SpaceX successfully launches cargo Dragon to ISS
Capitalism in space: SpaceX today successfully launched a cargo Dragon to ISS.
The first stage booster successfully landed on its drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
This Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule were entirely new, making their first flights. This was the first new Falcon 9 to fly since November 2020, with sixteen launches during that period using reused boosters exclusively.
In fact, since November 2020 SpaceX has completed a total of 21 launches, all done in less than seven months. Moreover, the company has scheduled 34 (!) more launches through the rest of the year. If they achieve this ambitious schedule, they will complete 51 launches in ’21, more than doubling their previous annual record of 25 set last year. With all other American companies added in, there will be a good chance the United States launch total could exceed 70, breaking the country’s own annual launch record set in 1966 at the height of the first space race.
The leaders in the 2021 launch race:
17 SpaceX
15 China
8 Russia
2 Rocket Lab
2 ULA
The U.S. now leads China 23 to 15 in the national rankings.
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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.
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Capitalism in space: SpaceX today successfully launched a cargo Dragon to ISS.
The first stage booster successfully landed on its drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
This Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule were entirely new, making their first flights. This was the first new Falcon 9 to fly since November 2020, with sixteen launches during that period using reused boosters exclusively.
In fact, since November 2020 SpaceX has completed a total of 21 launches, all done in less than seven months. Moreover, the company has scheduled 34 (!) more launches through the rest of the year. If they achieve this ambitious schedule, they will complete 51 launches in ’21, more than doubling their previous annual record of 25 set last year. With all other American companies added in, there will be a good chance the United States launch total could exceed 70, breaking the country’s own annual launch record set in 1966 at the height of the first space race.
The leaders in the 2021 launch race:
17 SpaceX
15 China
8 Russia
2 Rocket Lab
2 ULA
The U.S. now leads China 23 to 15 in the national rankings.
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.
I wonder if Falcon has enough throw to get to ISS in just a couple of orbits, like the Russians have done with Progress and Soyuz in the past.. I assume such a mission would have to be done with an expendable booster.
Any rocket scientists out there than can answer?
I wonder if Falcon has enough throw to get to ISS in just a couple of orbits, like the Russians have done with Progress and Soyuz in the past.. I assume such a mission would have to be done with an expendable booster.
It’s not a matter of “throw.” It’s a matter of phasing. All the thrust in the world won’t get you there any faster if the ISS isn’t where it needs to be when you launch.
Liked ” . . . first space race.”
Klystron,
It isn’t so much the ability of the launch vehicle as it is the methods used for the rendezvous. Note that the booster had enough leftover propellant to make a boost back burn to land closer to the coast than when they don’t do a boost back burn. That propellant could have been used for more throw. Also note that this launch occurred on time, so mkent’s phasing reference could have been closer to the ISS for a faster rendezvous. It was a conscious choice to have a day and a half approach.
There may be a time in the future when these other spacecraft rendezvous faster. For now, they spend some amount of time in safer orbits, a bit farther away from the ISS.
This has been without west coast launches. They are prepping Vandenburg site for regular starlink. So long as Viasat does not succeed in blocking the next layer of Starlink cadence should increase even more.