Ace of Spades HQ

May 26, 2012

Awesome: First Commercial Space Capsule Docks With International Space Station
— Ace

Little kids' imaginations were not really about NASA.

They were always about the next step: When spaceflight was so common it became a commercial venture.

A new first was achieved today (May 26) when astronauts on the International Space Station opened the door to their newest spacecraft visitor, the private capsule Dragon.

It's slightly mad to build a private spacecraft simply to prove you can do so.

But it's such madnesses that advance the world into new directions.

The Wright Brothers were mad, too. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were kind of mad hobbyists -- who the hell really needs a computer at home?

Crazy stuff, and it will never, ever find any sort of traction in society, except for some nutty people who want to jerk around with it as a hobby.

Except... that's not what happened.

Now I think that spaceflight is even more crazy than those two things, but then, it's not the guy who says "What's the point? Let's not do anything" who winds up in the history books.

Video of the moment -- which I think is actually more important than the moon landing -- at Hot Air.

Posted by: Ace at 02:57 PM | Comments (86)
Post contains 219 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Obama is a stuttering clusterf*ck of a miserable failure.

Posted by: steevy at May 26, 2012 03:00 PM (7W3wI)

2 SALVAGE ONE with Andy Griffith! Good cracker!

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at May 26, 2012 03:01 PM (MCDCp)

C'mere -

Hold my beer...

I want to try something.

Posted by: garrett at May 26, 2012 03:05 PM (/5zk0)

4 If it fills a need, someone can make money at it. If someone can make money at it, someone will invent it. This is so cool.

Posted by: Mindy at May 26, 2012 03:05 PM (AbQVy)

5 Congratulations to the folks at SpaceX.

Posted by: CanaDave at May 26, 2012 03:06 PM (BdTXW)

Video of the moment -- which I think is actually more important than the moon landing

Says the middle aged man in Battlestar Galactica Underoos.

Posted by: garrett at May 26, 2012 03:08 PM (/5zk0)

7 "which I think is actually more important than the moon landing"

What?

Posted by: lowandslow at May 26, 2012 03:09 PM (GZitp)

8 How long until private space missions are banned? Now that they have a success the left will be trying to shut it down. For the enviroment, or something similar.

Other than that, good job. Realistically, NASA could only point the way these days. Thanks to barky spending all the income for the next decade on social crap there will be no further space exploration on the national scale I think.

Posted by: Deathknyte at May 26, 2012 03:09 PM (zB313)

9 Get these guys working on the flying car I was promised PRONTO!

Posted by: Andy at May 26, 2012 03:09 PM (XG+Mn)

10 One small step for a man... Thank you for correcting the quote. That's what he MEANT to say. It's slightly mad to build a private spacecraft simply to prove you can do so. But it's such madnesses that advance the world into new directions. I can quibble with the design. (that follows) but the damn thing WORKS - later versions can work better. Quibbling. 9 engines (and later, 27) on the first stage is Too Damn Many. More parts = More things that can break. Presumably, if they make money at this, they'll be a demand for bigger engines which will lead to more reliable boosters. Now let's get an Orion drive spaceship. Build a big one - it only has to work once (toleave Earth, that is)

Posted by: Comrade Arthur at May 26, 2012 03:11 PM (dAYnm)

"which I think is actually more important than the moon landing"

I think something you have to fake is more important than something you can actually do.

Posted by: garrett at May 26, 2012 03:11 PM (/5zk0)

12 Posted by: Andy at May 26, 2012 07:09 PM (XG+Mn) I want the George Jetson model that folds up in a briefcase.

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at May 26, 2012 03:11 PM (MCDCp)

Now the Obama Adminsitration will require SpaceX to demonstrate yearly progress on diversity mandates, Muslim outreach, and technology-sharing with China.

New space access taxes coming.

And the X is clearly racist, like a burning cross. DOJ lawsuit will address that.

Posted by: Wm T Sherman at May 26, 2012 03:11 PM (8hBZi)

14 This was great news for everybody interested in seeing the USA advance in space flight. Here on Merritt Island - Cocoa Beach it was really great news.

LetÂ’s hope for a manned Dragon capsule soon.

