Tzvi Erez – Chopin Nocturne Opus 55 #1 in F minor
An evening pause: Recorded live 2003.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
Tag: commercial
Billy Preston – Nothing from Nothing
An evening pause: Performed during a Ringo Starr concert in Japan, 1995.
Hat tip Danae.
New York shuts down 7-year-old’s lemonade stand
Fascist New York: Because of complaints by commercial vendors, New York bureaucrats moved to shut down a 7-year-old’s lemonade stand.
Soon-to-be second-grader Brendan Mulvaney ran afoul of government regulators last Friday when vendors at the Saratoga County Fair in upstate Ballston Spa whined to a state health inspector that he had no permit to sell refreshments from his family’s front deck just outside the fairgrounds.
Being just a kid, he was also undercutting their pricey drinks by nearly 90 percent, selling lemonade for just 75 cents — a significant discount from the $7 cups inside the fair. He also peddled $1 snow cones and bottled waters. The vendors griped to a state health inspector doing a routine inspection of the fair, and his next visit was to the Mulvaneys’ home. He promptly ordered the stand shut down, leaving the family shocked.
Note that the stand is on the family’s porch, on private property. The boy has has also been operating it for three years, with no problems.
Essentially, the local vendors used the government as a hammer to smash the competition, even if it was something as innocuous as a child’s lemonade stand. And New York, being a fascist state run by fascist Democrats, immediately moved to do the bidding of those vendors.
The government, embarrassed by this, is now trying to fix it, but they still claim that a permit is required for the stand. How nice of them! In modern New York, no one is allowed to start a business without government permission!
NASA safety panel reviews commercial crew, tries to justify its paperwork demands
Link here. The article describes the results from the quarterly meeting of NASA’s safety panel, which occurred last week, including its concerns about the recent test problems during a launch abort test of Boeing’s Starliner capsule. It also describes the panel’s general satisfaction at the status of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule.
The article however ends with a long screed by one panel member, explaining that the heavy paperwork requirements they are imposing on the two companies is not really paperwork.
“It needs to be noted by everyone, and we’re especially interested in making sure that all of the external stakeholders realize this, that while the concluding process of certification has sometimes been described as a paper process, that is really just a shorthand clarification and in reality it could not be further from the truth,” noted Dr. McErlean.
In reality, the process is as follows. “In a certified design, the design agent – the contractor or partner in this case – performs the design and in the certification plan, the design agent and the certification agency (NASA) agree on the submittal of certification evidence.
“This could be measurements, it can be test data, it can be analysis, but it almost always involves the submittal of detailed technical data, not simply paper descriptions or forms. Sometimes it involves witness testing and sometimes it involves physical inspection. But it almost always wraps around important technical submittals.
Can I translate? The safety panel requires a lot of testing so that a lot of paperwork can be filled out. And while much of this testing is likely to help make the capsule’s safer, most of it seems to me to be make-work, and designed to justify the existence of NASA and its safety panel.
NASA rubberstamps Russian engines in Atlas 5 for manned flights
Surprise surprise! NASA has certified the Russian engines used in the Atlas 5 as safe for manned flights.
NASA had been claiming that, because it cannot observe every detail in how Russia builds the engines, it cannot certify them as safe for manned flight. This is, and has been, crap. The Atlas 5, with this engine, has been one of the most reliable rockets ever built.
In truth, what NASA’s bureaucracy was really doing was using these Russian engines as a wedge to slow down Boeing’s first manned flight, mainly because the commercial crew program is threatening NASA past monopoly on U.S. manned flight. Once privately built rockets and manned spacecraft fly, people are suddenly going to realize we don’t really need NASA.
Dale Watson – Texas Armadillo
An evening pause: As we sit in the depths of the summer, this song about of all things roadkill somehow seems fitting to me.
Hat tip Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas.
Watch SpaceX retract one leg from used Block 5 booster
For geeks only! The video below the fold shows the new equipment that SpaceX has developed to retract the open legs of a used Block 5 booster. This video shows them attaching the booster in a secure vertical position, then attaching cables to the base of the first leg which are then used to retract it back into its launch position against the side of the booster. The design is quite clever.
The design also shows how primitive the art of reusable rockets remains. Though SpaceX has clearly succeeded in simplifying and automating this process, it remains slow and complex. In time this will get easier, but right now, this remains state of the art.
Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
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China successfully launches two GPS satellites
China today successfully launched two more GPS satellites, using its Long March 3B rocket.
The leaders in the 2018 launch standings:
21 China
14 SpaceX
8 Russia
5 ULA
4 Japan
4 Europe
With this launch China regains its lead over the U.S. in the national rankings, 21 launches to 20.
First Block 5 1st stage reflight
Capitalism in space: It appears that SpaceX is planning to do its first reflight of a used Block 5 booster on August 4.
This will be SpaceX’s third Falcon 9 Block 5 launch in less than two weeks if the schedule holds. More important than the schedule, perhaps, is the fact that it would appear that SpaceX intends to reuse the first Block 5 booster (B1046) for this particular launch. To lay out the foundation of this claim, it’s known that SpaceX’s CCAFS Pad 40 integration facilities are only capable of fitting one booster and the strongback (transporter/erector/launcher, TEL) at a time, evidenced both by sourced comments and views inside the hangar.
Meanwhile, an unmistakeable Block 5 booster – with black interstage and octaweb coverings – was spotted being transported through Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) earlier this week, just after Falcon 9 B1047 launched (July 21 EDT) and freed up space for another booster inside the horizontal integration facility (HIF) at Pad 40. Given that only one Block 5 booster has been recovered on the East Coast and that B1047 was still out at sea earlier this week, the sooty booster traveling through CCAFS thus has to have been B1046, and it was making a beeline for LC-40.
