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.
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Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
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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.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. 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.
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.