SpaceX successfully launches four astronauts to ISS
Capitalism in space: SpaceX tonight successfully launched four astronauts to ISS on its Dragon capsule Resilience, using its Falcon 9 rocket.
They also recovered the first stage, landing it on its drone ship in the Atlantic. The routine manner in which SpaceX ran this launch is truly admirable. They make landing and reuse of the first stage so expected it is hard to believe that for fifty years rocket managers and engineers insisted it wasn’t doable.
They had one issue today, a failure of the capsule hatch to hold air pressure after closure. They calmly reopened the hatch, cleared the issue, added some lubricant, and closed the hatch, all in less than ten minutes.
Resilience will dock with ISS tomorrow evening.
The leaders in the 2020 launch race:
30 China
20 SpaceX
5 ULA
4 Europe (Arianespace)
4 Rocket Lab
The U.S. now leads China 32 to 30 in the national rankings.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Capitalism in space: SpaceX tonight successfully launched four astronauts to ISS on its Dragon capsule Resilience, using its Falcon 9 rocket.
They also recovered the first stage, landing it on its drone ship in the Atlantic. The routine manner in which SpaceX ran this launch is truly admirable. They make landing and reuse of the first stage so expected it is hard to believe that for fifty years rocket managers and engineers insisted it wasn’t doable.
They had one issue today, a failure of the capsule hatch to hold air pressure after closure. They calmly reopened the hatch, cleared the issue, added some lubricant, and closed the hatch, all in less than ten minutes.
Resilience will dock with ISS tomorrow evening.
The leaders in the 2020 launch race:
30 China
20 SpaceX
5 ULA
4 Europe (Arianespace)
4 Rocket Lab
The U.S. now leads China 32 to 30 in the national rankings.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
We’re definitely living in the Future….This never becomes not-amazing!
——-
-switching thought-tracts here;
A very nicely done piece of film–
“Riding the Booster: Up and Down in 400 seconds”
NASA 2012
https://youtu.be/527fb3-UZGo
8:31
-> “From launch to landing, a *space shuttle’s* solid rocket booster journey is captured, with sound mixed and enhanced by Skywalker Sound.”
Small point:
You wrote – “Resilience will dock with ISS tomorrow morning.”
Actually, it is a 27 hour trip to station.
“The four-person team is heading for a nearly six-month expedition on the space station, where the Dragon spaceship is due to dock at 11 p.m. EST Monday (0400 GMT Tuesday).” (spaceflightnow.com)
With NASA a loss of excitement and dread lead to routine and loss of funding.
With Elon a loss of disaster fans and dread leads to greater profitability.
Jeff: You are correct. I got my am and pm switched. Post is corrected. Thank you.
wayne noted: “We’re definitely living in the Future….This never becomes not-amazing!”
If Starship works as intended, we will be living even further into the future.
As Yakov Smirnoff would say: “What a country!”
David wrote: “With NASA a loss of excitement and dread lead to routine and loss of funding.
“With Elon a loss of disaster fans and dread leads to greater profitability.”
That is an important difference.
With NASA, funding from Congress is important, and that tends to require public interest.
With SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and other commercial companies, the funding comes from customers, and that tends to require lower prices.
These lower prices are allowing SpaceX and Rocket Lab to take a large portion of the market share of each of their niches, and Rocket Lab is helping to grow its own niche. Commercial companies with commercial customers do not need excitement, and they can afford to be routine. However, excitement seems to help.
As a bonus, the flying of members of the public, in the near future, can lead to public interest and excitement, which could add to the number of customers.