SpaceX pushes back its manned flights
The first launch dates for SpaceX’s manned Dragon capsule have apparently been rescheduled, with the new dates August 2018 for the first unmanned demo flight and December 2018 for the first manned flight.
This is a four month delay from the previous announced dates of April and August.
Hat tip to reader Kirk Hilliard.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The first launch dates for SpaceX’s manned Dragon capsule have apparently been rescheduled, with the new dates August 2018 for the first unmanned demo flight and December 2018 for the first manned flight.
This is a four month delay from the previous announced dates of April and August.
Hat tip to reader Kirk Hilliard.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
It is so funny that the BFR is set to replace the Dragon before the crew Dragon even flies. SpaceX would not be able to make their own products obsolete if the rest of the industry could compete. If the development of the BFR goes without any major hitch SpaceX will own the industry.
“If the development of the BFR goes without any major hitch”
There is a corollary to Murphy’s law which says that if nothing goes wrong, it would ultimately have been better if something had gone wrong.
For those who didn’t follow the link, the current dates are:
Targeted Test Flight Dates:
Boeing Orbital Flight Test (uncrewed): August 2018
Boeing Crew Flight Test (crewed): November 2018
SpaceX Demonstration Mission 1 (uncrewed): August 2018
SpaceX Demonstration Mission 2 (crewed): December 2018
Which means that, as of this update, Boeing will capture the flag. Expect more delays from both, though.
BFR seems straight forward but BFS much more complex.
I hope Boeing and SpaceX both do well but this isn’t much of a race. NASA is dictating a lot of the schedule. It would have been cool if NASA had just said OK, GO!
It looks fairly likely that any more delays could push manned flights into 2019. But who knows, they do have a large gap between launches to make corrections.
NASA does not want SpaceX to capture the flag. They will do everything they can to delay them.
Congress has been told by NASA that commercial crew means Boeing.
It really doesn’t matter if crew Dragon ever flies. BFR will be cheaper than F9 alone. Add Dragon to F9 and you’ve doubled the cost with less capability. Crew Dragon is now a complete dead end. Remember the F5?