Jeremy Hansen was born on January 27, 1976, in London, Ontario. He would go to the Canadian Royal Military College, where he graduated with a bachelor's in space science in 1999, then a master's in physics in 2000. He would become a pilot in the Canadian Air Force, flying the McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet as part of NORAD from CFB Cold Lake in Alberta. He was selected as an astronaut by the Canadian Space Agency in 2009, and trained with NASA Group 20. Jeremy would take part in an ESA CAVES expedition in 2013, and NEEMO 19 in 2014. He is married, and has three children. His rank in the CAF is Colonel.
Happy 83rd birthday to NASA astronaut Dr. Shannon Lucid. Born Shannon Wells to American missionaries in Shanghai, the family was detained by the Empire of Japan for several months until being sent home in a prisoner exchange. Her parents returned to China after World War II, but left for good in 1949 as the Communist Revolution broke out. Raised in the Southern Plains, she was attracted to stories of the frontier. But seeing that was already explored, she instead read about Robert Goddard. At one point, she sold her bicycle to buy a telescope instead, and also built model rockets. She got a private pilot's license, and flew her minister father to revivals. Shannon got her bachelor's in chemistry from Oklahoma in 1963, and initially went to work with Kerr-McGee. She met Michael Lucid, whom she married in 1967. After that, she returned to Oklahoma, and got a master's in biochemistry in 1970, followed by a doctorate in 1973. She was selected to NASA as part of Astronaut Group 8 in 1978. She would be one of the first astronauts to work on development of the Hubble Space Telescope. She would be part of the support crew for several early Space Shuttle missions, and would take her first mission, STS-51-G, aboard Discovery for a satellite launch mission in May 1985. Her next mission would be STS-34, the deployment of Galileo aboard Atlantis in October 1989. Shannon's next mission was STS-43, a TDRS deployment mission aboard Atlantis in August 1991. She would fly aboard Columbia on STS-58, for a mission focused on physiology in October 1993. After that mission, she was placed in the Shuttle-Mir program. She would launch aboard Atlantis for STS-76 in March 1996, and was left aboard Mir for a six-month expedition. Atlantis would pick her up on STS-79 in September 1996. For the moment, Shannon would have the longest single mission of any American astronaut. She would serve as Chief Scientist of NASA in 2002, then take a Lead CAPCOM role at Johnson Space Center. She retired from NASA in 2012 when her husband developed dementia. He died in 2014. They had three children together.
.@AstroIronMike Fincke has accumulated 549 days in space after returning to Earth today aboard the @SpaceX Dragon with #Crew11 placing him fourth all-time among @NASA astronauts. https://t.co/8xaENp4GDa pic.twitter.com/UfaFpLYYdn— International Space Station (@Space_Station) January 15, 2026 SpaceX Crew-11 splashed down about 30 miles offshore of San Diego at 3:41am EST this morning. The recovery was treated routinely, so there was no obvious suggestion of the medical issue that caused the early end of the mission. This tells me whatever it is, and whoever it is with, probably is an issue that could be more chronic in nature but necessitated immediate attention. As I said, please keep all four in your thoughts. Maybe if we're lucky, we'll find out who and why, and hopefully that it has been dealt with positively. No word on potentially accelerating Crew-12 yet. It is still scheduled to launch on February 15. With the mission's end, Michael Fincke jumps to fourth in the list of cumulative space time among Americans, at 549 days. ******** Artemis 2 has been edged back one day to February 6 at 9:41pm EST. The next flight for Vulcan is scheduled for February 2, though without a set time. It will be launching several surveillance probes for the U.S. Space Force. That will be followed in March by another Space Force launch which will carry the first NG-OPIR satellite. Next Generational Overhead Persistent Infrared is the successor to the previous Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) early warning satellites.