Â“Yaw, there vill be a vindow in the capsule.Â”

Â“ItÂ’s not a capsule - itÂ’s a Space Craft.Â”

Â“Sigh - spacekraftÂ”.

Posted by: Mike in CFL at May 26, 2012 03:12 PM (motsG)

15 That must've been one big-ass Estes D engine to get that thing off the ground.

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at May 26, 2012 03:13 PM (MCDCp)

16 Does this mean we don't have to rely on the Russkies and their Soyuz Roman Candles anymore?

Posted by: Picky at May 26, 2012 03:13 PM (h1f+g)

17 NASA: Need Another Sharia Administration

Posted by: Underground Vulgarian at May 26, 2012 03:14 PM (oipCQ)

18 The real question is:
What can Obama do to fuck it up?
You know this weighs heavily on his mind.

Posted by: Clutch Cargo at May 26, 2012 03:14 PM (Qxdfp)

19 18 Does this mean we don't have to rely on the Russkies and their Soyuz Roman Candles anymore? Posted by: Picky at May 26, 2012 07:13 PM (h1f+g) No. We still can't move people.

Posted by: Underground Vulgarian at May 26, 2012 03:14 PM (oipCQ)

20 "This represents the end of Big Science being funded by Big Government."

Except for, you know, the hundreds of millions of dollars of grant money that the feds poured into SpaceX.

It's a triumph of free enterprise! The heavily governmentally subsidized form of "free enterprise", that is.

I'll applaud when the first completely privately funded spacecraft gets to orbit and back with human passengers. Not before.

Posted by: torquewrench at May 26, 2012 03:15 PM (ymG7s)

21 I actually had a few relatives who survived working as slave laborers at Nordhausen, building V-2's and Buzz Bombs. Thank you Von Braun. Not.

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at May 26, 2012 03:15 PM (MCDCp)

22 Get these guys working on the flying car I was promised PRONTO!

Andy, it's called the Terrafugia, and they cost a quarter mil a piece. Welcome to the future.

Posted by: Picky at May 26, 2012 03:16 PM (h1f+g)

23 Unless the SpaceX capsule has capabilities that haven't been made public yet.

Posted by: Underground Vulgarian at May 26, 2012 03:16 PM (oipCQ)

"New space access taxes coming. "

-------------------------------------------------------------

Just wait, the Dems are going to want to sign a 'Law Of Space Treaty' and hand it all over to the U.N.

Posted by: CanaDave at May 26, 2012 03:17 PM (BdTXW)

25 NASA....bringing the genius of Islam to the world.

*my late Cape Canaveral-working Grandpa spins in his grave*

Posted by: Jane D'oh at May 26, 2012 03:18 PM (UOM48)

26 The advantage of 9 engines is you only lose 1/9th the thrust if you lose an engine. And their thinking is, sooner or later, you WILL lose an engine.

There's also a higher probability of losing a higher thrust engine.

Posted by: xbradtc at May 26, 2012 03:18 PM (LouEe)

27 Time fore Rutan to upscale Spaceship One. That design looked very promising.

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at May 26, 2012 03:23 PM (MCDCp)

28 It's slightly mad to build a private spacecraft simply to prove you can do so. But it's such madnesses that advance the world into new directions.

The next big advance for humankind won't be in AI or biomolecular engineering, or even in quantum entanglement. No, the next big advance will be in punkin chunkin. Sure, there are those who doubt its importance, but that's always true for those who dare to dream big.

Best of all, the US is the world leader in this area.

Posted by: pep at May 26, 2012 03:23 PM (6TB1Z)

29 The Solar System will be colonized by folks doing it for money and a new start in life. Eventually the humans who live up there will control everything. They have the physical advantage.

