SpaceX launches more Starlink satellites
Capitalism in space: SpaceX tonight successfully put two commercial satellites for another customer plus another 57 of its own Starlink satellites into orbit, using a Falcon 9 rocket that was reusing a first stage flying for the fifth time.
This brings the total number of Starlink satellites now in orbit to 595. They also successfully landed the first stage, making it now available for a sixth flight.
19 China
12 SpaceX
9 Russia
4 ULA
The U.S. has retaken the lead from China in the national rankings, 20 to 19.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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.
Capitalism in space: SpaceX tonight successfully put two commercial satellites for another customer plus another 57 of its own Starlink satellites into orbit, using a Falcon 9 rocket that was reusing a first stage flying for the fifth time.
This brings the total number of Starlink satellites now in orbit to 595. They also successfully landed the first stage, making it now available for a sixth flight.
19 China
12 SpaceX
9 Russia
4 ULA
The U.S. has retaken the lead from China in the national rankings, 20 to 19.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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.
This is happening too frequently for me to keep up with it. It’s like the bus time table. And the sleepwalkers chew their bamboo and hope that nothing will ever change. NASA human space flight division is a plant. SLS will never lift.
Really amazing how routine SpaceX is making all this. They’re basically launching every other week. And a couple hiccups this winter notwithstanding, they’re always landing the rockets. Even when they’ve been flown five times.
And you know, it occurs to me that, by most key metrics, SpaceX by itself is a greater spacefaring power than Russia is now.
It’s not just that that they launch a lot more than Russia does. Theyhave a more capable and reliable orbital launch fleet. They have as many launch pads as Russia does. They can now launch humans into space, and more of them, too. They send cargo ships that deliver several times as much cargo per year as Russias Progress ships do. They have three times as many satellites in Earth orbit as Russia does!
And all this is before Starship reaches operational status.
Localfluff,
I read your post and I thought it was a poem. I started to count the words to see if it was a haiku.
Richard,
Excellent observation. SpaceX has now outpaced a major space power, and the first one too!
Haiku contest?
Capitalist rise
Enterprise freely flies
Socialists weeping
Did I mention I was an expert in bad poetry?
Not as bad as the Vogons.
“- Mr. Musk!
– Musk is now my title, not my name.
– Okay… Musk, we’ve launched a load of satellites already. What about stepping down to NASA rate and take it easy for a couple of decades?
– I want launch for breakfast, I want satellites everywhere like a corn flakes box pinata style. I’ve hired you to watch how every bone in your body MOVES!”
You have really captured the Vogonity of the situation.