Crew Dragon successfully tests SuperDraco engines

To read this post please scroll down.

Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. There are five 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. Takes about a 10% cut.

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it 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.

October 28, 2019 8:41 am Robert Zimmerman

Capitalism in space: SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, planned for a launch abort test in December, has successfully completed a set of static fire engine tests of two of its SuperDraco launch abort engines.

They next plan a static fire test of all eight engines, followed by that launch abort flight. If all goes well with both, the only thing blocking SpaceX from launching its first manned mission early in 2020 will be the paperwork NASA is demanding they fill out prior to flight.

4 comments

Milt Hays, Jr.
October 28, 2019 at 10:40 am
As James Oberg once let slip in a radio interview, NASA’s “real” job is, in effect, to keep ordinary people OUT of space. As I recall, this broadcast was in the late 1990s, on the Jeff Rense program. I do not have the exact air date.

Mr. Oberg was discussing the fact that The Powers That Be at NASA / The Pentagon really didn’t want to allow just anyone access to space and, in particular, to their military hardware up there; the agenda being to exclude everyone but the carefully vetted with security clearances, etc. God knows what would happen if just “anybody” were allowed up there…

Comes now Mr. Musk, totally upsetting NASA’s apple cart, making space accessible for commerce and even for travel and recreational purposes. The horror. The horror. (The fact that SpaceX makes NASA’s in-house efforts at rocket building look obsolete and beside the point doesn’t help much, either.) This is, once again, a wonderful example of Mr. Orwell’s point that just because NASA says that it is a “space agency,” this doesn’t automatically mean that its purpose is to actually put people into space. Maybe once upon a time, but if we judge them by their actual performance over the last five decades…

Milt
Blair Ivey
October 28, 2019 at 12:21 pm
It seems there is more than a slight conflict of interest in having the National Aeronautics and Space Administration oversee it’s direct competitors. Perhaps if Congress wasn’t poking sticks under rocks to find *anything* that would provide rear-end balm to some Members, they could get interested in an anti-trust investigation that would provide actual benefit to the people.
Richard M
October 28, 2019 at 3:28 pm
Meanwhile, former NASA associate administrator for exploration systems and paid Boeing consultant Doug Cooke is back at it again today in his latest give-Boeing-all-your-money campaign, taking a hard shot at Crew Dragon for being behind schedule – though he somehow neglects to mention the even bigger schedule delays on Boeing’s Starliner, or even, indeed, Boeing’s SLS core, even despite the far greater funding both of these vehicles have received.

https://spacenews.com/op-ed-nasa-should-shed-lesser-priorities-to-achieve-a-2024-moon-landing/

Surprised that SpaceNews initially let this slip in without a statement of his status with Boeing – though they did, belatedly, correct that earlier today. Usually they’re pretty good about that.

I’m sure Doug Cooke is a nice guy. But if you want to see what the swamp looks like in action, here’s a prime example.
Col Beausabre
October 28, 2019 at 6:48 pm
When the weight of the completed paperwork exceeds that of a fully loaded vehicle, approval is given for launch

Crew Dragon successfully tests SuperDraco engines

4 comments

Leave a Reply