Posted by: eman at May 26, 2012 03:24 PM (XrDou)

30 memorial day virtual parade http://www.virtualbootsontheground.com/#map

Posted by: California at May 26, 2012 03:26 PM (LSTtP)

31 The day Americans set up a colony on another planet, plan on Chuckie Schumer to be feverishly figuring out a way to tax the hell out of them.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at May 26, 2012 03:27 PM (UOM48)

32 Grrrr......Tom Brokaw is ruining AMC's War Heroes Weekend for me. He can barely speak above a mumble. My stroke-suffering dad spoke more clearly.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at May 26, 2012 03:29 PM (UOM48)

33 Moon landing.

Bwahahahahahahaha

Posted by: Dr Spank, Parodist Emeritus at May 26, 2012 03:30 PM (Sh42X)

34 36 Moon landing. Bwahahahahahahaha Posted by: Dr Spank, Parodist Emeritus at May 26, 2012 07:30 PM (Sh42X) We like the moon http://www.rathergood.com/moon_song

Posted by: Spongmonkey at May 26, 2012 03:33 PM (oipCQ)

35 Batman is on MeTV. Shame is this week's villain played by Cliff Robertson.

Posted by: soothsayer at May 26, 2012 03:33 PM (LVtr+)

36 Excellent! Now that SpaceX has proven itself either lead, follow or get out of the fucking way.

Posted by: ErikW at May 26, 2012 03:35 PM (x1dvJ)

37 Except for, you know, the hundreds of millions of dollars of grant money that the feds poured into SpaceX.

Which summed to less than 1/10th the price that NASA, by its own admission, would have spent to do it.

Posted by: Waterhouse at May 26, 2012 03:35 PM (Ck5a1)

38 hmm, looks like Elon Musk is going all after the government gravy on this one. this may not be such a victory after all. Posted by: chemjeff at May 26, 2012 07:26 PM (7FadD) Not really. Musk put in over a billion and the Feds coughed up about a 300 million.

Posted by: eman at May 26, 2012 03:36 PM (XrDou)

39 Nobody get out of here alive

Posted by: SMOD at May 26, 2012 03:37 PM (O3R/2)

40 32 Hmm, so SpaceX is subsidized after all. Well, that sort of diminishes the luster a bit. hmm, looks like Elon Musk is going all after the government gravy on this one. this may not be such a victory after all. ------------------------------- Then again, didn't Columbus also have a gov't grant? If they got $$$ from the gov't to help their research, I guarantee that money was spent more efficiently than if it the whole thing had been a gov't-run program

Posted by: john1v6 at May 26, 2012 03:39 PM (P0EKw)

41 42 Nobody get out of here alive Posted by: SMOD at May 26, 2012 07:37 PM (O3R/2) Grammarmaggedon!

Posted by: Not Kelsey at May 26, 2012 03:40 PM (oipCQ)

42 SMOD must be a foreigner.

Posted by: Jimbo at May 26, 2012 03:41 PM (O3R/2)

"The day Americans set up a colony on another planet, plan on Chuckie Schumer to be feverishly figuring out a way to tax the hell out of them."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Then there'll be a Martian Tea Party and a War of Independence...

Posted by: CanaDave at May 26, 2012 03:41 PM (BdTXW)

44 32 Hmm, so SpaceX is subsidized after all. Well, that sort of diminishes the luster a bit. hmm, looks like Elon Musk is going all after the government gravy on this one. this may not be such a victory after all. Posted by: chemjeff at May 26, 2012 07:26 PM (7FadD) If the gov't is paying for a service it is using, how is that a subsidy as opposed to a payment?

Posted by: Not Kelsey at May 26, 2012 03:41 PM (oipCQ)

45 SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCK!

Posted by: Underground Vulgarian at May 26, 2012 03:42 PM (oipCQ)

I'll applaud when the first completely privately funded spacecraft gets to orbit and back with human passengers. Not before.<<<<

In case you missed the significance of this mission, and you did, the government is SpaceX's CUSTOMER. The customer ultimately foots the bill for ALL products and services. Why wouldn't you expect them to demand compensation from their customer for their goods, services and intellectual property?

They're humping our satellites and whatnot up to orbit because NASA can't anymore. And they're doing it cheaper and faster.

Fucking naysayers. You'd gripe at a blowjob from a thousand-dollar whore because "she didn't seem like she was REALLY into it."

Posted by: Empire of Jeff at May 26, 2012 03:46 PM (JDIKC)

47 I'm all favor of putting the first gay black commie fraud on th Moon.

Posted by: soothsayer at May 26, 2012 03:52 PM (vyPsz)

48 I thought acting was part of the job.

Posted by: Jimbo at May 26, 2012 03:52 PM (O3R/2)

How does this help muslim self-esteem?

