FAA gets out of the way
My heart be still! The FAA today cleared SpaceX to resume launches, after grounding its fleet for two days because a Falcon 9 first stage, flying on its 23rd launch and having successfully placed 21 satellites into orbit, fell over after landing softly on its drone ship in the Atlantic.
The FAA statement was short but to my mind illustrates again the growing effort of the administrative state to require Americans to obtain its permission to do anything at all.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle may return to flight operations while the overall investigation of the anomaly during (Wednesday’s) mission remains open, provided all other license requirements are met. SpaceX made the return to flight request on Aug. 29 and the FAA gave approval on Aug. 30.
That the FAA even grounded SpaceX for one second, and then required SpaceX to ask permission to fly again, is all unacceptable and a great abuse of power. There was no reason for this grounding at all. Even as the FAA announced it two days ago the agency admitted the failed landing posed no threat to the public. It should have immediately said the company had every right to continue flying.
Even though there are people at the FAA with good intentions, the overall trend there and everywhere within that Washington bureaucracy is to expand its power, to make demands of Americans in every way, and to insist it must be the gatekeeper for any action by any American. Only today for example the FDA declared unilaterally that all retailers now have to obtain photo ID from anyone under thirty who wishes to buy tobacco. It claims it has the right to mandate this based on a legislation passed in 2019, but without question this is a very liberal interpretation of that law, which merely raised the minimum age for buying tobacco from 18 to 21. I am sure it did not give the FDA the outright ability to declare such mandates without any review by anyone.
Power grabs like this are only going to get worse, unless Americans vote in new legislators and support them when they act to neuter these agencies. It remains however strongly doubtful whether most Americans are willing to do this. It would require a love of freedom and the risks it entails to abandon the regulatory state, and right now I don’t think most people have that kind of courage. They have grown used to having a big daddy acting to protect them, and appear willing to accept that gentle tyranny more and more.
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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
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
My heart be still! The FAA today cleared SpaceX to resume launches, after grounding its fleet for two days because a Falcon 9 first stage, flying on its 23rd launch and having successfully placed 21 satellites into orbit, fell over after landing softly on its drone ship in the Atlantic.
The FAA statement was short but to my mind illustrates again the growing effort of the administrative state to require Americans to obtain its permission to do anything at all.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle may return to flight operations while the overall investigation of the anomaly during (Wednesday’s) mission remains open, provided all other license requirements are met. SpaceX made the return to flight request on Aug. 29 and the FAA gave approval on Aug. 30.
That the FAA even grounded SpaceX for one second, and then required SpaceX to ask permission to fly again, is all unacceptable and a great abuse of power. There was no reason for this grounding at all. Even as the FAA announced it two days ago the agency admitted the failed landing posed no threat to the public. It should have immediately said the company had every right to continue flying.
Even though there are people at the FAA with good intentions, the overall trend there and everywhere within that Washington bureaucracy is to expand its power, to make demands of Americans in every way, and to insist it must be the gatekeeper for any action by any American. Only today for example the FDA declared unilaterally that all retailers now have to obtain photo ID from anyone under thirty who wishes to buy tobacco. It claims it has the right to mandate this based on a legislation passed in 2019, but without question this is a very liberal interpretation of that law, which merely raised the minimum age for buying tobacco from 18 to 21. I am sure it did not give the FDA the outright ability to declare such mandates without any review by anyone.
Power grabs like this are only going to get worse, unless Americans vote in new legislators and support them when they act to neuter these agencies. It remains however strongly doubtful whether most Americans are willing to do this. It would require a love of freedom and the risks it entails to abandon the regulatory state, and right now I don’t think most people have that kind of courage. They have grown used to having a big daddy acting to protect them, and appear willing to accept that gentle tyranny more and more.
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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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
And SpaceX wasted no time. Two launches in about an hour from both coasts. 42 Starlinks delivered.
https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1829822276935758287
Bob will have some extra updating of his launch totals… (haha)
regarding Starlink, will Tesla cars, vehicles in general, soon be equipped with Starlink antennas? Now that the car can do most of the driving, the passenger will need full blown internet service to “get work done” as they wait to arrive at their destination. A $99 per month subscription fee for internet service to millions of cars in the US and around the world? That is a lot of money for rocket development and ensuring regulatory approval.
