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.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
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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.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. 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.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
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.