Democrats trying to thwart NASA’s commercial return to the moon
Link here. Read it. My only comment is that Mark Whittington’s analysis is right on the money.
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
Link here. Read it. My only comment is that Mark Whittington’s analysis is right on the money.
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
Bought and paid for by Boeing?
Just another example of why Democrat control of the House is an abomination. I don’t think Boeing is behind it, though. Far more likely, the greenies (and ultimately the Chinese) are behind it. A space program funded and driven with public money is much easier for anti-American politicians to strangle in the cradle.
Agreed. They don’t need any prodding from Boeing lobbyists to speak out against “… trying to privatize America’s Moon-Mars program, especially when at the end of the day American taxpayers — not the private companies — are going to wind up paying the lion’s share of the costs.” Ms. Johnson makes no mention, of course, that the big ticket, most over budget, and most behind schedule element of the whole enterprise is the public run one, namely SLS, and that contracting private companies to provide their own solution to NASA’s needs is the way taxpayers pay less.
Speaking of Boeing, the one space project of theirs doing well, the X-37B space plane, is scheduled to be launched again Saturday week, on the 16th. Time has yet to be announced. Here are some photos with it looking good surrounded by the new blue sound absorbing foam ULA is using on their Atlas fairings.
* https://twitter.com/DutchSpace/status/1258063793889910791
And we just might see back-to-back launches from the Cape, as the next launch of 60 Starlink satellites is currently on for Sunday the 17th at about 0400 local, though perhaps this is just a placeholder. It would be good to see the range demonstrate their upgrades by supporting two disparate launches in less than 24 hrs.
In thinking about H.R. 5666, it is useful to understand one thing. Most of today’s progressive Democrats DO NOT WANT ANY FORM OF ENTREPRENEURIAL CAPITALISM IN SPACE. Not now, not ever. This is a basic truth about who they are and where they are coming from. Any kind of a privatized approach toward going into space is an abomination to them. Can you grok that?
Moreover, if truth be told, they probably — at root — do not want to see human beings in space at all (we can’t be trusted), even if the are under the rigid control of an authoritarian government like China. They will, of course, applaud the Chinese for annexing the moon as their exclusive property because they will “preserve” it from capitalist exploitation, not to mention racism, sexism, and transphobia.
Again, let no one be naive about what is going on here. Beyond wanting to make sure that the Trump Administration “fails” in terms of going back to the moon, Representatives Johnson and Horn do not want the United States to actually succeed at *anything* — least of all in putting ordinary (uncontrolled) people into space — lest their efforts to propel our country into failed state status might be thwarted and they cannot build their Stalinist utopia on its ashes.
There is a wonderful irony in this. Unlike the bipartisan national effort to get the United States to the moon in the 1960s, today’s Democrats (or at least many of them) want the United States to TOTALLY FAIL in terms of winning any sort of new space race. Indeed, they would rather that the Chinese or the Russians win such a contest as opposed to the “evil” United States. This from the same folks who have theatrically obsessed for the last three years about the horrors of “Russian collusion” and its damage to our county. But Russians in space (or Chinese on the moon) are “good.”
The only ray of hope that I can see is that even if Representatives Johnson and Horn are successful, Mr. Musk and his colleagues in the private sector might still use Starship to go to the moon and Mars — despite a Democratically controlled congress’ predictable attempts to make such flights “illegal.” They may, of course, have to relocate their companies / launch facilities to other “friendlier” nations at that point, but the technology will not disappear merely because Democratic politicians do not like it.
Damn socialists! Milt is right on point. In any nightmare of a Sanders administration, commercial space will be the first to go and Space X will have to move to the UAE or Australia.
Speaking of Boeing, the 45th Weather Squadron is predicting the X-37B launch has a 60% change of good weather for this coming Saturday, improving to 80% on Sunday: https://www.patrick.af.mil/Portals/14/Weather/Atlas%20V%20USSF-7%20L-4%20Forecast.pdf?ver=2020-05-12-091905-913
Navigational warnings are out for 0824 – 1053 local Saturday, 0914 – 1132 Sunday, and a curiously short 0954 – 1034 Monday — presumably indicative of launch windows: https://twitter.com/LaunchStuff/status/1260215474970857472
And we may still see back to back launches, with SpaceX putting up another batch of Starlink satellites on Sunday or Monday. They just conducted their static fire this morning: https://twitter.com/julia_bergeron/status/1260571663906869249
Still don’t know if 17 May around 0400 local is just a placeholder. With the static fire conducted, we can hope for a SpaceX tweet soon on its preliminary results, hopefully with a mention of launch date. This will be the 5th flight of that booster. The only previous 5th Falcon 9 booster flight was two Starlink launches ago, when one of the engines failed late in flight, later reported to be due to “Small amount of isopropyl alcohol (cleaning fluid) was trapped in a sensor dead leg & ignited in flight”. The mission was successful, but the booster was not recovered.
Sure enough: https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1260603521402986496
“Static fire test of Falcon 9 complete—targeting Sunday, May 17 at 3:53 a.m. EDT, 7:53 UTC, for launch of the eighth Starlink mission, which will lift off from SLC-40 in Florida”
If the X-37B mission rolls back one day I’d expect this one to do likewise. Either way we are looking at a <24 hr turnaround for the range.