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.
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
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.
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
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”
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