Robert writes: “Only today for example the FDA declared unilaterally that all retailers now have to obtain photo ID from anyone under thirty who wishes to buy tobacco.”
But at the same time the current administration insists that there should be no requirement for proof of citizenship or even the same kind of photo ID in order to vote — one of the foundational activities in our form of government.
Is Hell freezing over at the Council on Foreign Relations?
“Nationalism is a moral necessity, not a moral failing.”
Walter Russell Mead in Foreign Affairs
In a bit of related news, in its Sept. – Oct. issue, Foreign Affairs has published a remarkable article by Prof. Walter Russell Mead entitled The Return of Hamiltonian Statecraft: A Grand Strategy for a Turbulent World. Finding this kind of piece in such an old line internationalist-leaning journal is so unexpected that it suggests that someone at the CFR is thinking the unthinkable about a new regime in Washington.
Equally of note, Prof. Mead’s description of Hamiltonian principles and their application in foreign policy contains such a timely restatement of the basic ideas behind the American Experiment that it deserves the widest possible audience. As such, it is both a counterblast for corporate patriotism and a compelling reminder of what most Americans used to believe before globalization — and the effective end of national sovereignty — became the new religion of Wall Street and its handservants in Washington.
Again, while a single robin does not make a spring, that such an article is seeing the light of day suggests that the times may indeed be a changin’.
And the FAA continues to slow roll launch license for Starship 5, now a mere month late. Cheers –
“… Again, while a single robin does not make a spring, that such an article is seeing the light of day suggests that the times may indeed be a changin’. ….”
not to joke about it Milt, but things are continuing to change for the worse. A very powerful judge in Brazil is blocking people from accessing their X accounts. In Mexico, the outgoing president is showing he will continue to rule the country after his term is up by firing all the appointed judges. The reason these government officials can do as they wish is because the voters collectively do not have the interest or mentality to object. This low level of thinking is more and more common in the US.
The lifting of the pause so quickly looks worse than the grounding itself–a de facto admission that this was all political.
Steve — As bad as things appear to be at the moment — and, yes, you don’t have to look very far to see all the problems — I believe that I am seeing a significant change in the way that at least some academics, including Prof. Mead, are examining the roots of our current cultural malaise. See, for example, Yascha Mounk’s The Identity Trap: A story of Ideas and Power in Our Time. They are, in short, deconstructing woke orthodoxy in a rigorous and convincing fashion that cannot easily be ignored. Moreover, it is precisely disaffected (and intellectually honest) classical liberals such as Prof. Deneen (Why Liberalism Failed) who are leading the charge.
The irony, of course, is that just as academia — and later our K through 12 schools — were taken over by this ideological virus well in advance of its spread into the voting population, we may be seeing a similar kind of delayed reaction in terms of how the electorate responds in November and afterward. Most Americans are not going to be heading down to their polling places with copies of Why Liberalism Failed tucked under their arms, but many of them have a pretty good intuitive idea about what has gone wrong, even if they can’t cite any of the relevant literature.
The tragedy is that — at least so far — almost no one on the right has been able to “translate” this revolution in understanding to the level of political action that is required to motivate undecided, fence-sitting people, and a “great communicator” Donald Trump is not*. (If ever Moses needed an Aaron…) Hopefully, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will be able to aid in this project, and the word will get out.
*Although his life story (hero’s journey) is nothing less than the actual working out of the Hamiltonian project that Prof. Mead describes, the tragedy, again, is that Mr. Trump seems incapable — sans his trademark narcissism and stultifying, laundry list speeches — of laying out the foundational principles of his life in a clear and compelling fashion. Oh, well. He’s the hero that Gotham City *needs*, not the one that it wants.)
Hey, Hey
FAA
How much future
Did you kill today?