Here's some more news that flew under the radar. ULA chief Tory Bruno is leaving after 11 years to join Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, where he’ll lead its new National Security Group. The move signals Blue Origin’s push to challenge SpaceX for lucrative military launch contracts.#SpaceIndustry #BlueOrigin #ULA #JeffBezos #National pic.twitter.com/KR8hnggJ5p— Seattletoday (@Seattletoday__) December 30, 2025 Tory Bruno left United Launch Alliance with days left in the previous year, and almost immediately joined Blue Origin. He will head their National Security Group, becoming a liaison with the DoD to spearhead future defense missions for New Glenn. Currently, New Glenn has no missions set in stone. Not even Blue Moon Pathfinder, which while scheduled for Q1 2026, is currently just coming out of acoustic testing. It will likely be a few months before it's ready for launch. And there's no word on its booster, which is supposed to be a reused Booster 2. The mission after Blue Moon Pathfinder is supposed to be Elytra-1, a space tug designed by Firefly Aerospace and funded by the National Reconnaissance Office.
As I've been reading back on some articles, I've found that many images linked from Wikipedia are now broken. They appear when I edit the post in the WYSIWYG editor, but they do not appear in the thread itself. I'm fairly sure it's some sort of API change, as fresh links from Wikipedia images do work. I've changed a few as it tickled my fancy, but I'm not going to go on an organized campaign to make those changes. ******** Yesterday was the anniversary date for the launch of STS-107. I haven't actually covered the mission itself. Unlike Apollo 204 and STS-51-L, STS-107 had a full mission that preceded the disaster it was connected to. I thought about going ahead and starting one right then and there. If I were to cover that mission, it would be a multi-day sojourn as I've done with past keystone missions. At least, insofar as the limited data on Wikipedia permitted. The unfortunate truth is that there isn't that much data about the mission out in the open. If it had happened two years later, it would likely be covered in far more detail. But I decided I wasn't ready to deal with it. I'm close enough that it would work out for the mission's 25th anniversary.
VAST is accelerating its schedule, and is now primed to potentially launch the first privately-operated space station. Haven-1 has completed testing, and is now aiming for a launch in May 2026. It would be followed by four short-term visits by Crew Dragon spacecraft lasting 10-30 days. It will use the attached Crew Dragon for additional power and life support system redundancy, but will produce its own solar power. It will utilize Starlink for 24/7 communication with Earth. The final design also has a cupola on the opposite end of the station from the docking port. Haven-1 itself will be launched by a Falcon 9 rocket. VAST chose not to take part in NASA's Commercial Space Station development program, but plans to use lessons in Haven-1 to offer the larger Haven-2 space station for Phase 2 of that program.
The next Electron rocket is scheduled to launch from Pad 1, Mahia, with two undisclosed British payloads tomorrow morning at 6am EST. Rocket Lab is currently aiming for the debut flight of the Neutron rocket from Pad 3, Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, some time in Q1 2026. It is likely to be a full test launch with no active payload. ******** The second try for the Spectrum rocket is coming up. It is planned to launch from Andoya Rocket Range, Norway, at 3pm EST Wednesday afternoon. It is planned to carry cubesats for Germany, Norway, Austria, Slovenia, and Bulgaria. ******** SpaceX is aiming to do at least two Starship test flights in Q1 2026. They are aiming to launch Flight 12 some time this month. Launching the first Block 3 Booster (Booster 19) and Ship (Ship 39), its flight plan will be similar to the recent test series, except it will do its simulated landing and splashdown north of Hawaii. If all goes well, then Flight 13 will follow with an actual orbital flight profile, and an attempt to catch Starship at the launch tower at Space Padre.
Every time Sunita Williams floated above Earth, the world paused to look up.After nearly three decades with NASA, she is officially retiring.At 60, she closes a 27-year journey that included three missions to the International Space Station and 608 days in space, the… pic.twitter.com/L75g9cRlkS— The Better India (@thebetterindia) January 21, 2026 News has made the rounds the past couple days that Sunita Williams retired from NASA at the end of 2025. Little is known about her next steps, but she has not ruled out returning to space in the future. This suggests she could take a commercial astronaut role. And she has no lack of possibilities in that respect. She could take roles at SpaceX, Axiom, VAST, or Blue Origin. We shall see where this leads.
