants of their HLS landers 🔥

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

5 months

If I recall correctly, the ENTIRE budget including lander, launch, and all payloads was ~$120M Yeah.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

1 year

The Human Landing Systems (circa 2023)

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

2 years

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

2 years

Rogozin after Starship is fully stacked, SLS rolls out to the pad, more starlink recievers arrive in Ukraine, Falcon 9 launches more starlinks, and the Soyuz crew arrives on station wearing Ukraine 🇺🇦 colors all in 24 hours

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

4 months

China moment

Phazzee 🐼🚀 | 中国航天爱好者 🇨🇳 | 🇵🇸🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

@PhazzeeYeehaw

4 months

Here is Space Pioneer's Tianlong-3 series of reusable launch vehicles. Tianlong-3 is capable of delivering 17,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit or 14,000 kilograms to a 500-kilometer sun-synchronus orbit. Tianlong-3H is capable of sending up to 68,000 kilograms to low Earth

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

7 months

It's here! 🪇 Spaceflight 2023 Wrapped Expansion Pack (Extra Brainrot Edition)

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

6 months

NASA's Artemis 3 Mission Architecture as of Early 2024. Targeting a landing at the Lunar South Pole in Q4 2026 using NASA's SLS Rocket,Orion Capsule, and HLS Starship lander to land the first humans on the moon since 1972.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

5 months

How Falcon Big Is New Glenn? An infographic displaying the scale of Blue Origin's next generation rocket in terms of the Falcon 9 rocket.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

4 months

I’d like to apologize to Boca Chica weather I was not familiar with your game.

John Kraus

@johnkrausphotos

4 months

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

10 months

The recent Atlas V variant graphic from ULA inspired me to make a similar document for Starship and it's variants. Most importantly I think we should come up with awesome call-signs for Starship variants, like ULA did for Atlas! Comment your ideas. (mine are below)

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

1 year

Blue Moon lander is now refilled by a special tanker that is refilled in LEO and flies out to NRHO to refill the lander. It's just a mini hydrogen Starship lander now.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

8 months

Ooof.. IFT-2 videos started appearing on my Tik Tok timeline. Literally and I actually mean literally >90% of the comments on every video is about how rockets can’t get past the firmament 😳

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

2 years

I do not care how much this costs or if we have to skip a moon landing, to me this is more important.

Xavi Bros

@Xavi_Bros

2 years

To study better the interstellar object 1I/’Oumuamua: a proposed mission to be launch in 2028 with a 4 gravitational assistences and a Jupiter Oberth Manoeuvre (JOM) reaching the asteroid in 2054, with an arrival speed of 18 km s−1: Illustration: NASA

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

4 months

This is just another in a long list for CSS. But it deserves to be said every time. He literally knows nothing about the topic of space / rocketry. Nothing.

Booster 10

@booster_10

4 months

LMFAO, CSS straight up doesn't understand orbital mechanics att all.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

1 year

SpaceX and Blue Origin submitting the most overkill human lander bids imaginable and paying for more than half of the development costs out of their own pockets.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

8 months

Raptors enjoying vital engine components 3 seconds after liftoff this Friday

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

2 years

New(ish) knowledge: - Raptor 2 production rate already at once per day - Raptor 2 costs 1/2 of Raptor 1 - Raptor 2 currently has 237t thrust planned to have 250t - HLS has insulation - LEO Payload range 100-150t - Current Starship Design has no legs currently

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

16 days

They're so close...

Michael Sheetz

@thesheetztweetz

16 days

. @ESA director of space transportation Toni Tolker-Nielsen: "I don’t think Starship will be a game-changer or a real competitor." "We made the choice of not being reusable with Ariane 6" because "our launch needs are so low that it wouldn’t make sense economically."

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

3 years

Things the EU has: a Rocket. Things UK does not have: a Rocket

Michael Lambert

@MichaelLamberta

3 years

BREAKING: Prime minister Johnson expected to announce UK manned mission to Mars at Tory conference next week. A No 10 spokesman said “This would not have been possible if we had stayed in the EU”

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

4 months

Artemis Lunar Landers: A graphic showing (most) of the landers that will be used to land Science, Cargo, and Crew on the surface of the moon in NASA's Artemis Program. We Are Going.

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Ken Kirtland IV

@KenKirtland17

2 months

Welcomed Cora to Earth on May 7, 2024. She is more lovely than I could dream. ❤️

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