SpaceX launches new crew to ISS
Falcon 9 first stage barreling home to Florida tonight.
After a scrub two days ago due to a ground equipment issue, SpaceX tonight successfully launched a new crew of four to ISS, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Kennedy in Florida.
The Dragon capsule is Endurance, on its fourth flight. The first stage completed its third flight, landing back in Florida.
This launch will allow the two-person crews launched by Boeing’s Starliner capsule in June and SpaceX’s Freedom capsule in September to come back home on Freedom.
When it was decided not to allow the Starliner astronauts to come home on Starliner because of thruster issues on the capsule, NASA decided to keep its ISS launch schedule as normal as possible, thus forcing that crew to complete a mission of about eight months, with a planned return in February 2025. Initially their Starliner mission was expected to last anywhere from two weeks to two months-plus, depending on how well Starliner functioned while docked to ISS.
Thus, when the press says their mission was turned unexpectedly from a two-week flight to many months, this is not quite true. They launched knowing their mission could be extended to two months. However, NASA decision forced them to do an abnormally long mission, nine months long. This was then extended one more month because the new Dragon capsule that NASA and/or SpaceX had decided to use was taking longer than expected to get built. When it then became clear it would not be ready by March, NASA finally agreed to let SpaceX use Endurance instead. The new capsule will now replace it on the Axiom commercial manned flight, scheduled for later this year.
The astronauts were never really “stranded”, as their return flight was always planned. NASA simply decided to take for it the easiest path — requiring the least shuffling — without considering their needs. There is also the possibility that the Biden administration encouraged that decision, because flying an extra “rescue” flight in the fall using a Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule — as Elon Musk’s claims he offered to do — would have given Musk a major PR victory. And since Musk has now joined the “Trump Nazi Party”, as constantly spewed by the slanderers on the left, that could not be allowed, no matter how reasonable and common sense his proposal.
Endurance is scheduled to dock with ISS tomorrow evening.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
29 SpaceX
11 China
3 Russia
2 Rocket Lab
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world, including American companies, in successfull launches, 29 to 20.
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.
Still, glad this season of Gilligan’s Space Station is almost over.
Marooned (1969) [w/ Gene Hackman]
Launching the Rescue Mission
https://youtu.be/yD1hbplN4DE
6:53
You have to admire astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore. Beyond exhibiting grace under pressure and making the best of a bad hand, they exemplify the “can do” spirit that is finally reasserting itself in American life. No entitled little snowflakes throwing tantrums up there at the ISS. https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2025/02/12
Also, and a kind of metaphor for our present national predicament, their experience comports with the idea that “draining the swamp” is not going to happen overnight, nor is it going to be painless — witness all of the pushback from the efforts of Mr Musk and DOGE. Instead, expect a protracted battle to take back the institutions of this country, and there will be lots of opposition along the way. The good news is, there is finally a mechanism in place to get this done, and — hopefully — this extended national civics lesson will rekindle an appreciation of the kind of government / national culture that the Founders sought to pass on to us. A republic, remember, if we can keep it.
Postscript: I saw this article earlier this morning, and in contrast to to all of the good things that are happening with respect to our government, this story exemplifies the continuation of all of the absolute worst trends going forward under the former Democrat regime.
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-845479
From open borders to the explicit celebration of people who despise traditional America and its culture, the idea of “hate America first” certainly seems to have taken root in Paterson. One wonders if Mr. Musk and friends are taking a look at this?
Saw some pictures of an insulation panel floating off, anything to make of that?
The broadcast was evidently targeting first time watchers. So much useless talking and so many “call-outs” talked over. And the speeches by the astronauts seemed a little DEI to me. To me “less is more”.
Reminded me of the Primary Buffer Panel on Serenity
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&channel=entpr&q=SERENITY+BUFFER+PANEL#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:e3efe44a,vid:q8k30374SHA,st:0.
To John,
That panel isn’t a big deal.
To some who wonder why I still root for Old Space as a back-up…I offer this article:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinholdenplatt/2025/03/11/spacexs-starship-plan-to-land-first-humans-on-mars-but-not-till-2031/
Now, it isn’t the delay I’m harping about…scroll down, and you read:
“But an experimental upper stage capsule broke up and fell back to Earth….”
That’s right…Forbes called STARSHIP—-a capsule?
…
You, know—I like to talk smack…but on my worst day…I will never call Starship…a capsule?
To Bloomberg, Forbes, etc.
I won’t tell you how to write about economics if you won’t write anything about space.
NOW you know why I hate businessmen.
Have they announced when they will be coming home?
@ Jeff Wright,
Hating businessmen is a strange obsession. Almost everything productive that gets done is by a business from farming to aerospace. I don’t doubt that you have been burned by one or more businessmen. But hating them all is akin to hating all women because one or more of them burned you.
I am a businessman.
Star Trek: Original Series
“How The Federation Really Works but Usually It’s More Subtle”
https://youtu.be/CQqzflaGwSs
3:47
Jeff Wright: Now you know how seriously to take the economics articles in Forbes. :-)
I can’t see Old Space as backup for anything. Is Old Space launching 100+ rockets a year and retrieving first stages? Providing worldwide internet to those who haven’t had it before?