/sarc

Posted by: CanaDave at May 26, 2012 03:52 PM (BdTXW)

50 Lost in Space is on in T-minus 1:00...

Posted by: soothsayer at May 26, 2012 03:59 PM (KreG+)

51 > 28 The advantage of 9 engines is you only lose 1/9th the thrust if you lose an engine. And their thinking is, sooner or later, you WILL lose an engine. There's also a higher probability of losing a higher thrust engine. Posted by: xbradtc If you lose one engine, you don't get where you're going. They don't have a 11% margin of error. Also, if you lose one engine IN FLIGHT you'll probably lose everything (boom) as the engine isn't going to quietly shut down.

Posted by: Comrade Arthur at May 26, 2012 03:59 PM (dAYnm)

52 > > 21 18 Does this mean we don't have to rely on the Russkies and their Soyuz Roman Candles anymore? Posted by: Picky at May 26, 2012 07:13 PM (h1f+g) > No. We still can't move people. Posted by: Underground Vulgarian The SpaceX CAN carry people* but it won't until it has quite a few consecutive successful flights (something like 9 or 10). Then it can be what they call "man-rated". *seven.

Posted by: Comrade Arthur at May 26, 2012 04:03 PM (dAYnm)

53 9 How long until private space missions are banned? Now that they have a success the left will be trying to shut it down. For the enviroment, or something similar. Posted by: Deathknyte at May 26, 2012 07:09 PM (zB313) Watch for a lame-duck Obama to sign something with the UN giving them some subtle but viral "in" to controlling space travel. We will have wars over access to space, it's almost inevitable, but only because some people are incapable of keeping their fat grubbies out of other people's shit.

Posted by: Merovign, Dark Lord of the Sith at May 26, 2012 04:04 PM (bxiXv)

54 Also I think part of the reason for the engines is because they're based on an older design, and NASA engineers are "conservative" like IRS IT people - if it doesn't have vacuum tubes, it's too new!

Posted by: Merovign, Dark Lord of the Sith at May 26, 2012 04:06 PM (bxiXv)

55 It is an amazing....incredible....astounding scientific and commercial feat. I am also interested in the loans made to Tesla and the corresponding dismantling of the Space Shuttle program just in time for SpaceX to ride in and save the day.

Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at May 26, 2012 04:08 PM (piMMO)

56
If you lose one engine, you don't get where you're going. They don't have a 11% margin of error. Also, if you lose one engine IN FLIGHT you'll probably lose everything (boom) as the engine isn't going to quietly shut down.

Umm, no. They have engine out abort to orbit all the way up. They bring up all engines to full power before the Falcon is released. They've several times demonstrated on pad shut downs for both Falcon 1 and 9. They can also turn around the system on the pad in hours instead of the usual NASA days/weeks. Liquids tend to have benign shut down characteristics (solids, not so much, which is one reason why the shuttle was soooo dangerous). And on top of all that, the Merlin engines in a Falcon 9 are shielded from each other to prevent fratricide.

One thing in favor of the 9 engine configuration is standardization. The Merlin 1C engines in the 1st stage are essentially the same (minus a bell change) with the engine on the 2nd stage. With multiple engines, it's also possible to throttle down by shutting down engines without having a deep throttle capability. That helps in keeping the g's down, if necessary.

Posted by: MichiCanuck at May 26, 2012 04:17 PM (i+PsO)

57 "hmm maybe there is a bit of a whiff of crony capitalism involved in this deal."

Unfortunately so.

Just as with Elon Musk's other venture, Tesla Motors. Another federal subsidy queen.

I really truly despise Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, but I have to admire the fact that what he has accomplished has been done with zero government handouts. Not so with Musk.

Posted by: torquewrench at May 26, 2012 04:26 PM (ymG7s)

58 I've been leaving comments and video links all over the place for the last few days. I'll try to see if I can find some of them. This is absolutely huge, and I've been looking forward to this flight since December 8, 2010. I got up at 3:00 AM on Tuesday to watch the launch, and took a vacation day on Friday to watch the capture and berthing (after getting two hours of sleep on Thursday to stay up most of the night to watch the flyunder). The noted space historian James Oberg said that Friday was one of the top ten days in the history of spaceflight.

