SpaceX is flying again
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 has successfully launched 10 Iridium satellites, and its first stage has also successfully landed on the barge.
The live view of the first stage landing was especially thrilling, using a camera on the stage, looking down to the Pacific Ocean. While there were a few dropouts, the picture stayed live for the entire descent.
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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 has successfully launched 10 Iridium satellites, and its first stage has also successfully landed on the barge.
The live view of the first stage landing was especially thrilling, using a camera on the stage, looking down to the Pacific Ocean. While there were a few dropouts, the picture stayed live for the entire descent.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Yes, way cool Mr. Z.!
Best continuous video they’ve ever had and with spectacular vantage points.
Fantastic! From being as high as obviously seeing the curvature of the barge, to landing right on it within a couple of minutes. Again. And again.
This is how the government does it with their top one priority vehicle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5icV_mctrkE
LocalFluff–
yow… was not aware. That’s all it takes?
Great to see Spacex back in business. Here’s hoping all their future launches go as well. I’m really looking forward to Falcon heavy flying, hopefully this year.
These launches are, quite amazing, on any number of different levels. Most excellent video as well.
Mr Z.,
I liked your spreadsheet from last week, speaks volumes unto itself. (and not to suggest cluttering it up, too much.. har)
An interesting additional data-point might be “amount of stuff launched,” in some standard unit measure which people could easily relate.
‘And that, gentlemen, is how we do that.’
I hadn’t known about the airbrakes which appear to act as flight controls for terminal descent. I was also expecting the landing gear to deploy earlier than it did. The whole video I’m thinking ‘Wow. This is stuff we (private individuals) can do.’ Perhaps private space should be the buy-in for a national direction.