#spaced-out-reader

[reasonsforhope]

You are keeping people alive. God bless you, genuinely.

<3 <3 <3 Thank you for the lovely note. Really, genuinely, hearing this from people bolsters me (especially at times like now when everything is fraught and I've had a rough week)

[apollomission8]

Because of you, I will forever associate Michael Collins with seals. 🌕 🦭 is such a delightful pairing.

@vulpe-astra our insanity is spreading!!!!!!!

I honestly love the fact that the random post Kat made like 6 months ago//my reply to it has turned into an entire space-tumblr wide acknowledgement that Michael Collins is a Seal. Because like. He is.

And, as a thank you for this ask, I now present to you–the original post!

[lonestarflight]

Your tagging system is a thing of beauty. How did you motivate yourself to put this much effort into it?

Thank you! I'm glad you appreciate it!

I like to go back and look/reread my previous posts. I love space and spacecraft. (I have since I was 10.) Plus since I have amassed such a big collection, I have one place to go to see most of it. I also want others to be able to look and find stuff in my blog. I want to share and hopefully inspire others. I love how much Artemis II has inspired so much art and wonder.

Also, it is due to having ADHD. I tag things so I can go back and make sure I haven't added it. I hate having double or multiple posts of the same thing or image. (Tumblr search feature sucks.) So when I queue each month's posts, I can just search for the month's name and schedule them.

BTW, I accomplished this by having most of the tags written out in advance in the notes app on my phone. I just copy and paste tags. Here's a peak at what it looks like.

It took me a couple of weeks of researching to compile it during my free time. I find it is the easiest way to make sure I tag every post constantly (and as thoroughly as I like to make them).

Thanks for the ask!

[lonestarbattleship]

So, why Battleship Texas specifically? It’s a pretty cool ship, but I’m curious if there’s a personal reason. If you're comfortable answering, of course

Of course!

I've lived in the Houston area for more than half of my life. In the 1990s, my grandfather took me to visit Battleship TEXAS when I was a kid and I immediately became obsessed. I spent an overnight stay onboard her when I was in the boy scouts (I wish I could find those photos) and asked my mom to take us as much as I could. We moved away and then I went to university in Texas. Then after graduating, my then girlfriend (now wife) and I moved back to Houston. When my kid was born, I needed something to do while waiting feeding and trying to get them to sleep.

When I started this blog, she was in rough shape and had been for almost two decades. I wanted to bring more awareness to her and help where I could. As you can see, she's doing better now. She's due to open later this year or early next year. I'm very excited to see her in her new home in Galveston.

I wish I could volunteer more but we have moved to be closer to family (it takes a village sometimes) but TEXAS still holds a special place in my heart. My wife and I have a dream to move to Galveston. So maybe one day.

Thanks for ask.

[apollomission8]

🌠 i’m always wondering how other people perceive me

send me a 🌠 and i’ll tell you three things i associate you with

Retro sci-fi art

A very dark shade of blue

My dog. Because of that one time you rebloged a post about my dog and said her name is a nickname people use for you irl. This is really funny to me because of a long running joke about me having a dog's name

Bonus: The aisle in a used book store full of nothing but super cheap old beat up Sci-fi Paperbacks ((a bonus one because it feels like cheating using it as a main answer since I already used it for @rocket-enjoyer. But yall have similar vibes))

[lonestarflight]

I don’t know if this is right to ask, but do you have any thoughts on the current state of spaceflight?

While I keep up with the current state of things, it's hard not to get political about more recent turn of events. But fuck it, everything is political these days.

I've been following the development of the Artemis program since Orion and SLS were a part of the cancelled Constellation Program. (SLS was called Aries V back then.) The major problem with them is every time a new president comes in, they always want to shake things up or think they know better than what is currently being done. With the exception of the Aries I rocket, they are always wrong and only delay landing humans on the moon. Which is why it has taken them this long to get to the point of constructing Artemis II. If NASA could be left alone for a while, they will get us there sooner rather than later.

It's frustrating seeing Elon and Trump mess them again or even saying they could get us to Mars in 4 years (which could never happen, even with all of the money in the world). At best, NASA is 20 years from landing humans on Mars but there isn't even a Mars mission in serious development right now. And switching NASA's focus from the Moon is going to ruin the momentum they have built up since 2010. We are finally getting close to leaving LEO and it will piss me off to no end if Musk tries to take over and cancel SLS. His starship booster is nowhere near human rated and I doubt heavy falcon has the delta-V to get Orion to the moon. Which leads me to believe if he does mess with it, it's only to funnel more money into his pockets. Just like his tunnel boring company and his attempt to sink California's high-speed rail project.

Messing with Artemis will take years to get back on track after they are kicked out, at which point, China will get there before we do. So to say I'm very pissed about it, is putting it lightly.

But for other programs, I've been happy to see them come online. The JWST has been blowing me away with the photos it's returned.

One program I'm excited for is the Uranus Orbiter. (If you laugh, get your head out of the gutter.) It's early in planning but after the Galileo and Cassini probes explored Jupiter and Saturn, it's high time the ice giants get their turn. It's unfortunate the Neptune probe wasn't also selected as well but there wasn't enough funding for both planets. Maybe at a later time they will send one, I hope I get to live long enough to see it.

(I've started and restarted writing this over the last week as I'm watching the news about NASA getting gutted by Elon Musk and his illegal doge group. I've given up and am just going to post it as it is now before anything changes.)

[lonestarflight]

Are you familiar with the Encyclopedia Astronautica?

Yes, I am. I remember reading it back in the 90s. It was my first exposure to the many proposals and rarely talked about applications of NASA and other countries space programs. Back then, Wikipedia didn't exist, so it was the only place you could read about all kinds of current and past rockets and spacecraft. (The NASA website existed but didn't contain a lot of info like it does now, mostly current missions).

It started my love for the Apollo Application Program and the many possibilities we could have had. I have saved many of the photos and diagrams to my hard drive from the website as I feared I'd lose access to it one day (thankfully they're still around, while that computer and folder has not.)

I still refer back to them from time to time as they're still the place with the most info.

Thanks for the ask. I'm glad I'm not the only one here that knows about it.

[lonestarflight]

Just wanted to say thank you and that I greatly appreciate your blog.

Thank you! I appreciate it. I started this blog to keep track of the photos I was collecting (and to keep me sane while dealing with life) but it has grown past that. I'm glad to find others with similar interests on this hellsite.

If you find anything that you think might be interesting for me, please don't hesitate to send it to me.