Posted by: rickl at May 26, 2012 04:29 PM (sdi6R)

59 I've been practically living at NASASpaceflight.com for the past week. The SpaceX Party thread was epic, and stands at 82 pages of comments. http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28920.0

Posted by: rickl at May 26, 2012 04:38 PM (sdi6R)

60 Whoops, 85.

Posted by: rickl at May 26, 2012 04:39 PM (sdi6R)

61 I really truly despise Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, but I have to admire the fact that what he has accomplished has been done with zero government handouts. Not so with Musk. Posted by: torquewrench at May 26, 2012 08:26 PM (ymG7s) I get the feeling FB *is* going to take a big hit on the stock deal (in court) and Zuckerberg on taxes (some how, some way), precisely for that reason and why so many crony companies get away with it - he didn't ingratiate himself to the power brokers and take their money-with-strings. Would not be the first time. I wish we could get the real deal on stuff like Gibson guitars and Solyndra and the others. If only we had some tradition of businesses that specialized in finding that kind of thing out and letting the people paying for it know. I know, crazy talk. I was thinking of calling it "reporting," but I looked it up and that name is taken by something entirely different.

Posted by: Merovign, Dark Lord of the Sith at May 26, 2012 04:45 PM (bxiXv)

62 From Tuesday morning: Here is the SpaceX webcast. Listen for the wild cheering that erupts when the solar arrays deployed. That gave me goosebumps. Those are the employees watching at company headquarters/Mission Control in Hawthorne, CA. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2_49KPj9jE&feature=player_embedded That's how I watched the launch live. Actually, the cheering literally brought tears to my eyes, and still does every time I watch this video.

Posted by: rickl at May 26, 2012 05:01 PM (sdi6R)

63 And their thinking is, sooner or later, you WILL lose an engine.

I think there were a couple shuttle launches that had a SSME shutdown late in the boost phase. At some point, you're far enough along that the ascent could proceed by doing longer burns on the remaining engines.

Posted by: Purp (@PurpAv) at May 26, 2012 05:06 PM (lD69Q)

64 29 Time fore Rutan to upscale Spaceship One. That design looked very promising Recommend remedial Physics 101.

Posted by: Sherlock at May 26, 2012 05:11 PM (f29LO)

65 Tell me, Space Marine, how long before the SpaceX aerospace corporation unionizes and begins performing secret experiments with teleportation?

Posted by: Fritz at May 26, 2012 05:23 PM (ZN5qR)

66 Here's my comment from Wednesday morning. It had a couple of links: 68 Dragon begins Flight Day 2 with no problems that I'm aware of. It will spend Wednesday and Thursday making a series of maneuvers to test approaches to the ISS, and aborts and retreats. Once NASA is satisfied that it can maneuver safely, it will be given the go-ahead to berth with the station on Friday morning. A timeline of events is here: http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/ home/spacenews/files/spacex_cots2_timeline.html Some of those abbreviations are explained in the press kit available here: http://www.spacex.com/downloads/COTS-2-Press-Kit-5-14-12.pdf The timeline is old news now, but the PDF is a keeper.

Posted by: rickl at May 26, 2012 05:30 PM (sdi6R)

67 My comment from Friday morning: 35 And the big story today is Dragon's approach to the International Space Station. I've been watching it live on NASA TV. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html SpaceX will begin their own webcast in about 10 minutes. http://new.livestream.com/spacex/Berthing I took a vacation day to watch this. Dragon has been performing beautifully on this mission so far. It's a brand-new spacecraft on a very complex mission. It has to meet a variety of milestones and perform various maneuvers on command before NASA considers it safe enough to allow it close to the ISS. I know I've also made some comments on the various ONTs, but it's hard trying to find them.

Posted by: rickl at May 26, 2012 05:43 PM (sdi6R)

THIS SCARES THE EVER LOVING SHIT OUT OF ME!!!!

Why? Ok...think about this. Five...ten years down the road, China buys the commercial companies pursuing the space programs here in the US. Hence, China becomes the literal owner of what the United States spent decades establishing with great cost and sacrifice.

