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As I noted in July, 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. 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.

 

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SpaceX launches two Intelsat communications satellites

Capitalism in space: SpaceX today successfully launched two Intelsat communications satellites using its Falcon 9 rocket.

The first stage completed its fourteenth flight, landing successfully on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

The leaders in the 2022 launch race:

46 SpaceX
42 China
12 Russia
8 Rocket Lab
7 ULA

American private enterprise now leads China 66 to 42 in the national rankings, and the entire globe combined 66 to 62.

Genesis cover

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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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

9 comments

  • geoffc

    I think 1060 had flown 13 times and this was 14 not 15 for it. Cannot find a good reference to prove that though.

  • geoffc: I just double-checked SpaceX’s email announcement and discovered I had miscounted. I will correct.

  • Mike Borgelt

    Take a look at the livestream. The shot of the booster just after landing at around 9:00 to 9:30, lit up by floods on the barge with the twilight background and the sun lighting up the booster contrail distorted by the high altitude winds with the gases from the entry burn (the guys at Peenemunde called it “frozen lightning”) peeking out from above a small cloud. Awesome!

  • Jeff

    Mike Borgelt said – “…shot of the booster just after landing… – Awesome!”

    Agree 100%. There was a short video shot just before landing where you could see the second stage climbing up to orbit. First stage video showed the flood lights on the barge just before landing burn. Incredible views that I’m sure will be replayed multiple times. I want a poster of that post landing shot.

    On the Spaceflight Now video there was a great telescopic shot of the fairings maneuvering, along with the first stage as the second stage powered away.

  • geoffc

    And end of the month we may get to see what kind of photos they can get from the double side core landings from the Falcon Heavy on ASDS’s. That could be cool, or terrible.

  • Ray Van Dune

    SpaceX’s experience with recovery of Falcon Heavy cores has been mixed. The twin side boosters were recovered on land in all three flights, but on the first and third flights the center cores malfunctioned, and missed the drone ship.

    This has to be understood in the context of the center core flying unusually long distances, since the side cores are operated at full throttle to use their fuel as quickly as possible, while the center core operates at reduced power, and then shoulders the load after the side cores have exhausted their fuel and separated. This makes the return flight of the side cores easier, but that of the center core more demanding.

    In the second FH flight, the center core successfully landed on the ASDS, but then toppled overboard during the long sea trip home, and was lost. So no FH center cores have been completely recovered to date.

  • GaryMike

    Resisting modernity, the government of Iran has to embrace modernity to defeat modernity.

    It’s only a matter of time before Iranians are finally free.

  • sippin_bourbon

    GaryMike

    That is half the middle east in a nut shell.

    The other half is still 14th century.

    It was odd seeing mud huts with satellite dishes.

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