22 thoughts on “Space Barons”

  1. A little off-topic but Robber Baron Musk is moving at very rapid speed down in Boca Chica.

    One thing that is pleasingly amazing is how they can assemble working rockets in a open air bay. No super clean rooms, bunny suits. etc.

    Musk is getting rockets into the “Mack Truck” stage which is precisely what’s needed.

        1. Starting to feel like I’m really living in the 21st Century.
          Or Von Braun’s 1980s….

  2. What’s unique about the US is that it’s quite possible to imagine the Left will likely go after each other first, hopefully consuming themselves before they get to the rest of us. What with Ken Burns wanting to imprison Data uh, I mean Zuckerberg as an official “Enemy of the State”. You know the phrase that caused total flip-out when Trump used it (Enemy of the People as opposed to the State. It’s important what you care about.). But when Ken uses it, well it’s whatever it means that’s good I guess:

    https://www.foxnews.com/media/ken-burns-facebook-mark-zuckerberg

    I can imagine news articles about the “Tech Giants” who are posing for pictures at the Presidio in SF only with Zuck’s image erased from the photo.

    1. I lost what little respect I had for Burns before the end of episode one of his Vietnam war film, his affinity for the VC/NVA was sickening.

      1. Interestingly enough, the NVA always considered (and treated as such) the VC as little more than cannon fodder. Saigon wasn’t taken by “brave” peasants in black pajamas. It was taken by regulars driving tanks.

    2. Doesn’t matter if they still control the schools and local, state, federal government institutions.

      1. If you can keep them out of Federal power then the churn at the local and state level will keep them pre-occupied with trying to out-Trotsky each other. It’s only if you let them into the Federal level where they can consolidate enough power to Stalinize the system. Our decentralized system of government (Federalism) was designed to be just this klunky for this very reason. I applaud Gov. Abbott’s attempts at trying to get control of his state’s border as a public health measure. He should ignore the Federal Courts and keep the Texas Rangers at the border. Make Biden federalize troops to escort the illegals into the country. That will make for great campaign videos in 2024.

        1. “He should ignore the Federal Courts and keep the Texas Rangers at the border. ”

          Since Biden ignores the courts, he might as well.

  3. OT – looks like Dell changed something? Just checked and the “Will not ship to California…” message no longer appears on an Aurora R12 with RTX 3090. Not finding any news, did this just happen today/yesterday?

  4. If I remember correctly, access to spaceflight was pretty limited in the 1960’s as well. You needed to have gone to a military test pilot school, gotten through the astronaut selection process, sucked up to Deke Slayton to get a crew assignment, and hope the funding lasted long enough for your flight to launch. That would seem to exclude a lot more people from the final frontier than just buying a ticket would.

  5. The American People spent about $120-billion (in 2020 dollars) to allow 24 Americans to walk on the moon.. $5-billion per person.

    I’m pretty sure that Musk will have the price much, MUCH lower, and likely in much better conditions…

    1. Actually, only 12 of the Apollo astronauts walked on the moon (two each on Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, & 17). A total of 24 astronauts traveled from the Earth to the moon and back, but the three each on Apollos 8 & 10 never landed and the rest were Command Module pilots. Three men made the trip twice (Lovell: 8 & 13, John Young: 10 & 16, and Eugene Cernan: 10 & 17).

  6. “It is difficult to overestimate Branson’s accomplishment. Our ancestors used to stare at the night sky, imagining an ethereal world populated by powerful and vengeful deities in need of appeasement. Today, a number of private companies, including Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, are pursuing goals that are similar to Branson’s: to bring space travel to the masses.”

    Is he saying that Bezos and Branson are now gods elevated in the old way like the Pharos or expressing the postmodern belief of the divinity of self? In a critique of a Marxist themed critique on progress*, either possibility lends support to the Marxists but even people who are not Marxist might not like some of the negative consequences.

    Bezos and Branson belong to the clerisy the writer rags on. A future dominated by a Marxist space baron wouldn’t be any brighter than one controlled by them on Earth. Will the author be all, “But muh capitalism.” when he is refused a seat because his social credit score is too low?

    *It is debatable that Branson and Bezos sub orbit efforts will have any impact on the future. The author makes it out like these are great first steps that will lead to technological progression to open the stars to humanity but in the case of Branson, it wont and in the case of Bezos, it is a mystery if New Glenn will survive. Progress isn’t automatic. Success isn’t guaranteed. There will be failures and setbacks. What Bezos and Branson are doing with suborbital is like Betamax vs VHS and not like CDs to Blu-ray.

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