SpaceX successfully launches cargo Dragon to ISS
Capitalism in space: SpaceX tonight successfully used its Falcon 9 rocket to launch cargo Dragon to ISS.
The first stage completed its fourth flight, landing successfully on the drone ship in the Atlantic. The cargo Dragon is making its second cargo mission for NASA. It will dock tomorrow.
This was SpaceX’s first launch since June 30th, a gap of almost two months as they initiated operations of a new drone ship in the Atlantic and shifted an older drone ship to the Pacific. In the next few weeks expect their fast launch pace for ’21 to resume, with at least one Starlink launch and the September 15th Inspiration4 commercial manned orbital flight.
The leaders in the 2021 launch race:
29 China
21 SpaceX
13 Russia
4 Northrop Grumman
The U.S. now leads China 32 to 29 in the national rankings.
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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to 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.
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Capitalism in space: SpaceX tonight successfully used its Falcon 9 rocket to launch cargo Dragon to ISS.
The first stage completed its fourth flight, landing successfully on the drone ship in the Atlantic. The cargo Dragon is making its second cargo mission for NASA. It will dock tomorrow.
This was SpaceX’s first launch since June 30th, a gap of almost two months as they initiated operations of a new drone ship in the Atlantic and shifted an older drone ship to the Pacific. In the next few weeks expect their fast launch pace for ’21 to resume, with at least one Starlink launch and the September 15th Inspiration4 commercial manned orbital flight.
The leaders in the 2021 launch race:
29 China
21 SpaceX
13 Russia
4 Northrop Grumman
The U.S. now leads China 32 to 29 in the national rankings.
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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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 if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Worth mentioning that the ASDS they landed on, was the new one, A Shortfall Of Gravitas.
If only for the barge naming, you have to love SpaceX.
I think we are close to that 7O mark.
Anyone knows why the Cargo Dragon’s trunk was empty? Don’t they have replacement solar panels to hoist up?
V-Man,
COVID delays is what I read, an official NASA statement.
I liked the webcasts better when SpaceX did them with no NASA people appearing.
I liked the SpaceX webcasts hosted by engineer Kate Tice! Hell, I could watch her read the telephone book for hours!
Ps. This is one website where I shouldn’t have to explain what a telephone book is…. er, was!
I dunno … naming a recovery ship for a space vehicle “A Shortfall of Gravitas” smacks of using the word “fire” in the name of a battery pack … both are not necessarily ideas you want your customers to have in mind.
@Jester – And Just Read the Instructions is better? It is a pretty funny name.
I’m sorry…
This is the wrong place to post this, but a Breaking story that’s going to bring trillions to the military industrial complex… congressman and possibly 6 bus loads of women refused entrance into the airport in Afghanistan are presumed dead now.
https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/7-buses-of-american-women-likely-dead-now/
Military admits to giving our partners, the Taliban, a list of people they unmasked to let into the airport… has been used for a kill list and bribes and Ransoms is being paid by the pallet.
This incompetence of this administration is leading to a change of government possibly to a parliamentary system.
The sustainable development dark age is winning, all the marbles are now on the table.
Still unable to confirm, News articles that I look up are being updated.
“Students and alumni of the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) in Kabul were left terrified after being told the U.S. had given their names to the Taliban, according to a report by The New York Times.”
“Hundreds of current and former students, their relatives and staff had gathered at a safe house on Sunday before boarding buses to Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport”
“But they were told after seven hours of waiting for clearance that the airport gates were a security threat”
“The email told the group of 600 or so students and relatives to return to their homes.”
https://www.newsweek.com/terrified-american-university-students-kabul-told-us-gave-names-taliban-1624158
Unconfirmed what happened, the buses never made it home.
There are going to be lots of stories and rumors, but killing busloads of US female citizens is unlikely.
Reliable reporting will be a big challenge, but I’m sure that Facebook, Google and Twitter will make sure that we have news that has been approved for public consumption.
When I saw the title of this 10 minute video I thought “oh gawd, Elon’s smoking pot again”:
Elon Musk’s Last Warning on Artificial Intelligence: “I Tried To Warn You”
https://www.disclose.tv/t/elon-musks-last-warning-on-artificial-intelligence-i-tried-to-warn-you/43129
But it is a thoughtful piece. At 2:22 he says “The danger is going to be more humans using it (AI) against each other”. And he spends time ruminating about how man will derive purpose when he no longer needs to work because machines can produce everything much faster.