So far it has produced a dud, dangerous capsule that has yet to complete a crewed mission, a ridiculous and ridiculously expensive political rocket to nowhere launching another dud capsule and by using Old Space methods Bezos is so far behind SpaceX it isn’t funny. I think New Glenn and the BE-4 engines will ultimately prove a dud also.
Bezos isn’t going out of his way to be a target. My worry is that Elon is burning the candle at both ends—though some say SpaceX does better when he is away. Sour grapes? Maybe.
To John Hare.
It isn’t just me who got burned.
We had a particularly vile individual named Richard Scrushy….of HealthSouth.
I know we shouldn’t judge based on appearances.
Still—Brian Thompson, the slain United Healthcare CEO—he looked like a good guy.
As compared to:
https://bhamwiki.com/w/Richard_Scrushy
He even had a Snidely Whiplash mustache for a time.
So help me—-doesn’t he look like every Three Stooges villain in those Columbia Shorts? You don’t really see that anymore.
Now the 20th Century knew how to make *monsters* all right…democidal maniacs….but an old fashioned Jack-legged blackguard ready to tie sweetie to railroad ties….you just don’t see that.
I think he looked so much like a weasel that folks couldn’t help but think he was honest…he had a program on conservative talk radio WERC 960…talked about how he thought gambling a sim even.
He had off-the-books “family meetings” convinced investors not to diversify because HealthSouth needed this-that-or-the other.
I’ll leave it there..otherwise I’ll have a stroke.
The various comments regarding NASA/Old Space have me wondering, once again, about NASA and whether we have a need for such an organization.
I would say that we DO need NASA, but that we also need the various private/commercial efforts as well.
I can see NASA or a succeeding entity serving an important role in the SCIENCE of space exploration. Astronomy, physics, chemistry, etc. NASA would both study data and help to guide the efforts to collect more data.
To this point private/commercial entities such as SpaceX seem to excel at making things happen. They are building and launching rockets and satellites with great efficiency, and are also aiding the scientific efforts of NASA. I would not say that there is no “scientific” role for the commercial entities. Indeed, if SpaceX is to successfully reach Mars and establish some sort of . . . something . . . there, there will likely be a need for scientific experiments to help make it all happen.
I’ve been a Behind the Black reader for, I dunno, a couple of years(??), so I can’t claim to have a complete grasp of the annual launch race as provided by Bob, but it seems to me that NASA has largely ended its role as an entity that launches into space. Years ago, this would have troubled me, but with more efficient operators having stepped in, I would say it’s a good development. NASA can focus on the science.
I have commented here and elsewhere that Butch and Suni were in no danger and in no sense stranded, and the Crew 10 launch was in no sense a “rescue mission”, even if there is some truth to Elon’s claim that Biden avoided a more immediate return effort.
BUT there is an anomaly… this persistent meme that Elon / Spacex is rescuing the Boeing-lofted duo is the FIRST time I have noticed a media spin that is PRO-Elon, PRO-Spacex, and and by extension implicitly PRO-Trump!!
WTH is going on? Did the media memo machine break down? Is Joe Biden finally being hung out to dry? Is there a hidden fount of anti-Boeing hatred beyond what had become normal since the 737 Max debacle?
This one is noticeable by its singularity.. it would be easy to accuse Elon of exaggerating his role for political purposes, and not entirely unfair to do so. But they are keeping the bat on their shoulder, and letting this hanging curveball float by!
Ray–
I think this just illustrates how unaware & ignorant the average normie actually is. And for that I blame Education & the Media. ya’, know–if 2 of them were stranded, would that imply they were all stranded? People need to think slightly more deeply and logically.
On the flip side, the whole “rescue mission” narrative starts to approach epic-ness. And as you note, it’s pro-Musk.
Villagers React to Falcon Heavy Test Launch
(April 2021)
https://youtu.be/6WaQOhK4Ank
(10:03)
WHATS GREAT ABOUT AMERICA?
“Who does this? Who even imagines that you can do this?”
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/what-is-great-about-america
“We have to protect our brilliant people, we have so few of them.”
President D.J. Trump
Foghorn Leghorn
“How To Make an Airplane”
https://youtu.be/peFn1Lk8amg
(0:36)
Ellie in Space discusses the stranded/abandoned/marooned/castaway astronauts as well as the Primary Buffer Panel that we saw come off the Falcon upper stage at Dragon separation [*** SPOILER *** we’re not all going to die, because it was a piece of insulation *** END SPOILER ***]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUYsHpuwdyk (9 minutes)
Now, if someone actually did invent anti-gravity–I might actually want NASA disbanded or shrunk, because you know some busybody would put artificial hoops in the way.
But as long as rockets are all we have–we’ll have to put up with that so we can have propulsion/rocket research in case something happens to SpaceX
I think everyone agrees that it’s desirable to have other effective domestic options than just SpaceX for access to space.
But we’ve had two commercial launch providers bring new medium/ heavy lift launchers (Vulcan-Centaur, New Glenn) online in the last twelve months, and there are five others (Neutron, Antares 300, MLV, Nova, Terran R) in advanced development. Every one of these is also far cheaper than SLS, and more scalable, too. So why isn’t this enough redundancy? Granted, not all of these launchers will likely survive the market shakeout, but it’s reasonable to think at least two of them will.