Crew Dragon successfully tests SuperDraco engines
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.
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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.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the 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. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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.
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
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.
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.
When the weight of the completed paperwork exceeds that of a fully loaded vehicle, approval is given for launch