SpaceX successfully completes Dragon parachute tests
Capitalism in space: SpaceX successfully completed the last planned parachute test yesterday for its manned Dragon spacecraft, clearing the way for its first manned launch on May 27th.
NASA also said that it has closed its investigation into the Merlin engine issue from a March Falcon 9 launch, leaving nothing but the weather in the way for that May manned flight.
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Capitalism in space: SpaceX successfully completed the last planned parachute test yesterday for its manned Dragon spacecraft, clearing the way for its first manned launch on May 27th.
NASA also said that it has closed its investigation into the Merlin engine issue from a March Falcon 9 launch, leaving nothing but the weather in the way for that May manned flight.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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.
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.
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.
And in the “Huh” department….
“Elon Musk just declared that he’s selling almost all his physical belongings and ‘will own no house’ and that he thinks Tesla’s stock price is ‘too high'” Business Insider
https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-selling-belongings-house-tesla-stock-2020-5
That grinding sound you hear is the SEC tearing itself apart
“where he would live once he owns no house” 1) On Mars 2) In the backseat of a Tesla (if they have a backseat)
This is sounding more and more like the Heaven’s Gate Fiasco – “Sell all your goods and follow me to Mars!”
I don’t think Elon is planning to take things to quite a Jack Reacher level of divestiture, but this makes sense. It makes little sense, even for a multi-billionaire, to maintain one or more expensive mansions if he is hardly ever in residence at any of them. Most rich people seem to indulge these extravagances, in significant part, to impress/keep up with other rich people. That sort of thing has never been any real part of Musk’s psychological makeup.
Musk can easily find short-term accommodations near the places he peripatetically spends the vast majority of his time. He can also easily find convenient places to garage his cars. When in Boca Chica, for example, I don’t know where Musk drops his bags, but I suspect it’s in one of the two dozen or so houses in Boca Chica Village that SpaceX has accumulated. Perhaps he keeps a Tesla there too.
I do/i> note that there was no mention of divesting his Gulfstream 650 bizjet – and I don’t expect there to be. Musk seems to spend a lot more time in that than he does at any of his “estates.”