Jack Fischer

Happy Move-in-Iversary to the International Space Station—humanity’s home in the sky and the best daily reminder that remarkable things happen when we cooperate.

Nothing says Halloween like my wife’s ridiculously yummy “Shots to Die For.”

You think your airplane seat is cramped? Try riding in a Soyuz seat. It's made from a mold of your body so it's really more like wearing your seat than sitting in it. The silver lining is that you are so pumped about the ride that the knees-in-your-chest thing hardly registers for the first hour or so.

There is nothing easy about putting a lunar lander on the Moon. With no air, no lift, and no drag, the only way to brake is to use a rocket. The descent onto the Moon lasts about 12 minutes and the lander's engine burns the whole time as it throttles down. As the lander burns off fuel, its weight constantly shifts, requiring continuous adjustments to the throttle. It's a monstrous challenge that must be handled autonomously. To top it off- just before the lander touches down on the Moon's surface it needs to be moving about 1 meter per second (that's slower than an average walking speed).

When footrails aren't cutting it and you gotta get some work done, you improvise and make a space chair. It may not be officially HR approved, but it gets the job done! (it was actually part of an experiment, but it was pretty comfy 😉)

On the list of absurdly difficult places to explore the lunar south pole is near the top. From the temperature and lighting to the terrain - it's a beast. So we did what any good flight team does: we stopped arguing with the environment and started adding sensors. Lots of sensors. Our team was even able to feed it real south pole imagery from IM-2 to train the navigation software with actual polar lighting instead of reference maps. Trinity is going to the Moon fully stacked and loaded.

The United States Space Academy is a chance to build, from the ground up, the people who will take us farther than we’ve ever gone. Space isn’t a destination you visit once and write home about. It’s a profession. If we treat it that way, we stop scrambling for the next operators, engineers, flight directors, and explorers who can actually carry the load. We teach the next generation how to reach for the stars. Graduates will know how to lead a team while integrating civil and commercial systems. That's how you get sustainable exploration. Dream big - then build the people who can make the dream hold.

I adapted to life on Earth pretty quickly — as long as my eyes were open. Getting your vestibular system to work again is a whole different animal. Vision will cover for you and you think you’re fine, but close your eyes and that inner-ear compass you spent months ignoring suddenly starts shouting the wrong directions. That’s why they run the platform test and why you’re harnessed in for a reason. Without the strap you’d be eating the floor in about two seconds. Scott Kelly’s readjustment is actually really impressive, especially after being in space for almost a year. The nicest way I can describe my platform test is: comical.

Intuitive Machines has a long history of building spacecraft for SiriusXM and this bird is flying high (it isn’t a small one). More than 15,000 pounds at launch. About 28 feet tall. Solar arrays stretching 106 feet tip-to-tip. SXM-11 is the highest-power spacecraft in the SiriusXM fleet. I’m constantly impressed with this team. Whether they’re stacking a lunar lander, standing up a communications system, or flying a giant satellite, they keep showing up — and they keep making life a little better for everyone down here.

Sixty-eight years ago today, NASA opened its doors. A handful of dreamers walked in as one agency and walked out as the team that would take us to the Moon, build a laboratory in orbit, and take us back with Artemis, still pointing humanity toward the stars. Happy Birthday NASA - you're still the coolest team on - or off - the planet.

I love coffee on Earth, it's pretty much my favorite thing ever. But I loved it even more in space because it turned into little caffeinated balls of awesomeness. Can't let today slip by without celebrating those little spheres of yummy! #ILoveCoffeeBalls #NationalCoffeeDay

Leadership never sleeps when you’re building something nobody’s ever done before. You can’t draw the lines in advance—there aren’t any yet. What you can do is build the blueprint on trust and mutual respect, so the team grows together and figures out what “right” actually looks like. That’s what we’ve got at Intuitive Machines, and I’m darn proud to chase the stars every day with this crew. Big things are coming ✨

Least favorite part of being an astronaut: bathroom duty 🫤

This view hits quicker than a kid who just heard the first note of the ice cream truck. It's easy to see why it's called the 'window to the world.'

I’m an old pilot, so I’m usually working through some back pain—but when I got to space, my back felt great. I remember telling my wife how amazing it felt, except that now, the back of my neck was killing me. She goes, “Well dude, why are you flying around like Superman all the time?” I’m like, “’Cause I can.” And she’s like, “Can’t you just… fly normally?” I’m like, “Good point.” So I started adopting this low-rider, Harley-style position—and man, it completely changed the experience (and the neck pain).

Happy 26th Birthday to my Little 🐝