Category: Uncategorized

The Roman Space Telescope Is Now Fully Fueled — Launching Late August ‘26.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

We will see history, now in just about a month’s time (right before we go off-grid for a month in France and Italy): the first space telescope named for a NASA (paler) “hidden figures” pioneer will liftoff, on a five to ten year mission — at our second Lagrange point.

Here is a bit of the team’s latest blog update — from the Kennedy Space Center complex:

…Technicians completed fueling NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, bringing it an important step closer to launch. On July 25, the team completed operations that carefully loaded 290 gallons of hydrazine fuel into the observatory at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

After launch and separation from the rocket, Roman will use this onboard propellant to perform maneuvers as it travels to Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2, or L2, located about one million miles from Earth. There, about four times the distance to the Moon, it will have an ideal home for astronomy.

Roman will use its propellant to power two types of thrusters that help it stay in its planned orbit around L2 and ensure the solar array panels face the Sun, which is the observatory’s main source of power throughout the mission.

Roman has a five-year primary mission, and potentially enough fuel to support an additional five years for an extended mission….

Yep, onward — with no major damage here — and lil’ ladies visit — before ice skating, tomorrow evening. Smile….

नमस्ते

The KATALYST/Link/BOOST Mission Continues To Pass Its Commissioning Benchmarks — Toward Raising Orbit Of Swift ‘Scope — Soon.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

After solving a gyro-wheel issue which was causing erratic rotational commands, the team has now settled into steady communications, and plenty of solar power — to run the operations — and fire the Xenon engines, when the time comes to go grapple Swift, and fly it into a higher orbit.

So all is progressing well, for this privately-contracted space mission — the first of its kind. While the shuttle program used a Canadarm, in its bay from time to time, to grapple things — this is the first private mission, designed to primarily power an aging ‘scope, to a higher / safer orbit. Do stay tuned — with much drama ahead:

…Teams continue to progress through in-orbit preparations for the robotic servicing spacecraft designed to boost NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to a higher altitude. Katalyst Space’s LINK spacecraft remains healthy and is about halfway through this commissioning process.

LINK launched July 3, completed its initial postlaunch sequence, and began system checkouts. After completing solar array deployment and establishing communications, Katalyst now has commissioned LINK’s power systems and avionics, as well as conducted propulsion system checkouts. This has involved firing the spacecraft’s xenon-fueled thrusters, which will be used to travel to Swift and slowly raise its orbital altitude over the course of several months.

The Katalyst team also quickly addressed early communications and attitude control issues seen during flight operations, including an issue with one of the spacecraft’s three reaction wheels. After identifying the cause, they implemented flight software patches and operational updates that restored reliable communications and stable attitude control….

And so, onward — ever, onward — out into a soaking rain for a bike ride here, now — as the heat and humidity break for the afternoon. Smile….

नमस्ते

Mirengoff Knows His Brand Is… Cooked. Stick A Fork In It. Done.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

This morning, Paul Mirengoff makes it clear that he prefers Rubio over Vance for the next nomination.

Y A W N.

Anything with a pulse might be better than JD “Eat Shit” Vance. He chalks it up to “Trump fatigue.” I’d say these malign chuckle-heads are getting precisely the kind of chaos they voted for. And Vance is (and has always been) a man who tries to reflect the times, rather than find his own grounding. In sum, he’s… more of the same.

He was a Democrat at the end of Obama’s time — claiming to speak for the forgotten common man. Then he became… MAGA.

Good luck with all that, in 2028, Paul — it will (once again) be a blue wave. As it will be in 2026. He writes of Vance thus:

…Pence and Vance are as different as night and day. Pence kept a low profile. Vance does not. Pence was always civil. Vance often is not.

Pence did not tell anyone to “eat shit.” Pence did not berate a foreign leader for not saying “thank you” to Trump often enough.

Pence never suggested that the leaders of Iran might be ready to “turn over a new leaf.” Pence never made bizarre pronouncements the way Vance did in that Joe Rogan interview….

What’s not to like, you MAGA morons?

