Spaceship Lands at San Francisco Airport
The future is here: Spaceship lands at San Francisco airport. And yes, that is an accurate headline!
Tag: capitalism
SpaceX Unveils Plan for World’s Most Powerful Private Rocket
SpaceX unveils its plan for the Falcon 9 Heavy, what would be the world’s most powerful private rocket.
The new rocket will be able to carry about 117,000 pounds (53,000 kilograms) of cargo to orbit – about twice the payload-carrying capability of the space shuttle. The Falcon Heavy would launch more than twice as much weight as the Delta 4 heavy, currently the most powerful rocket in operation. Only NASA’s Saturn 5 moon rocket, which last launched in 1973, could carry more cargo to orbit, SpaceX officials said.
Musk said the rocket should lower the launch cost of cargo to about $1,000 per pound, about one-tenth the cost per pound on NASA shuttle launches.
Russia Speeds Up Moon, Mars Plans as U.S. May Cut Spending
Russia is accelerating its space program.
“It is the first time that the government has allocated decent financing to us,” Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, said in a phone interview on April 2. The agency’s $3.5 billion budget for 2011 has almost tripled since 2007, reaching the highest since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. “We can now advance on all themes a bit,” Perminov said.
Unlike 50 years ago, when beating the U.S. into space marked a geopolitical victory in the Cold War, Russia is focusing on the commercial, technological and scientific aspects of space travel. President Dmitry Medvedev has named aerospace one of five industries the government plans to nurture to help diversify the economy of the world’s largest energy supplier away from resource extraction.
For Some Entrepreneurs, Moon Is Money
Software engineers to the Moon!
Crazy? Absolutely! Impossible? Probably not! There are a growing number of people who believe that with federal funding for our space program getting scarce, the future lies in private-public partnerships. Entrepreneur Elon Musk’s third job (after leading electric car company Tesla and acting as the Chairman of solar installer SolarCity) is heading up SpaceX, which was the first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a rocketship. Virgin’s Richard Branson has a similar private space venture.
Southwest cancels 300 flights to inspect planes after fuselage cracks open on Sacramento-bound flight
Yow! Southwest cancels 300 flights to inspect its planes after the fuselage cracks open on a Sacramento-bound flight.
Soyuz launch site in French Guiana finally ready
After seven years of work, the Soyuz launch site in French Guiana is finally ready for its first launch.
Dreamliner: a nightmare for Boeing
Dreamliner: a nightmare for Boeing.
Send the space-bureaucrats to Mars
No Vision = No Innovation
An critique of NASA: No vision equals no innovation.
That NASA (and our government) lacks vision is not necessarily a bad thing. For the first time in decades, this is leaving room for new and independent companies to move in and fill the vacuum left by NASA. In the end, I think we will be far better off.
Orbital Science facility at Wallops opens
The spaceport at Wallops Island, Maryland has unveiled its rocket assembly building to be used by Orbital Sciences in launching cargo to ISS.
Chavez says capitalism may have ended life on Mars
You can’t make this stuff up: The socialist leader of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, said today that he thinks capitalism is to blame for the lack of life on Mars.
Mining and jobs versus radio astronomy
Mining and jobs versus radio astronomy.