SpaceX successfully launches another 53 Starlink satellites
Capitalism in space: SpaceX today successfully launched another 53 Starlink satellites, using a Falcon 9 first stage for the fifth time.
The first stage landed successfully on a drone ship.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
19 SpaceX
15 China
6 Russia
3 Rocket Lab
2 ULA
The U.S. now leads China 27 to 15 in the national rankings, as well as the entire world combined 27 to 24, leads that should widen in the next week with two more SpaceX launches as well as Boeing’s Starliner unmanned demo mission launch on ULA’s Atlas-5.
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Capitalism in space: SpaceX today successfully launched another 53 Starlink satellites, using a Falcon 9 first stage for the fifth time.
The first stage landed successfully on a drone ship.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
19 SpaceX
15 China
6 Russia
3 Rocket Lab
2 ULA
The U.S. now leads China 27 to 15 in the national rankings, as well as the entire world combined 27 to 24, leads that should widen in the next week with two more SpaceX launches as well as Boeing’s Starliner unmanned demo mission launch on ULA’s Atlas-5.
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.
I went outside at 4:45 am in the morning a few days ago, just in time to see the string of satellites moving across the sky to the north east. I ran back inside and grabbed my cell phone and took a movie of the fascinating sight. My grandson copied it and he’s sharing it all over his high school.
I’ve seen this once before at work, my coworkers thought it was a UFO attack!
Two words: More Please!!
Launching rockets should be so routine that with the number of companies currently in operation, there should be a flight every day. Get there and then the industry starts to really show what it can do.
I saw a NOSS (Naval Ocean Surveillance System) satellite constellation of three satellites once. They were widely enough spaced that they looked like a Star Destroyer going overhead! Fortunately I knew how to look up sat passes and determined quickly what it was… that and the fact that stars between the points of light were not blocked out! But wow, that was scary at first!