SpaceX launches another 48 Starlink satellites
Using its Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX today successfully launched another 48 Starlink satellites, lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
The first stage completed its twelfth flight, landing softly on a drone ship in the Pacific. The two fairing halves completed their fourth and seventh flights respectively.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
45 SpaceX
24 China
9 Russia
5 Rocket Lab
In successful launches, American private enterprise now leads China 51 to 24 in the national rankings, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world combined, excluding American companies, 45 to 42.
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.
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Using its Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX today successfully launched another 48 Starlink satellites, lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
The first stage completed its twelfth flight, landing softly on a drone ship in the Pacific. The two fairing halves completed their fourth and seventh flights respectively.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
45 SpaceX
24 China
9 Russia
5 Rocket Lab
In successful launches, American private enterprise now leads China 51 to 24 in the national rankings, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world combined, excluding American companies, 45 to 42.
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.
Interestingly, both the Wall Street Journal and Space News have stories up today about the de facto monopoly SpaceX now enjoys, what with all of its primary competitors in the US, Europe and Japan caught between two stools of retired legacy rockets and delayed replacement ones, and the Russians no longer available.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX Now Has a ‘De Facto’ Monopoly on Rocket Launches
The company’s rockets are ferrying astronauts, launching satellites and dominating any competition
By Micah Maidenberg
https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musks-spacex-now-has-a-de-facto-monopoly-on-rocket-launches-3c34f02e
Europe leans on SpaceX to bridge launcher gap
By Jeff Foust
https://spacenews.com/europe-leans-on-spacex-to-bridge-launcher-gap/
Kind of wild how it has all worked out: every competitor stumbling, just as SpaceX reaches unprecedented launch cadence.
“GRIFTING CON MAN MUSKS FAILS AGAIN” – says MSN and CNN
Not only are Russian rockets off the table, but so are the relatively high performance and reliable Russian engines.
Of course that was the trap that ULA walked into – use cheap Russian engines until they were illegal, then use vaporware BO engines, then when SpaceX had hired all the hot talent, screw up the update of the ultra-reliable Centaur into something that blowed up real good!
Meanwhile, SpaceX is learning to build the world’s best engine at rate!
Space X didn’t hire all the best talent. They were already working for the other guys.
They hired good talent and worked it and trained it until they became the talent everyone else wants.
Its like a sports team. They hired good mangers and good coaches then found good solid talent to train up into what they needed.
Now the team is great and everyone wants them.
pzatchok, I don’t have the knowledge to define SpaceX’s specific team-building practices. As you do, thanks for the information. Our points boil down to the same thing – SpaceX has done what everyone else talks about and invested in the highest quality team. And it is paying off.
Pzatchok….
So Musk can beat their’n with his’n and his’n with their’n 😀
It took Musk over 15 years to make that talent.
I do not know exactly how he made his team but I bet it was thew same way everyone else who rises to the top does.
I want to see Musk and Nick Saban in the same room. Zuckerberg can push off.