Yep — Paul knows that the next two national elections will be wipe outs, for the old GOP.

Karma baby.

O U T.

There Is Now An East Bay Sanctuary V. This Federal FOIA Suit Seeks To Compel US Customs & Immigration To Disclose Status Of DACA Authorizations/Renewals

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

Donald Trump has had to settle, by consent decrees, the last four federal suits the erstwhile public advocacy group East Bay Sanctuary brought against lawless border/ICE activity during Tangerine 1.0.

This is an office that is very well staffed, with a very capable set of advocates.

I am confident they will be able to force Tangerine 2.0’s federal machinery to comply with the FIOA strictures. These young people are entitled to know what they must do, in order to remain in Trump’s version of the program — and when they must do it. He cannot end this — not without an all-new Act of Congress. That’s how this works. Here’s the 20 page complaint (filed in the Bay Area while I was off-grid) — and a bit of it:

…Plaintiffs have sought information from Defendants about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) policy and in particular the severe delays DACA recipients around the country have experienced in renewing their grants of DACA since at least November 2025. This information is directly relevant to Plaintiffs’ mission to serve clients who are affected by the delayed renewals and advising them on how to navigate the consequences of these delays. Plaintiffs also intend to widely disseminate this information to inform the public as part of their core mission of gathering and sharing immigration-related information in connection with their legal and advocacy work.

The absence of any explanation for these delays in processing DACA renewal applications leaves Plaintiffs’ clients and other DACA recipients at a loss as to how they should proceed in seeking to renew their DACA grants. USCIS guidance recommends that DACA recipients submit their renewal requests between 120 days and 150 days before their current DACA grant will expire. Yet DACA recipients who follow this guidance are finding their current DACA grants lapse before their renewal requests are adjudicated. The consequences of delayed DACA renewals have a profound impact on DACA recipients, their families, and their communities….

For example, a 26-year-old graduate from a top medical school is unable to begin his residency in anesthesiology because his DACA renewal has not yet been adjudicated. Similarly, a DACA recipient who completed his fellowship in orthopedic surgery in New York was set to begin a position in an underserved medical center in rural Pennsylvania later this year, but has not been able to work since February due to the delay in his DACA renewal. And nurses at Kaiser Permanente in the Bay Area have been placed on unpaid leave after their DACA lapsed, despite filing for renewals over four months in advance.

For these individuals and the many others experiencing delayed DACA renewal adjudications, the delays have jeopardized not only their educations, careers, and livelihoods, but also threaten their ability to provide for their families and care for their communities through the service professions to which they have dedicated themselves….

We — as a nation — need to rise up, and tell the MAGA idiots with one voice… their guy at 1600 Penn lacks the independent power to undo Acts of Congress — to upend lives of DACA dreamers who are making our nation a better place. He is allowed to disagree with prior law, but in order to change it — he must have his Congress (he controls both chambers at the moment) pass new legislation.

He is. . . in short, no king. Onward, resolutely.

नमस्ते

SpaceX Will Post Vast GAAP Losses Per Share, On August 4. Then Two Days Later, Many Insiders Will Be Free To Sell.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

This may well turn into the perfect storm for Elon, if the poor quarterly results at Tesla — coupled to the below — end up meaning that the two companies’ chance for a favorable merger transaction… has been scuttled.

All the structuring (and frankly — winking) on the planet cannot obscure the gargantuan and poor GAAP financials — in both these ’34 Act companies now. Here is a bit, for the evening of August 4, 2026:

…Consensus estimates project revenue of around $6.87 billion for the quarter and a loss of $0.28 per share, according to Yahoo! Finance….

In the first quarter of 2026, SpaceX generated revenue of nearly $4.7 billion and a loss of $1.27 per share….

If insiders sell a large number of their shares, that could flood the market with supply and hurt the stock, even if [the narrowing losses] are perceived positively….

What an upside down world, indeed — but don’t go short or buy puts yet, because too many deep pockets will try irrational things to prop up the stock price above $100, in the next six months.

