Jonah Goldberg points out the absurdity of it. Here’s a similar piece I wrote a couple years ago on the thirty-ninth anniversary of the first Apollo landing, on why solving the energy problem is completely unlike going to the moon.
Of All The Times To Lose My Internet Connection
I got up this morning, and had no bandwidth, so I missed the SpaceX webcast, but I watched the launch on Fox News. Poking around some, now that I’m back on line, I see that they went into orbit. I’m assuming that it was a clean insertion (no unanticipated roll, as there was in June). Now comes the fun part. It’s supposed to do just a couple orbits, so it should be entering and coming down in the Pacific late morning, PST. Congratulations to SpaceX on mission success to date.
[Update at 9:17 PST]
Alan Boyle has a story. I’ll probably have one at AOL News later, but I want to wait to see how the entry/recovery goes (by the way, one of my pet peeves is the word “reenter,” which everyone uses, but implies that it has entered before — only the Shuttle has ever done that…).
[Update a few minutes later]
At the request of a commenter, here’s one of the first Youtubes out.
[Update shortly after deorbit burn]
Here’s more video.
OK, I’m hearing that drogue and all three main chutes have deployed. Still no word on first-stage recovery. Anyone else heard anything?
Whatever Happened To The Constitution?
Thoughts on limited government (which isn’t about the size of government).
On For Tomorrow
SpaceX has just announced an attempt at 9:03 EST tomorrow.
Warren Buffett
As usual, follow the money, and in this case, there’s a lot.
Get That Man A Teleprompter
I missed or, rather, didn’t see the president’s news conference today. But Rich Lowry did:
Only someone who desperately hates the position he’s in now, having to try to accommodate political realities in a center-right country and kiss his former messiahship goodbye, would show such peevishness. We got a good look behind the curtain for a moment this afternoon, and it wasn’t pretty.
I’m guessing we’re going to see a lot more of that in the next two years. And it won’t bode well for his reanointment.
[Update a couple minutes later]
“If this deal gave people the belief that Obama might grow in office, the press conference probably deep-sixed that.
[Update a few minutes later]
Remember all that nonsense from the David Brookses and Chris Buckleys of the world in 2008 about his “first-class temperament”? It’s hard to take anything they tell us seriously, at this point.
The Latest From SpaceX
I just got an email from Stephanie Bednarek:
The demonstration launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft has been rescheduled for no earlier than Wednesday, December 8. The delay is due to a crack in the engine nozzle on the rocket’s second Stage that was discovered during a routine review of close-out photos of the rocket on Monday. More information on the launch schedule will be announced when available.
This will be the first-ever test flight of a Dragon spacecraft, an entirely new spacecraft designed in the last decade, and only the second test flight of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. It also marks the first time a commercial company is attempting to re-enter a spacecraft from orbit. As noted in a recent Wall Street Journal Article:
“Placing the vehicle into a such an orbit at speeds exceeding 17,000 miles per hour, then maneuvering through a fiery reentry and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean will require a flawless trajectory, a reliable heat shield and finally, perfect operation of the redundant parachutes.”
This will also be the first flight under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program to develop commercial supply services to the International Space Station. After the Space Shuttle retires, SpaceX will fly at least 12 missions to carry cargo to and from the International Space Station as part of the Commercial Resupply Services contract for NASA. The Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft were designed to one day carry astronauts; both the COTS and CRS missions will yield valuable flight experience toward this goal. An informational fact sheet on the COTS program is attached for your reference.
This has been a strong government-commercial partnership. SpaceX has only come this far by building upon the incredible achievements of NASA, having NASA as an anchor tenant for launch, and receiving expert advice and mentorship throughout the development process. With the savings NASA will see by using SpaceX for low-Earth transportation, billions of dollars are freed up for other activities such as accelerating exploration efforts that go beyond low-Earth orbit, advanced telescopes and Earth science missions.
SpaceX plans to broadcast the entire launch live at www.spacex.com. NASA TV will also provide coverage.
So, it could still happen tomorrow. Best of luck.
Res Ipsa Loquitur
Well, not entirely. Ed Morrissey has some thoughts.
This is what happens when you put in place either economic incompetents, people who actively want to wreck the economy for their own political ends, or both. There are, after all, people who would rather rule in Hell than serve in Heaven.
[Update a few minutes later]
John Kerry was extolling the stimulus effects of unemployment benefits, as in more money returns to the economy for each dollar paid out to the unemployed. If so, why not simply put us all on unemployment benefits and watch the economy grow?
Or perhaps Kerry could advocate a national boat sales tax to collect the sort of revenue that he so carefully had tried to avoid. Or perhaps he might look carefully at zillionaire family trusts and the billions they divert from the strapped federal Treasury. Or perhaps he could take away the tax deductions on third or fourth homes above a certain square footage, maybe ending the deduction for property taxes on multiple homes?
My point? Why do Democrats always go after the orthodontist, electrical contractor, or insurance agency owner, and never the Buffetts, Kerrys, or Gateses? Bill Gates and Warren Buffett will defer more money from the federal Treasury by avoiding inheritance taxes (to channel their profits into their foundations) than all the billions lost this year by keeping tax cuts for small businesses.
Part of the problem is that these new aristocrats aren’t really liberals.
More Bristol Derangement Syndrome
Well, at least these people didn’t shoot their television:
“I … believe that the program was fixed by extreme supporters of the Tea Party and Radical Right-Wing,” wrote one viewer. “There is no disclaimer that it is a political show, and instead that is what it has become. It is tragic to say that it could have been fixed but I hope ABC’s ratings blow-up and go down in flames.”
“You need to investigate the fraudulent voting practice on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars,” another viewer complained.
A third viewer protested that DWTS judge Carrie Ann Inaba’s hugging of Bristol Palin was “unfair treatment” that “was a signal for GOP/Tea Party supporters of Sarah Palin to ‘stuff’ the vote for Bristol Palin.”
“My 96 year old Mother-in-Law can dance better than Ms. Palin,” continued the viewer. “I want my Government to protect me the viewer from deceptive practices.”
Actually, I prefer the television abuser to people who want the federal government to regulate what I watch. Time to rein in the FCC.
“No Future For The Jews”
In the Netherlands?
“I see no future for recognizable Jews, in particular because of anti-Semitism, specifically in Dutch Moroccans, who continue to grow in number,” Bolkestein reportedly said.
The former politician added that the many Arab television channels in the Netherlands contribute to the spread of anti-Semitism. He said he has no confidence in proposed measures to combat anti-Jewish sentiment.
“The Palestinian-Israeli conflict continues to fester,” Bolkestein said. “I foresee no quick solution, and anti-Semitism will continue to exist. Moroccan and Turkish young people won’t care about the measures.”
Politician Geert Wilders, who visited Israel this week, responded that “Jews shouldn’t emigrate, anti-Semitic Moroccans should.”
It is tragic that Holland, for centuries a bastion of tolerance and accepting of the oppressed from all over (e.g., before the East Anglian Puritans came to New England they had gone to Leyden) has absorbed an intolerant poisonous culture into its body politic. Charles Martel would be appalled. This won’t end well.