SpaceX launches 21 Starlink satellites
Using its Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX tonight successfully launched another 21 Starlink satellites, lifting off from Cape Canaveral.
The first stage completed its tenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
This was SpaceX’s 62nd launch in 2023, a new annual record for the company, as well as any private company anywhere ever. It was also the 71st American launch in 2023, which beats the launch record of 1966 which had lasted until only last year.
It appears SpaceX is moving its live stream off of Youtube and onto X. At least, this live stream was only on X. If so, that is a shame as it lowers its visibility. It is also understandable. Why should SpaceX send business to X’s competitor?
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
62 SpaceX
38 China
12 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
7 India
In the national rankings, American private enterprise now leads China in successful launches 71 to 38. It also leads the entire world combined, 71 to 62, while SpaceX by itself now tied the rest of the world (excluding American companies) 62 to 62.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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.
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Using its Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX tonight successfully launched another 21 Starlink satellites, lifting off from Cape Canaveral.
The first stage completed its tenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
This was SpaceX’s 62nd launch in 2023, a new annual record for the company, as well as any private company anywhere ever. It was also the 71st American launch in 2023, which beats the launch record of 1966 which had lasted until only last year.
It appears SpaceX is moving its live stream off of Youtube and onto X. At least, this live stream was only on X. If so, that is a shame as it lowers its visibility. It is also understandable. Why should SpaceX send business to X’s competitor?
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
62 SpaceX
38 China
12 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
7 India
In the national rankings, American private enterprise now leads China in successful launches 71 to 38. It also leads the entire world combined, 71 to 62, while SpaceX by itself now tied the rest of the world (excluding American companies) 62 to 62.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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 or subscription:
4. 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.
I had thought that only the Twitter logo was changing to X, but I see it is a complete rebranding.
*Sigh*
This is Bond Villain stuff.
It will never happen—but I would love to see two Falcons launch in unison…each with a camera on the other to document a side view of an entire flight profile.
We may see something unexpected.
Also…with Falcon using an old Saturn/shuttle pad…you have the inverse of SuperHeavy pads.
39A is so overbuilt and it’s deluge so large…might it assist in reuse of Falcons launched on that pad due to allowing evacuation…over other pads, say?
I want to see an end-of-life core fly horizontal and low…just to see what it could take.
Elon tweeted this evening: “Aiming for 10 Falcon flights in a month by end of this year, then 12 per month next year.”
Not everything SpaceX is doing to increase its launch capabilities is visible, but at least two items are: Construction is now visibly underway on the new crew access tower at SLC-40, which when complete will allow SpaceX to launch Crew and Cargo Dragons from that pad, too; and it has acquired the lease on Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg, and is now in the process of modifying it to begin launch Falcons.
It’s not implausible that they really could hit 120 launches next year.
The X video experience has less clutter. If you are not logged in you do not get any links to other content.
Personally, I don’t like video served through twitter and have only ever gone there to get Tucker.
(I download practically everything, and these twitter files are in .ts format, which I don’t like. But that having been said, it’s free and my software can grab it, so I can’t complain too much.)
Tangentially–
Let’s talk about how every single advertisement on Rumble is served via Google Adsense.
The more you watch Rumble, the richer Google gets, excuse me, but I don’t call that winning…
Alphabet, X, Meta . . .
With all the completely unneeded and, frankly, ill advised, name changes, perhaps readers here should get ahead of the game and come up with an equally stupid name for Apple. I’ll go first, reflecting on one of Apple’s obsessions:
Emoji
Remember those old commercials where “Brand X” was the inferior product?
Bob – Are you aware of this?
There is no
climate emergency
https://clintel.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/WCD-version-081423.pdf
Sundance at The Conservative Treehouse blog has been following the economics of Twitter (now “X”) since Musk bought it. The money from the Tesla stock that Musk sold to buy and operate Twitter runs out this month. If true I wonder what impact that will have on Musk’s other companies.
Some points Sundance has made:
• Elon Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter
• The value of Twitter has dropped to the $15 billion level.
• Almost all of the $30 billion in personal equity Musk put into the company has been lost.
• If the valuation is accurate, Musk personally would have lost around $27.5 billion in this Twitter platform purchase.
• Bottom line, Musk grossly overpaid.
• Ad revenue is just over $1 billion a year.
• Operating expense are $4.5 billion a year.
• Musk was on track to hit a date in/around October of this year where Twitter would be insolvent.
• With $1 billion liquid in the bank, as of June (per Musk), that only gets him to September; by October, he needs another influx of cash, or else.
Source: This article by Sundance and articles linked in it:
Elon Musk Partners with Global Disinformation Index, the Progressive Disinformation Specialists, to Diminish Advertiser Fears
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/08/09/elon-musk-partners-with-global-disinformation-index-the-progressive-disinformation-specialists-to-diminish-advertiser-fears/
Drat.
”SpaceX launches 22 Starlink satellites”
21