No, let it break below $100 first. And it will. Heh.

नमस्ते

John: Fainting Over All Manner Of Very Rare… Trivialities (That Haven’t Happened!), As Rome Burns.

~ condor ~ 2 Comments

Tonight, Hinderaker has his underwear in a bunch about the possibility that — in certain Minnesota schools, a few smallish “gender neutral” dolls, made of paper — may, at some future date, be handed out to children.

Apparently, this was an experimental project, designed to help children who might be unsure about their gender identity to begin to explore (in a healthy way), their fears and feelings with responsible trained adults — in gentle discussions about that fact.

At this point it remains… a mere proposal, John. Read the story you cite… more closely, moron.

This — even as a mere possibility — is one John cannot stand. [Even though we are talking about perhaps fewer than 20 children nationwide — and… over several years.]

So, rather than talking about the $2.2 billion that Donald Trump has stolen from us all, or the thousands of innocent civilians that Trump has murdered in Iran, or the excess hundreds and hundreds of children that have died from various diseases we cured decades ago — like measles, covid, mpox, Ebola and lassa fever… he rants about… essentially nothing.

And by now, we all very well know why.

He needs to demonize “others” — to help himself feel better about himself.

What a bitter little old man he is.

Out.

[U] Measles Are Once Again A Scourge In The US. Thanks, RFK Jr — And Tangerine 2.0.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

I have now updated last year’s graphic — but the news is actually worse, in this second summer, of Tangerine 2.0.

Who are these people? Perhaps hundreds of avoidable/excess deaths will occur in US children — due to their idiocy. Here’s the latest, from the Gray Lady:

…More measles cases have been reported in the United States in the last two years than in all the years from 2000 through 2024 combined….

The United States has now recorded more cases of measles in 2026 than in any other year since the virus was declared eliminated in 2000, a grim sign that the country may be headed toward a new era in which the disease regularly sickens thousands every year.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that there have been 2,318 confirmed cases of measles so far this year. The case count toppled the record set last year, when measles infected more than 2,200 Americans and killed two unvaccinated children. More measles cases have been reported in the United States in the last two years than in all the years from 2000 through 2024 combined.

Reversing course on measles would require a nationwide push to improve vaccination rates, a prospect that experts said seemed unlikely under the leadership of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He has halted funding for vaccine hesitancy research, downplayed the risks of measles and spearheaded a hunt for evidence that vaccines are unsafe….

What a malignant, bass-ackwards fool. And he’s the supposed-voice of American public health policies?! Damn.

नमस्ते

SpaceX Update: Starship 13 Did Make It Off The Pad; But Lower Stage Suffered A “Hard Splashdown” — As Not All Engines Re-Lit, On Re-Entry… More Work Ahead, For Elon.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

It now looks as though that first stage — which is designed to land softly, and thus be entirely re-usable after re-fueling… is damaged beyond repair, by a very hard, high velocity impact into the Gulf of Mexico waters.

And so, with SpaceX stock trading around $115, or ~15% below its [silly] IPO price of $135 — and about 46% below its post IPO high of $212. . . we next await the first quarterly results at the SEC EDGAR window on the night of August 4, 2026. But you may safely bet that the company has lost money — tons of it. So the stock will decline — from here. That is my confident prediction.

Here’s the latest — overnight, from CNBC:

. . .SpaceX launched its massive Starship rocket Friday evening from its company town and launch facility in Starbase, Texas, in a 13th test flight and the first since the company’s record IPO last month.

The rocket’s Super Heavy booster detached from the Starship spacecraft about two minutes into the flight, and made a controlled splashdown in the Gulf.

In a statement following the flight, SpaceX said the landing was not perfect as the booster, “attempted to relight its engines for the landing burn,” but only a subset successfully ignited before the “hard splashdown….”

Starship [is] the largest rocket ever built or flown, to be fully reusable and to lift more cargo for less cost into orbit. Starship is considered crucial for the company’s goal to vastly expand its Starlink satellite network, among other missions.