We're holding two news conferences on Friday, Jan. 30, to discuss NASA's upcoming SpaceX Crew-12 mission to the @Space_Station. Learn more about the crew and how to tune in: https://t.co/IncBOzJAjb pic.twitter.com/atZxa9BXvT— NASA (@NASA) January 23, 2026 A press conference for SpaceX Crew-12 is currently set for Friday morning at 11am EST. NASA is still reported to be looking into launching the mission before February 15. But any movement of the schedule at this stage would be immaterial. ******** USA-574, the next GPS Block III satellite, is set to launch late this evening at 11:42pm EST from Pad 40, Cape Canaveral. This GPS satellite is named after NASA astronaut Ellison Onizuka. It was originally planned for launch atop a Vulcan rocket, but was shifted because of delays caused by the SRM issue on a flight last year. In exchange, a GPS Block IIIF launch that was planned for Falcon Heavy will be launched atop a Vulcan instead. That launch is not yet on the manifest. The next Vulcan flight, carrying two surveillance satellites for the U.S. Space Force, is still penciled in for February 2.
NASA WB-57 involved in landing incident at Ellington Airport in #houston @KHOU pic.twitter.com/HOvr2YuHsh— Houston Air Watch 🚁🛰️ (@houstonairw) January 27, 2026 One of NASA's WB-57 reconnaissance aircraft ended up doing an emergency landing at Ellington Airport in Houston yesterday. The plane was on an apparent training flight, doing loops around Ellington Airport and frequently making touch-and-go landings on Runway 17R. They called for another, but the landing gear did not deploy. NASA stated there was some sort of malfunction. The plane dragged down the runway, grinding its belly and the tips of its wings. No one was hurt in the incident. It will be interesting to see if the resulting investigation will impede coverage of Artemis 2, especially with its return and splashdown. NASA does have two other WB-57's at its disposal, but an investigation might ground them in the short term as well. ******** Speaking of Artemis 2, its wet dress rehearsal has been scheduled for Saturday morning. The full 49-hour countdown will begin tomorrow evening. The plan is to completely fuel the Space Launch System core stage and take all systems up to right before the point of ignition.
The earliest opportunity for @NASA’s @SpaceX Crew-12 launch to the space station is 6 a.m. EST, Feb. 11, from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Next opportunities are 5:38 a.m. Feb. 12 & 5:15 a.m. Feb. 13. NASA continues working toward potential launch… pic.twitter.com/oIh02nDQaK— International Space Station (@Space_Station) January 28, 2026 NASA has finally moved forward on advancing the schedule for SpaceX Crew-12. The mission is now scheduled for its first launch opportunity on February 11 at 6am EST. On another note for Artemis 2, the crew has begun its quarantine for the February launch opportunities, to ensure they do not get ill during the mission.
Jessica Meir was born on July 1, 1977, in Caribou, Maine. Her father was a Jewish Iraqi who settled in Israel via Lebanon, while her mother was Swedish. Her father further did medical studies in Switzerland before resettling in the United States in the 1960s. While she is not proscribe to Judaism herself, Jessica considers herself culturally Jewish, and did have a bat mitzvah. She received a bachelor's in biology from Brown in 1999, which included overseas study in Sweden. She got a master's in space studies from the International Space University in Strasbourg, France, in 2000. Following her master's, she worked in Space Systems at Lockheed Martin, and spent considerable time at Johnson Space Center. In 2004, Jessica took part as a non-astronaut participant in the NEEMO 4 aquanaut expedition. This would give her an interest in marine biology. She earned her doctorate in marine biology from Scripps in 2009. She was chosen as an astronaut in NASA Group 21 in 2015. She had been a semifinalist for Group 20. She took her mission with Soyuz MS-15 in September 2019, and took part in Expeditions 60 and 61 aboard the International Space Station. As mentioned earlier, she took part in the first all-female EVA during Expedition 61 along with Christina Koch. She returned in April 2020. Jessica was named as commander of SpaceX Crew-12 in December 2025. She has a daughter with long-term boyfriend Duke Brady, who is a multi-season contestant on the reality TV series Naked and Afraid.