I used to listen to Michael Medved on AM radio back before he went Trump Derangement Syndrome and he points out how throughout history when technology causes an occupation to become obsolete the technology opens up whole new job possibilities.
In that 3 part interview Elon did a few weeks ago at SpaceX Boca Chica at the very end the interviewer asked Elon if he had anything to add. Almost in a panicked fear that was relentlessly driving him Elon talked about humanity’s need to be an interplanetary species for survival. I wondered what he was afraid of, it looks like it’s AI.
Personally I’ll start worrying about a machine apocalypse the day the vending machine at work starts consistently dropping a bag of Doritos when I put my money in.
The real fear is that mankind’s majority will work hard at making sure machines take over ALL the physical work of man.
Oh they think its to free mankind up for more thinking jobs and to be more creative.
How many trust fund children have impacted mankind, or at least made contributions to humanity?
Do more welfare families create more crewel families or do they create more collage graduates?
More robots doing all the physical work will only make more welfare families. thus making more people more dependent on government handouts.
He who controls the means of production controls the people.
No one will ever control my physical means of production.
The company I retired from was very heavy into the “manpower reduction” aspect of any project! Any new machinery we requested had to be justified and have a reasonable “payback”! One area that was mandatory was “headcount reduction”! Any new equipment had to make the process faster and better so it should result in fewer employees! I’m sure the CEO would have been thrilled if she could have eliminated EVERYONE from the plant. We did ours in a way to BOOST output that would REQUIRE those employees to remain in another capacity to SUPPORT the increased productivity! I suggested to some “higher ups” that what we need to realize is that the containers we sell are used to contain the crap that our employees purchase and if they don’t have jobs then they can’t purchase said crap and if they don’t purchase said crap then the suppliers would no longer need our containers to contain said crap and then more of us would be out of a job! Some people just don’t understand how the world works!!
BLSinSC wrote: “Some people just don’t understand how the world works!!”
A hundred years ago, some people did understand how it works. Henry Ford was one of them. He, and others, realized that they needed to pay their employees as much as they could so that their own employees could afford to buy the products that they made. Finding that balance was not easy, but it ultimately worked.
Yeah, Ford has some good ideas. Too bad he was a flaming anti Semite.
The money churn is what makes a strong economy.
pzatchok wrote: “The money churn is what makes a strong economy.”
Incorrect. We could sit here all day passing hundred dollar bills back and forth but would not add to the economy. It is the production and sale of goods and services that makes a strong economy. Only those who are involved in that production or those transactions are adding to the economy. Those who only make purchases participate, but they do not produce anything that adds to the economy, so those who spend money granted to them by the government, for example, are draining resources without adding them back.
Sort of Edward
As long as the government does not issue more money than it needs to represent the labor being done. Money represents the value of labor.
As long as the government only spends as much as it takes in in taxes we are fine. Even if they “spend” that money by handing it off to welfare recipients.
What harms the churn is when money is spent outside the nation and doesn’t come back to buy our goods.
Or if the nation taxes to high and spends the money wrongly trying to turn the economy into directions it does not naturally go. Like green power solutions.
pzatchok wrote: “As long as the government only spends as much as it takes in in taxes we are fine.”
Unless government takes in too much. If they tax 100% of our income then we are not fine.
“Even if they “spend” that money by handing it off to welfare recipients.”
The welfare recipients do not produce, so they are merely a drag on the economy. They spend the money that the rest of us would have spent, and if they had earned their money, then we all would have more goods and services to spend our money on, and less would be spent outside the nation to make up for their lack of productivity.
“Money represents the value of labor.”
This is where most people lose their way. They mistake the map for the territory. The representation is not the reality. When money goes to people on welfare who are using this safety net as a hammock, then the money represents Other People’s Labor. People who could otherwise be productive instead drain us of our prosperity. If Welfare recipients had instead earned the money that they receive from the government then there would have been two dollars spent for every one welfare dollar spent and there would have been more domestic goods and services to spend them on, maybe even enough to spare for foreign customers, giving us a national net income from our labor. In addition, taxes would be lower and overall happiness would be higher. In addition, those who are on welfare — poor by definition — would have their own money and more of it; they would be richer as well as more prosperous along with the rest of us. Meaning less envy of the middle class or of the rich.
It is not “sort of,” it is exact. If you don’t produce goods and services, you don’t have an economy.
Annnnnd that ties neatly back to a recent quote from Elon on the subject: “If you don’t make stuff… there’s no stuff.”