Kathy Lueders has joined Vast, which is working toward their first commercial space station.

NASA Commercial Crew veteran @KathyLueders joins Vast as an advisor. From helping pioneer NASA’s public-private commercial model to advancing a new era in low Earth orbit, Kathy’s experience is a powerful addition to the Vast team. https://t.co/15nyjzrhxj pic.twitter.com/dnH4RX8uUS

— Vast (@vast) December 19, 2025

She's worked at SpaceX and run NASA's manned spaceflight stuff as well. We are reaching some interesting inflection point it seems with respect to some of these government/private spaceflight executives charting some different directions, including her, Bridenstine, Bruno, Tom Mueller etc.

Obviously it's partially personal/monetary interests but I am encouraged to see them as a group trending toward 'new space' commercial ventures. 48 thrusters planned for Haven-1:

In October, we completed a successful fit check of the docking adaptor for Haven-1, marking another key milestone toward launch. Haven-1’s fully tested passive docking adapter, built to international docking system standards and likely the first-ever manufactured for a commercial… pic.twitter.com/b1Cos9Aaq2

— Vast (@vast) December 19, 2025

Dang, Tory Bruno to Blue Origin. Transfer portal going crazy already.

Wow…that's a move.

I have to wonder if he saw the writing on the wall at ULA and decided to take a step down move at Blue, was he forced out of ULA, or did he actually plan on retiring before Blue money-whipped him?

He has stated that he was not fired at ULA. Is that true? Does it translate to not forced out? Who knows. ULA is the archetype of organizations that aren't the future of spaceflight so I can't say I'm surprised that someone that could leave would do so.

I have great hope for Vast. They seem like they have a logical progression in mind for what they want/need to accomplish. If nothing else their PR and soft marketing over the past 6 months or so has been very impressive. Targetted to the space community, positive but with some substance. I really like it.

Maximus_Meridius said:

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Wow…that's a move.

I have to wonder if he saw the writing on the wall at ULA and decided to take a step down move at Blue, was he forced out of ULA, or did he actually plan on retiring before Blue money-whipped him?

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It's interesting... They were the go to for heavy lift them lost the Russian RD180 engines. Designed and built Vulcan but was WAY behind waiting on the BE4 engines.

I almost wonder if there was a conflict of interest as Blue Origin was building/developing New Glen.

Whatever happened to the ULA up for sale rumors?

Bottom line, leave aerospace is going to HAVE to relearn themselves.

ULA is essentially heavily reliant on (a) SLS and (b) government launches (spy sats). Neither of those are long term growth businesses. NRO/USSC will increasingly move to re-usable platforms, and Vulcan Centaur just will have a steadily decreasing net share of those launches vs. the newbies vs. ULA's historical share with Atlas etc.

The problem they had/have is everyone who would be a buyer knows that. Bruno said he wants to work with BO to develop basically a business/bid for government constellation business (to compete with Starshield/Starlink essentially). That is going to be a big business (also why USAF wanted to cancel the E-7, to rely on space-based platforms in the nearish future for C4i and surveillance/tracking), and he knows USSC/gov't contracting well.

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Jeff Bezos-founded Blue Origin said on Friday it has hired Tory Bruno, the longtime CEO of United Launch Alliance, as president of its newly formed national security-focused unit.

Bruno will head the National Security Group and report to Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp and will lead the company's national security business, the company said in a post on social media, underscoring its push to expand in U.S. defense and intelligence launch markets.

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Whether BE4 was a mistake for ULA or not is debatable, as I don't think SpaceX was willing to sell their engines (Raptor/Merlin) and they didn't really have a lot of great options once the Russian sourcing dried up.

Back to ULA vs. SpaceX and others, note that they are going for a $1.5 Trillion valuation supposedly in their IPO coming up. Gov't work is big for SpaceX too but it's a pittance of the total valuation estimates, and the scale is remarkable compared to the other players (including ULA):

🇺🇸 SPACEX IS NOW WORTH MORE THAN THE WHOLE COMPETITION COMBINED

At $800B, SpaceX is officially worth more than the top 6 U.S. defense giants put together.

And yes, even Lockheed, Boeing, and General Dynamics got smoked.

Elon built the most valuable space and defense company… pic.twitter.com/DtZKSMBDN1

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) December 26, 2025

I laughed.

ULA is solidly on a path to obsolescence. I don't know if making Vulcan expendable was Tory's choice or if his hand was forced by Boeing and Lockheed Martin but it was obviously the wrong choice. That was clear from the beginning, not just with the benifit of hindsight.

— Mike Schriber (@MikeSchriber) December 28, 2025

Pretty cool. 167 launches, only 12 new boosters builthttps://t.co/YxkBTTXoT8 pic.twitter.com/zhafXJBxZ1

— Alex Stauffer (@alexstauffer_) December 31, 2025

Another solid year, though I think the F9's near-global-monopoly on commercial LEO flights is going to start eroding this coming year.

