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.
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 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
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.
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 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
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