Christopher "Jack" Hathaway was born on May 10, 1982, in South Windsor, Conncticut. He earned a double bachelor's in physics and history from Navy in 2004, then trained as a Naval Aviator at NAS Lemoore in California, focusing on the Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet strike fighter. He did separate cruises with the carriers USS Nimitz and USS Harry S Truman. He would also cross-train with the Royal Air Force, graduating from Empire Test Pilots' School. During his cruises, he has flown 39 combat missions. Jack was selected to NASA with Astronaut Group 23 in 2023.
Sophie Adenot was born on July 5, 1982, in Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire, Burgundy, France. After graduating from the Legion of Honor Secondary School in Saint-Denis, she earned a bachelor's in flight dynamics from ISAE-SUPAREO, and her master's from MIT in 2004. She spent a year at Airbus before joining the Armee de l'Air. She initially trained with helicopters, doing search and rescue from 2008-2012. She would also cross-train at the Empire Test Pilots' School in 2018. She would spend 2019-2022 as a helicopter test pilot. Sophie was selected as an astronaut by the European Space Agency in 2022. She was announced to go on a mission in 2024, becoming the first astronaut of the 2022 ESA class to fly in space. Her mission name is Epsilon. Her current rank in the Armee de l'Air et de l'Espace is Colonel. ******** I have already done a profile on Andrei Fedayev. He will be the first Russian to fly on a Crew Dragon spacecraft twice with this mission, having already flown on SpaceX Crew-6.
Due to weather, we now plan to fuel our Artemis II Moon rocket on Monday, Feb. 2, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. With this adjustment, the earliest possible launch date is Sunday, Feb. 8. A launch date will be set after teams have reviewed the results of the wet dress… pic.twitter.com/JHZV8Elqzt— NASA (@NASA) January 30, 2026 The super cold weather that is entrenching itself over Florida this weekend has caused NASA to pause the wet dress rehearsal. If it had continued, then the Space Launch System core stage and ICPS upper stage would have been fueled as the coldest temperatures of this weekend were coming. The WDR will start fresh Saturday night, and fueling will take place on Monday. By the time it ends on Monday night, the temperatures on Merritt Island will be in the 40s. The low Monday night is predicted to be 37. This gives an earliest launch date for Artemis 2 of Sunday, February 8. The current launch window could still eat a few days' worth of delays.
Saw a story on GMA this morning about two retired NASA Engineers saying the Artemis Heat Shield is too dangerously unstable to have humans re-enter in the capsule. The director, of course, poo-pooed the idea and said, uninspiringly, that they knew its limitations and had altered possible re-entry routes to avoid encountering the known problems (somehow).
CNN has an article going fairly in depth on this. There’s a coating they used on the rear heat shield that they now know needs to be permeable to allow some heat to escape. Right now, that heat builds up and then blows off some chunks of the tiles. As it is in back, it won’t affect the descent. The last one, even with all the damage, was still within safety parameters for the astronauts. I’m absolutely no reentry expert, but they were saying the would change the trajectory to have a slightly more gentle reentry that skips off the atmosphere a time or two. I’m guessing this would possible ease the heat differential? I’m pretty astounded at the level of concern the naysayers have here. I’m sure the risk level is low if it is getting approved, but it is probably higher than anyone would like. https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/23/science/artemis-2-orion-capsule-heat-shield
Tracking footage from this morning's launch of @ulalaunch's Vulcan rocket & the USSF-87 mission for @USSpaceForce - filmed from a perspective 3.9 miles to the west of SLC-41.SRM nozzle burn through plainly visible on the right-hand side of the vehicle, protruding in the… pic.twitter.com/1oBpcRf3Ix— Max Evans (@_MaxQ_) February 12, 2026 What the Hell is wrong with Northrop Grumman? GEM-63XL nozzle burnthrough afflicted yet another Vulcan launch, this time a VC4S rocket carrying the USSF-87 mission this morning. And yet again, the BE-4 first stage engines were able to compensate for the resulting thrust vector issues. Lockheed Martin can't keep getting lucky like this. Northrop Grumman needs to fix the issues with the GEM-63XL SRMs or they will eventually lose a payload. ******** The first Ariane 64 rocket is scheduled to launch this morning at 11:45am EST with ESA's first Amazon Leo launch. SpaceX Crew-12 has had some weather-related delays, and is currently scheduled to launch tomorrow morning at 5:15am EST.