Cheers,

The Worm

Posted by: The Worm at May 26, 2012 05:50 PM (nqH+k)

69 Another one from Friday morning: 79 Dragon is inside 100 meters from the ISS now. Capture now projected for 9:10 EDT. This is fun. I'll have to read the Patterico article later. One of the pleasant side effects of following this space flight is that I've been too busy to worry about depressing political shit. I still haven't gotten around to reading the Patterico article. It's on my "to do" list, along with vacuuming and scrubbing out the litterboxes. I've had a great week following Dragon. How was yours?

Posted by: rickl at May 26, 2012 05:56 PM (sdi6R)

70 111 If anyone is interested, the Spacex Dragon is about to dock with ISS. Posted by: Lord Monochromicorn at May 25, 2012 08:44 AM (sw9Gv) That wasn't mine, but I had to include it in my recap.

Posted by: rickl at May 26, 2012 06:00 PM (sdi6R)

71 Also from Friday morning: 174 119 The worst part of the tour was Mission Control, which IÂ’m sure was impressive in the late Â‘60s, but certainly looks out of place today. Compare it with SpaceX's Mission Control: an array of flat screen monitors on desks. They make it look like anybody could put something like that together. To be fair, the JSC Mission Control was designed to hold built-in CRT monitors, which was state-of-the-art at the time. Since I can't put italics within italics, the first sentence was a quote from an earlier comment.

Posted by: rickl at May 26, 2012 06:07 PM (sdi6R)

72 Italics off, dammit!

Posted by: rickl at May 26, 2012 06:08 PM (sdi6R)

73 181 Dragon is 30 meters from the ISS and holding. Apparently there have been some issues with its LIDAR, and also they have to time the final approach so that the ISS crew can capture and berth it during a daylight pass. Things happen v e r y s l o w l y in space. If an object starts moving in the wrong direction, it will keep moving until it hits something. There's no way to stop it. Posted by: rickl at May 25, 2012 09:29 AM (sdi6R) --- 190 Posted by: rickl at May 25, 2012 09:29 AM (sdi6R) There ought to be a law! Posted by: Isaac Newton at May 25, 2012 09:33 AM (nEUpB)

Posted by: rickl at May 26, 2012 06:12 PM (sdi6R)

74 Also from Friday morning: 205 Dragon is moving from 30 to 10 meters. Very nice viewing here: http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv --- 224 Dragon is at capture point, 10 meters away! --- 238 The arm is reaching out. Just a few feet. --- 241 Capture! --- 242 Applause in Houston and Hawthorne! The first private space vehicle to reach the ISS. Only American, Russian, Eurpoean, and Japanese government space vehicles have done that before.

Posted by: rickl at May 26, 2012 06:27 PM (sdi6R)

75 From Saturday morning: 105 Dragon has a new car smell. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjYXzAfN6tM Also see ISS astronaut AndrÃ© Kuipers' photos taken during the approach yesterday. What a beautiful spacecraft! https://secure.flickr.com/photos/astro_andre/

Posted by: rickl at May 26, 2012 06:37 PM (sdi6R)

76 124 Video taken by the ISS astronauts during Dragon's approach and berthing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGoJ66WNapE&feature=player_embedded#! Absolutely gorgeous. What an incredible week this has been.

Posted by: rickl at May 26, 2012 06:38 PM (sdi6R)

77 135 Video taken outside Hawthorne Mission Control during the capture (listen at 0:56): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwqdEKLitC8&feature=player_embedded

Posted by: rickl at May 26, 2012 06:39 PM (sdi6R)

78 Video of the NASA press conference after Dragon's berthing on Friday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjuvIlskUf4&feature=endscreen This is not your typical NASA press conference. See around 8:30 and especially Elon at 24:20.

