beauty

Ridiculously scenic venues in the Pacific NW, Summer 2026 Edition

"Live at Andre's."

Who's Andre? Apparently, a guy who was deep in the Seattle music scene before he retired near Spokane, built a big house on the side of a mountain, then built a performance stage hanging off the mountain above the Spokane River and started inviting his musician friends to play there. 200 or so guests in Andre's back yard for a relaxing evening of great music and spectacular views (and cake, it turns out).

It was such an amazing evening! It's like a mini-mini The Gorge, without the utter nightmare traffic on exfiltration (we were home before 11pm).

The band? Red Wanting Blue. If you've never delved the indie Americana scene, you probably haven't heard of them. But if you do enjoy that style of music, check them out! They have more than 20 years of truly excellent music to enjoy. (We've been fans for years; this is the second time we've seen them perform.)

(Last summer’s edition featured The Gorge.)

Flashback: Saturn

Incredible view of Saturn few days before “the grand finale” when the probe Cassini finished its trip after 13 years orbiting the planet (2004-2017).

I’m taking a stand: No offense to Juno and Jupiter - they’re delivering wonderful content - but Cassini was the best space probe, and Saturn is the best planet.

Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Space Science Institute, Mindaugas Macijauskas. Via Xavi Bros on X

Starship Version 3 Takes Flight

Starship V3 is alive and kicking! The new, massively upgraded Starship and SuperHeavy rocket made its debut on Friday, and it was simply beautiful.

Starlink provided absolutely gorgeous high-quality video of the entire hour+ flight - far and away the best video of spaceflight I've ever seen. One of the mission objectives was to deploy 20 Starlink satellites (which it did), and one of the satellites switched on to capture a view of Starship after it deployed. It's really incredible video, and you can check it out here: https://x.com/SpaceX/status/2057962516282577014

The mission did not hit 100% success - the booster engines shut off early after separation, and one of Ship's engines didn't light. But it flew just fine on 5 engines (redundancy FTW) and executed a perfect soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean (and then exploded when it tipped over, but that was TOTALLY PLANNED and the only way for the splashdown to end). MechaZilla chopstick catches will be attempted in the near future.

Over 1,000 upgrades were made to the ship and rocket since the last flight - which is great, but this meant 1,000+ opportunities for new failures. I was nervous, I admit. But it did fantastic.

Now, let's get our asses to the moon, then Mars.

My Preciouseses

You guys.... *wipes a tear away* They'll keep me company, right beside my desk. Every day.

I try not to boast, but today, I'm so proud of what I've created. This universe and these characters will live on forever, in the world and in my heart, and I could not be happier.

And when this arrives on the day you start outlining the final book in earnest, well...emotions are going to be experienced.

Hyperion Cantos

Books 2-4 of the Broken Binding special editions of the Hyperion Cantos arrived. I'll be honest, I don't think I've ever seen more beautiful books in my life. Words fall short of capturing how stunning they are.

My #1 career goal isn't to see my books on the screen in movies or TV series - it's to have a full-out, every flourish Broken Binding edition of the Aurora Rising novels. Or, you know, all of them. ;)

Artemis II Images

I’m sure you all know that the Artemis II lunar flyby mission was a tremendous success, and the astronauts returned home safely. They captured a ton of incredible images while they were up there. I’ve included a few of the best below, but you can see more at https://images.nasa.gov or just scroll my X feed to check out my many, many posts and shares about the mission: https://x.com/GSJennsen.

To The Moon!

Or around it, anyway…. The Artemis II astronauts are officially on the their way to orbit the moon (and briefly journey farther than any human has ever traveled). First, though, they'll orbit Earth and test out a bunch of systems.

I won't lie; the SLS rocket had me nervous. I am a child of the shuttle disasters, and I was biting my nails during the ascent. But SLS got it done.

Now, onward into our future in space.

Enjoy some spectacular shots of the launch, and a bonus shot of Earth from the Orion spacecraft this morning (a view human eyes haven’t enjoyed in too many decades).

Image credit:

Pictures 1 and 2: Eric Kuna https://x.com/erikkuna)

Picture 3: Andrew McCarthy (https://x.com/AJamesMcCarthy)

Picture 4: NASA

Galactic Core

A stunning new image of the Milky Way galactic core just dropped!

This view was captured by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a powerful network of radio telescopes in Chile.

What you’re seeing is the crowded, chaotic heart of our galaxy, a region packed with cold gas and dust, the raw material that forms new stars. The image maps an area called the Central Molecular Zone, stretching more than 650 light-years across.

Image credit:: ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/S. Longmore et al. Background: ESO/D. Minniti et al.

More info: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2603/

Helix Nebula

Webb has dropped an absolutely INSANELY detailed image of a portion of the Helix Nebula. The image was taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera. From NASA: “pillars that look like comets with extended tails trace the circumference of the inner region of an expanding shell of gas. Here, blistering winds of fast-moving hot gas from the dying star are crashing into slower moving colder shells of dust and gas that were shed earlier in its life, sculpting the nebula’s remarkable structure.”

You can learn more about the image and the Helix Nebula here: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/intricacies-of-helix-nebula-revealed-with-nasas-webb/

For comparison, here is the Helix Nebula as imaged by Hubble and Spitzer:

The Milky Way Shines in Radio

This is what the Milky Way would look like at night if your eyes could see radio waves. It's a new image created by the Murchison Widefield Array, which scanned the sky in 20 radio "colors" over frequencies from 72 to 231 megahertz.

What do I think when I see an image like this? Space isn't cold, dark and silent at all. It's vibrant, busy and fiercely, chaotically alive. Which makes it a fantastic place for stories.

Learn more here.

Book and Character Art Banner

A new header image went up on the social media profiles this week, and I thought you all might enjoy seeing it. The theme: “The people who will save the universe - if it can be saved.”

You can see high-res versions of the character art - and some additional characters - on my concept art page: https://www.gsjennsen.com/concept-art/. Click to expand a pic, then right click to download it if you like.