Edit:

ALL ENGINES GO 🚀

Discover how a nuclear thermal propulsion rocket really works! https://t.co/mvJNSS4L7w pic.twitter.com/NIHkfNnXWG

— Office of Nuclear Energy | US Department of Energy (@GovNuclear) December 31, 2025

Looks/sounds good to me.

Starlink is beginning a significant reconfiguration of its satellite constellation focused on increasing space safety.  We are lowering all @Starlink satellites orbiting at ~550 km to ~480 km (~4400 satellites) over the course of 2026.  The shell lowering is being tightly…

— Michael Nicolls (@michaelnicollsx) January 1, 2026

Also means lower latency of course. V3 supposedly could (over time) double to 400Mbps.

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In 2025, median peak-hour global speeds increased by over 50%, with median download speeds averaging over 200 Mbps, typical upload speeds of more than 30 Mbps, and a median global latency around 26 ms.

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Now in 155+ countries.

In 2025, median peak-hour global speeds increased by over 50%, with median download speeds averaging over 200 Mbps, typical upload speeds of more than 30 Mbps, and a median global latency around 26 ms pic.twitter.com/plAxTXsmbh

— Starlink (@Starlink) December 31, 2025

I read that they are somehow doubling terminal production in 2026 (out of Bastrop).

Don't know if this has been discussed...
But it's become critical since the damage/near destruction of the Russian launch complex.

The little Dragon that can... Out reboost the Russian Progress vehicle.

This is becoming a serious situation. Possible early return of Crew-11.

NASA:

"As an update to our earlier communication regarding a medical situation aboard the International Space Station, the matter involved a single crew member who is stable. Safely conducting our missions… https://t.co/Y1h7f5H6Di

— NSF - NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) January 8, 2026

As far as I can remember, that would be the first occurrence like this in the history of the ISS, which is somewhat remarkable.

Any idea what the situation is?

YellowPot_97 said:

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Any idea what the situation is?

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Pretty sure one of the astronauts is pregnant.

I have no facts to back this up.

PJYoung said:

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YellowPot_97 said:

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Any idea what the situation is?

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Pretty sure one of the astronauts is pregnant.

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My guess was that or potential cancer in one of them.

ChemAg15 said:

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You can't pull out in space. It's a biohazard.

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Perhaps Vast will get the chance to test this theory in the next couple years. Can you imagine the revenue from the only zero gravity OF account?

Gives a whole new meaning to thrust vector.

txags92 said:

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PJYoung said:

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YellowPot_97 said:

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Any idea what the situation is?

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Pretty sure one of the astronauts is pregnant.

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My guess was that or potential cancer in one of them.

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Wonder how they'd be able to tell

PJYoung said:

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YellowPot_97 said:

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Any idea what the situation is?

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Pretty sure one of the astronauts is pregnant.

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First human conceived off planet? They'll be famous.

Y'all's speculation is crazy (and funny).

I'm proud of our flight control team and exceptionally well trained crews.

I assume a pregnancy test is one of the things they test. I'm guessing kidney stone or something like that.

Im trying to think of any orbital missions that terminated early due to medical issues and not coming up with one.

First time.

Ag_of_08 said:

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Im trying to think of any orbital missions that terminated early due to medical issues and not coming up with one.

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This is the first time, but one American will remain, as will the Russian crew, for up to a month. NASA link;

Quote:

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NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told reporters that the decision was made to return the astronaut because the capability to diagnose and treat them properly is not available on the ISS.

A "serious medical condition" with a crew member aboard the International Space Station has led NASA to bring the astronaut and three crewmates back to Earth months earlier than planned, the first such emergency return in the orbiting laboratory's 25-year history, senior space agency officials said Friday.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman in a short-notice press conference in Washington told reporters that he and medical officials made the decision to return the astronaut, whom he did not identify, because "the capability to diagnose and treat this properly does not live on the International Space Station."

The NASA officials did not identify which of the Crew-11 mission's four astronauts is experiencing the medical issue or describe its nature, citing the crew member's privacy. NASA Chief Health and Medical Officer James Polk said "this was not an injury that occurred in the pursuit of operations," meaning it did not happen while the astronaut was working.

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They'll try to expedite Crew 12 (Dragon launch). Haven't seen confirmation of that yet.

Diagnosis: Venom

nortex97 said:

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They'll try to expedite Crew 12 (Dragon launch). Haven't seen confirmation of that yet.

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There are no plans to expedite Crew 12.

That's really a pretty impressive track record, especially given the length of some of these stays!

Leaving one American... Any consideration that doing so could be to keep the Russians in line?

Kenneth_2003 said:

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Leaving one American... Any consideration that doing so could be to keep the Russians in line?

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That's a very polite way of saying "intentionally breaking something that doesn't belong to them".