In case you were wondering, Robert, Trump Derangement Disorder Reich has just put forward a 6-part plan to “rein in” Elon Musk. Number five is a classic, and it is well worth looking at.
https://www.rsn.org/001/elon-musk-is-out-of-control-here-is-how-to-rein-him-in.html
“5. The US government – and we taxpayers – have additional power over Musk, if we’re willing to use it. The US should terminate its contracts with him, starting with Musk’s SpaceX.
In 2021, the United States entered into a $1.8bn classified contract with SpaceX that includes blasting off classified and military satellites, according to the Wall Street Journal. The funds are now an important part of SpaceX’s revenue.
The Pentagon has also contracted with SpaceX’s Starlink broadband service to pay for internet links, despite Musk’s refusal in September 2022 to allow Ukraine to use Starlink to launch an attack on Russian forces in Crimea.
Last August, the Pentagon gave SpaceX’s Starshield unit $70m to provide communications services to dozens of Pentagon partners.
Meanwhile, SpaceX is cornering the rocket launch market. Its rockets were responsible for two-thirds of flights from US launch sites in 2022 and handled 88% in the first six months of this year. [God knows, we can’t have THAT.]
In deciding upon which private-sector entities to contract with, the US government is supposed to consider the contractor’s reliability. Musk’s mercurial, impulsive temperament makes him and the companies he heads unreliable. The government is also supposed to consider whether it is contributing to a monopoly. Musk’s SpaceX is fast becoming one.
Why is the US government allowing Musk’s satellites and rocket launchers to become crucial to the nation’s security when he’s shown utter disregard for the public interest? Why give Musk more economic power when he repeatedly abuses it and demonstrates contempt for the public good?
There is no good reason. American taxpayers must stop subsidizing Elon Musk.”
And there you have it — the perfect example of how the left “thinks.” Just stop using SpaceX, give all those government contracts to Boeing, and everything will be fine. Who needs cheap and reliable access to space, anyway?
Milt: This is all irrational emotional decision-making, with not one iota of thought behind it at all. Unfortunately, we see a lot of this these days, from all sides of the political spectrum, which is why cursing and spouting obscenities has become so popular. Spitting out a curse word emotes, but in doing so it blocks thoughtful mental processes.
Robert — You are right, of course — it’s irrational emotion-based decision making, but there’s more to it than that. Back in the day, Prof.
Reich could write objectively (albeit with a leftward slant) and well, cf, his book The Work of Nations, published in 1991, that was prescient in it’s anticipation of the dark side of globalization and its challenge to America’s working class. In that period, he would seem to have had much in common with J. D. Vance, and the latter’s book, Hillbilly Elegy, is a kind of working out of all of the trends that Reich was warning us about. (As an aside, it is amazing to me how many people on the left completely miss the “point” of Hillbilly
Elegy and dismiss it as nothing but a racist screed. Talk about losing touch with what once was your political base… Shall we call this the “Bruce Springsteen Effect”?)
Now, Prof. Reich appears to be so consumed with irrational hatred for Donald Trump — he’s a poster kid for TDS — that he literally can’t think coherently and, apparently, he is incapable of integrating other views of science and history (such as yours) into his increasingly narrow worldview. All of this fits into Dr. Robert Malone’s concept of mass formation psychosis, in which otherwise capable people “go crazy,” turn into rigid, one-dimensional ideologues, and appear to be incapable of rational thought or discourse with anyone who differs from them.
Whatever happens in November, the presence of large number of such people in our society will continue to be a problem, and it is hard to see how they will be able to let go of their woke obsessions. Most Republicans, in contrast, have made great strides in terms of incorporating differing viewpoints and perspectives (such as patriotism, populism, and the concerns of working Americans of all races) into their perception of reality, while still adhering to the foundational values of the American Republic. Which of these is an example of rational adaptive behavior?
Which of these is an example of rational adaptive behavior?
Where do you live that you expect rational behavior (adaptive or not) from humans? On my planet, they are not rational creatures – they are rationalizing creatures.
Oh would that I lived where you do. If nothing else, I would be much wealthier because I, too, am susceptible to such behavior, particularly when I want to buy something (click my name for an example).