Posted by: rickl at May 26, 2012 07:04 PM (sdi6R)

79 From NSF.com yesterday: JimO Veteran Full Member Offline Posts: 1182 Location: Texas, USA View Profile Email Offline Re: LIVE: SpaceX Dragon COTS Demo (C2+) FD4 UPDATES Â« Reply #665 on: 05/25/2012 05:26 PM Â» Reply with quote Just back from taping comments for NBC Nightly News tonight -- I called today one of the 'top ten days in all of space history', and said that Dragon may have been the flagship but there is an entire fleet of varied vehicles being prepared in a dozen workshops to advance commercial/private access to space. And here was his appearance on NBC News Friday night. Unfortunately they edited out his comment about "one of the 'top ten days in all of space history'." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#47571949

Posted by: rickl at May 26, 2012 07:42 PM (sdi6R)

80 See this link from whitehouse.gov. http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/05/25/ space-community-leaders-historic-berthing-dragon-international-space-station Yes, I know. You won't see me linking that site very often. But some of the comments from space experts are worth noting. Rusty Schweickart, Apollo 9 astronaut: Â“The arrival and docking of the Dragon space capsule at the ISS is more than historic. It is, in fact, the beginning of a new era in space exploration, one in which private industry and individual initiative will begin leading the way in the use of near-space activity. This is not only exciting and momentous, but is fully in keeping with the American character of risk taking and consequent reward. The long term results of this Â“firstÂ” are beyond our ability to see at the beginning of this era, but there is no doubt that it will serve as a huge incentive for young people who now have firm evidence of the value, and opportunity for individual initiative. Near-Earth space is now firmly a regular part of the human environment along with the air, water, and land. The future is now, once again, opened to imagination, creativity, and dreams!Â” Compare that to my comment at PJM on Tuesday night: http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/05/22/spacex-blasts-off/#comment-352558

Posted by: rickl at May 26, 2012 08:55 PM (sdi6R)

81 Christian Adams at PJM has some kind of obsession with calling Elon Musk an "Obama bundler". He has made that accusation numerous times and has had his ass handed to him numerous times in the comments. Apparently he got his "inside information" from a member of Congress who he refuses to name. That is unsurprising. SpaceX has some very powerful enemies in Congress, who mostly happen to be Republicans. They are concerned with keeping the pork flowing to their districts, and SpaceX is threatening to upset the applecart.

Posted by: rickl at May 26, 2012 09:13 PM (sdi6R)

82 A much missed point: my sister's ashes, along with those of 300 others, were also sent up on this flight...

Posted by: oldowan at May 27, 2012 02:29 AM (qc2h9)

83 oldowan: See the post launch press conference. It's about all the reporters could talk about, at least in the second half. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJNNiYPyAeQ&feature=related SpaceX has partnered with Celestis for years, and has launched canisters on previous flights. http://www.celestis.com/

Posted by: rickl at May 27, 2012 06:48 AM (sdi6R)

84 ISS astronaut AndrÃ© Kuipers: Inside of the Dragon module. Beautiful. Spacious, Modern. Blue LEDs. Feels a bit like a sci-fi filmset. Of course it is from Los Angeles. http://www.flickr.com/photos/astro_andre/7275183844/in/set-72157629901589668

Posted by: rickl at May 27, 2012 06:52 AM (sdi6R)

85 NBC Nightly News used "JimO"'s quote during its Saturday night program: Â“I think this is one of the top ten days of space exploration. ItÂ’s when weÂ’ve gone to a new level of space access.Â” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/ns/NBCNightlyNews/#47578772 James Oberg is a world-reknowned space historian. He's an American, but speaks fluent Russian and is also an expert on the Russian space program. He even went to North Korea recently to observe their attempt to launch a rocket, tagging along with the Russian delegation. He has forgotten more than I'll ever know about space flight. For him to say a thing like that is a very big deal indeed.

Posted by: rickl at May 27, 2012 07:16 AM (sdi6R)

86 This is f**king awesome.

I have a good friend that was a manager on the NASA Orion effort. He said they couldn't get their ass out of their own way; he went on to work somewhere else. He told me NASA is now is a jobs program - sharing the wealth to keep all employed and so forth.

I watched the first moonwalk live when I was 7 years old. Awesome. The NASA guys at the time had a really big set of brass balls...they were the real deal, but no longer.

Which I find hilarious. Space X is kicking f**king ass - I'm told that they hired all the right people and got out of their way.

Check out the Falcon Heavy - 117,000 lbs to LEO - twice the Space Shuttle.

http://www.spacex.com/falcon_heavy.php

Awesome.

NASA is dead. Too bad.

Posted by: aswipee at May 27, 2012 05:40 PM (eS0nh)

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