AX-2 commercial passenger flight to ISS splashes down safely
Axiom’s second commercial passenger flight to ISS, dubbed AX-2, successfully splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico a little after 11 pm (Eastern) tonight after spending eight days in space.
Recovery efforts of the Freedom capsule are still underway by SpaceX crews. It is necessary again to emphasize that this is a private mission, launched by a private company in a privately owned capsule for a private company and private passengers. The only government involvement was when the capsule was docked to ISS and the crew was on the station.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
Axiom’s second commercial passenger flight to ISS, dubbed AX-2, successfully splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico a little after 11 pm (Eastern) tonight after spending eight days in space.
Recovery efforts of the Freedom capsule are still underway by SpaceX crews. It is necessary again to emphasize that this is a private mission, launched by a private company in a privately owned capsule for a private company and private passengers. The only government involvement was when the capsule was docked to ISS and the crew was on the station.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
Getting away from government control of space.
WooHoo!
The new American frontier doesn’t require British, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Swazi, or UN control.
It’s just required they just get the (swear word here) out of the way.
Governments are no longer in control. They will exert extreme regulatory pressures pretending to be relevant to access.
Once we’re off-world, which government has station?
None.
Try to tax us!
Lunar-based mass drivers will be really useful.
How to you want it?
Ah, negotiation.
Of course, Earth would send troops to try to manage the lunar mass driver threat.
In how many useful lunar craters not easily observed from the target?
Space, and its various worlds, are not going to be ruled by terrestrial laws and regulations.
Nor by their State and Municipal codes.
It will not be long before humanity will no longer need our current overseers, their attending bureaucrats, and their restrictions on our freedoms.
We’ll decide once again.
I remember watching that fictional video on youtube about the first 10,000 days on Mars (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3hPH_bc0Ww). At one point it was stated that the earth nation states we sending diplomatic missions to Mars. When I saw this the first thought that went thru my mind was “I wonder if Starships could be used as ABMs?”
Well, the two Saudi astronauts work for the Saudi government’s space agency, which is who paid their way . . . but I get the point. It isn’t the *American* government!
Still, I think this is more evidence that a lot of the business case for commercial LEO stations is going to consist of “sovereign” clients. But that’s all right, too: They’re getting into space via a commercial market, rather than brute-forcing it through massive state programs. And it puts space within the reach of a lot of smaller countries.