About 18 minutes into Friday’s test flight, SpaceX successfully deployed 20 of its new Starlink V3 satellites into orbit, a first chance for the company to see how they performed in flight. The satellites were intended to burn up after about 20 minutes….

Onward, to an evening of… live Scottish bagpipes! Heh!

नमस्ते

Much More — On The Chilling FBI/DoJ Approach, To The Reporting On The Flying Bribery Palace… From EW. Do read it all.

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

Welp. The ironies here… never cease. I’ll let EW tell the story, without additional fanfare.

Here’s the latest — from Ireland — very well parsed, by EW — do go read it all:

…Among the three stories NYT has published on Trump’s Flying Bribery Palace since DOJ dropped subpoenas targeting five journalists and their call records is one that lays out some of the ways DOJ deviated from normal leak investigation procedures before getting the subpoenas.

It elaborates on a point I made here: that Deputy US Attorney Sean Buckley, the guy who claims to be in charge of the entire leak investigation, described it as targeting a “potential leak,” not as something that had been confirmed via a criminal referral….

As the story notes, both Todd Blanche and Jay Clayton testified in their confirmation hearings that nothing untoward went down with these subpoenas; Buckley’s representation to the court directly debunks Clayton’s testimony.

But Buckley just bought both men time, probably enough time for at least Clayton to get confirmed without further disclosures of DOJ’s abusive investigative methods, before Senate Republicans install the men permanently.

After DOJ withdrew the subpoenas, Judge Arun Subramanian memorialized those withdrawals, but also ordered DOJ to provide him — by Monday — with the backup to DOJ’s failures to follow normal process in obtaining third party subpoenas after the journalists had already been subpoenaed…. [That will never come.]

Now you know — onward to a friend’s Scottish bagpipes celebration, in a grove — this early evening. Film at 11. Heh.

नमस्ते

[U: Scott Belatedly Says John (Intentionally?) Misstated US Law.] Once Again, Hinderaker Leaps At The Chance To Shout The N-Word, Whenever He Gets The Chance…

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

UPDATED: 07.26.2026 — Scott takes nine paragraphs of hemming and hawing, to finally admit… Hinderaker has lied — about the applicable state of the “fighting words” case law. Scott agrees that this instance was… a (misdemeanor) hate crime. Something John cannot bring himself to say. But it is the truth. End update.

But.. most tellingly, in his diatribe this morning — Hinderaker entirely re-wrote his concluding paragraph. I had the misfortune of waking to see the orignally-published version — but he took down the worst of it, and replaced it with a more… erh, vanilla statement.

Even so, he blathers on, for several paragraphs to defend a whyte woman who (on video!) falsely accused a little Somali-American boy of stealing from her bag — and then called both the boy, and the camera-person filming her race-hate… the n-word. Repeatedly.

She is now likely on the hook for hate-crime monetary damages — and may spend a few days in a county lock-up, or may not.

The jury has reached the verdict of:

NOT GUILTY on the first count of misdemeanor disorderly conduct, which is the interaction with the child.

GUILTY on the on the second count for the interaction with the videographer.

Shiloh Hendrix (the perp) will also receive supervised probation, will serve 200 hours of community work service, and is also ordered to pay a $1,000 fine.

[John’s original final paragraph claimed that jails would be overflowing — if this wasn’t all overturned on appeal — essentially admitting that many, many younger whytes in Minnesota still harbor invidious racial animus. What a dumb ass.]

John fails to mention that now in America (according to almost all US courts), those are “fighting words” — and thus are entitled to no First Amendment “expressive” protection. The fact that rappers might still say it among themselves bears no relevance here (as indicated by all the court holdings: the use among friends is obviously different, than the attack by a stranger, here) — but Hinderaker burps that canard up as well. Because he thinks it means… something.

His need to claim some form of moral and intellectual superiority — for his faux-whyte culture here… is both sad — and telling:

He is a bitter, mediocre old whyte coot — that Twenty-First Century US history has now left behind, festering — on a dung-heap. [Just like Bill Otis. And Paul Mirengoff.]

Out.