SpaceX is once again demonstrating why they have taken over the global launch industry. They are proving that they will be able to routinely reuse a relatively small number of first stage boosters, frequently, and cheaply.
CORRECTION: I initially wrote this post under the mistaken impression that the booster being reflown was going to do so after only fourteen days. This was wrong. The booster was flown two months ago, in May.
Verdi’s Il Trovatore – Anvil Chorus
An evening pause: I know very little about opera, having never been much of a fan, but I must admit that the old woman’s song here is most intriguing, and seems to lay the foundation for a good tale.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Celebrating Milton Friedman’s birthday today
Link here. He would have been 106 today, and was probably one of the more important, and sadly rare, pro-freedom economists of the 20th century.
The link has some excellent videos of Friedman, all worth watching.
This however continues to be my favorite Friedman quote:
David Gilmour & Richard Wright – Comfortably Numb
An evening pause: Performed live in Poland, 2006.
Hat tip Danae.
Virgin Galactic’s Unity successfully completes powered test flight
Capitalism in space: Virgin Galactic’s Unity spacecraft today successfully completed its third powered test flight, reaching an altitude of 170,800 feet, or about 32 miles.
Though this is a record flight for any of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwos, this elevation is still about half that reached by Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital capsule, and is considerably below the presently accepted international definition for space, which is 100 kilometers, or about 62 miles. It is getting close to the line accepted by the U.S. Air Force, 50 miles, and now being pushed by some as a better line for the beginnings of space.
Regardless, this success is good news for Virgin Galactic, as it indicates they might finally be getting close to commercial flights, after fourteen years of development.
House committee approves new space weather bill
The House Science Committee yesterday approved new space weather bill that would shift responsibility for coordinating the government’s space weather observation capabilities to the National Space Council, while also creating a pilot commercial program for launch weather satellites.
It appears there was some heavy political maneuvering involved with this bill, as there was a late switch of language that changed its focus.
The new text has a strong focus on the private sector. In the policy section, for example, it explicitly states that “space weather observation and forecasting are not exclusive functions of the Federal Government” and the government “should, as practicable, obtain space weather data and services through contracts with the commercial sector, when the data and services are available, cost-effective, and add value.” The bill requires the Secretary of Commerce to establish a pilot program for obtaining space weather data from the private sector that appears analogous to NOAA’s commercial weather data pilot program.
The Senate will still have to review and approve this new bill.
Changes to big August 3 commercial crew announcement do not bode well
On August 3 NASA is planning on making a big announcement concerning its commercial crew program. Yesterday the agency revealed that the NASA administrator, Jim Bridenstine, will reveal the names of the crew for the first commercial crew flight.
The changes in how that announcement will be made however suggest that they had hoped to make a bigger announcement and have been forced to back off. Initially, vice president Mike Pence was to have made the announcement. He has now canceled his participation. Also, there had previously been rumors that the announcement would have included the launch dates for both SpaceX’s and Boeing’s first flights. That the new press release makes no mention of dates suggests the dates have been delayed.
I hope I am wrong.
Tom Rush – Making the best of a bad situation
An evening pause: I think we all would benefit, especially America’s Democrats, if we took this song as some solid advice.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
NASA delays launch of Parker Solar probe, again
For the second time NASA has delayed the launch of the Parker Solar probe due to issues related to the Delta IV Heavy rocket.
The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy was originally scheduled to launch the Parker Solar Probe on Aug. 4, before what NASA described as “a minor tubing leak” was discovered at the processing facility in Titusville. The launch slipped to Aug. 6 and now NASA and its mission partners are targeting Aug. 11 for a 45-minute launch window at 3:48 a.m. from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The latest delay comes after “a small strip of foam was found inside the (spacecraft) fairing,” during final inspections after the spacecraft was encapsulated in the Delta IV Heavy nose cone, according to NASA.
The launch window closes on August 19, so there better not be many more problems.
SpaceX and Arianespace both launch multiple satellites
Capitalism in space: SpaceX and Arianespace both had successful early morning commercial launches today.
- SpaceX launches 10 satellites from Vandenberg Air Force Base; rocket stage recovered
- Ariane 5 launches from French Guiana
The Ariane 5 delivered 4 Galileo GPS satellites, while SpaceX placed in orbit 10 Iridium communications satellites. SpaceX also successfully recovered the first stage.
The leaders in the 2018 launch standings:
20 China
14 SpaceX
8 Russia
5 ULA
4 Japan
4 Arianespace
In the national rankings, the U.S. and China are once again tied, now at 20-20.
Paco De Lucia, Al Di Meola & John McLaughlin – Mediterranean Sun Dance
An evening pause: Hat tip Mike Nelson.
A Chinese skyscraper with a waterfall
Link here. The builders literally included a 350 foot high waterfall that exits the skyscraper and falls down the building’s side.
A spokesperson for the property, Mr Cheng, told Kan Kan News that the main water source is from recycled tap water, rain water or from other channels. ‘Our building has a four-storey underground water storage and drainage system, from which the water is pumped and recycled,’ Mr Cheng said.
The electricity bill for just one hour of operation is a whopping 800 yuan (£89), he added. ‘That’s why we don’t switch on the waterfall every day – only for special festivities in the city,’ he said. And each time, the waterfall is set to run for only about 10 to 20 minutes to save electricity.
Architects for skyscrapers are getting increasingly creative. They have added trees, vines, greenery everywhere. A waterfall, however, is really clever, though I’m not sure how practical this will be, in the long run. Water falling that distance can do a lot of damage over time.