Dragon successfully splashes down in Atlantic
Capitalism in space: SpaceX’s manned Dragon capsule has successfully returned to Earth, splashing down in the Atlantic this morning.
There is a short video at the link showing the splashdown.
As far as I can tell, this test mission went 100% right. They now have the capsule they will use for the launch abort flight, which they hope to do by June, if not sooner. Assuming that goes well, they will be ready to do the manned flight by July, as planned.
The only thing I can see preventing this would be elements in NASA’s bureaucracy, Congress, and the federal government that are hostile to SpaceX and the concept of independent free Americans doing great things. These elements prefer giving power and control to their big bloated government, even if it can’t accomplish anything and that failure gives aide and comfort to hostile foreign powers.
We shall see if those elements move to block this mission in the coming months.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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 manned Dragon capsule has successfully returned to Earth, splashing down in the Atlantic this morning.
There is a short video at the link showing the splashdown.
As far as I can tell, this test mission went 100% right. They now have the capsule they will use for the launch abort flight, which they hope to do by June, if not sooner. Assuming that goes well, they will be ready to do the manned flight by July, as planned.
The only thing I can see preventing this would be elements in NASA’s bureaucracy, Congress, and the federal government that are hostile to SpaceX and the concept of independent free Americans doing great things. These elements prefer giving power and control to their big bloated government, even if it can’t accomplish anything and that failure gives aide and comfort to hostile foreign powers.
We shall see if those elements move to block this mission in the coming months.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
Manned launch in July to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11?
Chris Lopes: I strongly suspect that Elon Musk has this coincidence very much in mind.
While you were distracted, looking skyward — Elon pulled a fast one.
SpaceX Starship Hopper Moving to Boca Chica Launch Pad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIFpLblpC-E
Crew Dragon looked like a toasted marshmallow, as several people on Twitter pointed out. I was actually a bit concerned when I first saw it, but I guess it’s supposed to look that way.
Elon Musk may be our best acquisition since Wernher von Braun.
Better. At least, as far as we know, he’s yet to hit London with anything! About the “toasted marshmallow” effect, we should try to remember the white stuff on the Dragon backshell is SpaceX Phenolic Ablator Material, and is reapplied as needed. Even though NASA will be paying for a brand new Dragon for each crewed flight, the capsules will be reused on cargo flights, possibly starting with CRS-21 next year. SpaceX is supposed to get a minumum of three Dragon-2 flights every year, one crewed, and two cargo. There are seven crewed flights on the manifest (DM-2 and six crew rotations), and maybe 14 cargo flights before ISS goes splash? Musk did mention the possibility of flying Starship to ISS, if need be (sorry I don’t have a link).
From the Times of London review of Von Braun’s book “I Shot For the Stars” – “But hit London Instead”
To it’s eternal shame the US white washed this SS Major who was complicit in the crime of employing slave labor to build A-4’s and turned him into a Sixties folk hero
“When shown a picture of himself standing behind Himmler, von Braun claimed to have worn the SS uniform only that one time, in 2002 a former SS officer at Peenemünde told the BBC that von Braun had regularly worn the SS uniform to official meetings. He began as an Untersturmführer (Second lieutenant) and was promoted three times by Himmler, the last time in June 1943 to SS-Sturmbannführer (Major). ”
“… the German scientists led by Prof. Wernher von Braun were aware of everything daily. As they went along the corridors, they saw the exhaustion of the inmates, their arduous work and their pain. Not one single time did Prof. Wernher von Braun protest against this cruelty during his frequent stays at Dora. Even the aspect of corpses did not touch him: On a small area near the ambulance shed, inmates tortured to death by slave labor and the terror of the overseers were piling up daily. But, Prof. Wernher von Braun passed them so close that he was almost touching the corpses.”
“Dora” was the code name for the underground factory building A-4’s
Von Braun was one of history’s more amoral characters. He was willing to work with anyone to achieve the dream of spaceflight. He also has the distinction of being one of the few men in history to literally make a deal with the devil (the guy with the funny moustache) and get the better end of the deal.
Chris Lopes wrote: “He was willing to work with anyone to achieve the dream of spaceflight.”
Not quite anyone. He made sure to travel toward the Americans for his surrender rather than allow the Soviets to take him.
He knew where the better deal would be. The Germans who worked for the Russians ended up in labor camps, while Von Braun got to hang out with Walt Disney.