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.
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 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.
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
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.