Minutes of February 14 Oklahoma Space Alliance Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance met February 14, 2026, at the Cyber Hall and Gaming Lounge at Norman Computers in Norman, Oklahoma. Attending were Clifford McMurray, Tim Scott, Dave Sheely and Syd Henderson, with Robin Scott joining us by phone. OSA President Clifford McMurray. presided over the meeting He did an Update discussing links to material covered in the meeting and this is online at https://osa.nss.org/Update2602.pdf so I’ll cover the details that aren’t covered there.
Crew 12 has launched to the International Space Station, eliminating a temporary shortage of astronauts on the ISS due to Crew 11 having to come back a few days. This was the first time a crew had to come back for medical reasons since 1985, when a cosmonaut may have had a STD. [Or perhaps a prostate infection. In any case, it got worse in space.—SFH]
Artemis II has 700000 gallons of H2. Artemis I had three delays over similar leaks in six months. Windows for March launch are March 9 or 11. [It has, of course, been moved to April.-SFH]
With the upcoming revamp. New Glenn will be able to lift seventy tons to Low-Earth Orbit, forty to GEO, and twenty to lunar injection which is better and cheaper than SLS. [How could it not be cheaper?] We watched a video on the story of New Glenn.
China has ten companies working on reusable rockets. Long March 10 went to orbit but China failed to retrieve the booster. Long March 10 took off from a new launchpad on Hainan Island off the southern coast of China, and this launchpad will be used for all lunar missions. Long March 10 is the rocket that will take taikonauts to the Moon in 2030. [In the meantime, the Chang’e program continues through 2028.]
The Mars Rover Perseverance drove itself for two days using AI-generated waypoints. The problem with self-navigation is that your position information degrades.
Turkey has not signed the Artemis accords. Does Turkey believe that Somalia can become stable enough for Turkey to build a spaceport there?
The Kardashev Scale, is a method of ranking civilizations by their technological advancement based on the total amount of energy they can control. Type I is planetary energy, Type II is stellar energy, and Type III is galactic energy. Currently, humanity is a Type Zero. [Type II, I believe, would require a Dyson Sphere.]
The proposed off-earth data center is a “mere bonus element” of Elon Musk’s new moon-base strategy. Scare quotes are his.
New Shepard has flown 38 times, 17 of them with passengers. The total number of passengers is 92. New Shepard employees are being transferred to the Blue Moon project.
SpaceX has now achieved 595 booster landings.
Skyler Chan’s GRU has one full-time employee beside himself. [He needs a lot more Minions to become a super-villain.]
Building semiconductor chips in orbit enables large savings in energy. There is already enough investment to build ForgeStar-2.
Russia is talking about re-using its module of the International Space Station as the core of the Russian Orbital Station (ROS). Russian newspaper New Izvestia criticized Oleg Orlev (director of the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences) who a few years ago was complaining about conditions on the Russian module. New Izvestia “Have bacteria and fungi suddenly become less dangerous over the past three years?” [Perhaps they see a future in mutated microbes.]
Russia says the Soyuz Launch Platform will be back in operation in March, which is quick turnaround after their accident in November. [And there are already launches scheduled this month.]
We looked over the article https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/11/attack-defend-pursue-the-space-forces-new-naming-scheme-foretells-new-era/ which has a list detailing the new naming scheme. [This reminds me of a system used to name ships telling people whether they were sailing or steam ships, how many masts or smokestacks, and especially how many turbines.]
Annual reports are due March 1. Syd will e-mail activities report to Tim. [Done.] Tim and Kip will meet for the stuff the President of OSA has to do. Tim does the Treasurer’s Report.
We have $717.41 in checking account and $267 in cash after Syd cashes his check for the newsletter.
We watched a video of SpaceX factory building the world’s most powerful rockets for MARS, and one on what life would look like on a Starship to Mars. Fuel was moved to the front of the spacecraft to reduce the pendulum effect. Starship would have 500 cubic meters of living space as currently configured, about that of the ISS. Upgrades will raise this to 100 cubic meters.
We watched a video, “How SpaceX Reinvented the Rocket Engine.”
For balance, we watched the Blue Origin CEO explain how their new solutions to get back to the Moon are better than SpaceX’s.
--Minutes By OSA Secretary Syd Henderson
Contact person for Oklahoma Space Alliance is Clifford Mcmurray
PO Box 1003
Norman, OK 73070
Webmaster is Syd Henderson.
Copyright ©2026 by Oklahoma Space Alliance.