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.
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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.
Please consider donating to Behind the Black, by giving either a one-time contribution or a regular subscription, as outlined in the tip jar below. Your support will allow me to continue covering science and culture as I have for the past twenty years, independent and free from any outside influence.
Regular readers can support Behind The Black with a contribution via Patreon or PayPal. To use Patreon, go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. For PayPal click one of the following buttons:
If Patreon or Paypal don't work for you, you can support Behind The Black directly by sending your donation by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman, to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
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.