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.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. The ebook can also be purchased direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $5.00). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
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.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. The ebook can also be purchased direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $5.00). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
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.