The world has finally seen a launch system that can find out what the price-demand elasticity curve looks like. Elon wants to maximize flight rate and revenue, because he wants to drive costs down to make Mars more affordable.
All posts by Rand Simberg
Starship
[Afternoon update]
Starship has to work, or SpaceX is at risk of bankruptcy.
Surprise, Surprise
We now know that Danchenko was a paid witness for the FBI.
OK, some of us knew that a long time ago.
Light Posting
It’s going to be a crazy week. We’re redoing the countertops in the kitchen, and after they demo today, I’m going to run wire to add outlets and undercounter lighting, plus a new water line to above the stove so we have a spout for filling pots. Not to mention I have to do my corporate taxes by Thursday. So I’m around, but probably not at the computer much, other than to do bookkeeping.
[Wednesday-evening update]
Since everyone is having such a good time with that typo, I’ll just leave it as is. I ended up not running the water line, because time was short between demo and install, and it’s only three feet from the sink to the range.
Bill Nelson 2.0
First he called cost-plus contracts a “plague” on the agency, and now he’s praising SpaceX (while pretending that he wasn’t one of the “poo pooers” himself, who told Lori to “get her boy Elon in line”). And I love this:
“When there was the beginning of the space cargo and crew [programs], the two serious bidders were SpaceX and Boeing, and everybody poo-pooed SpaceX and said, ‘Oh, Boeing is a legacy company,'” Nelson said. “Well, guess who is about to make its sixth flight after its first test flight with astronauts, and guess who’s still on the ground?”
That’s got to leave a mark.
The Rice Speech
Today is the sixtieth anniversary. I wrote this on the fortieth anniversary, and it holds up pretty well, I think. “Because it is hard” is a dumb reason to do something.
The Worst Form Of Government
…is “our democracy.”
The Intelligence Community
No, DoJ, it doesn’t get to overrule the Judiciary. There is no mention in the Constitution of the “intelligence community.”
Why is the DoJ so desperate to prevent a Special Master, even one with security clearance, to view those documents the department asserts are classified? (The parties each have offered two candidates for the position, one of Trump’s candidates, in fact, sat on the FISA court. Is he less certain to do this job properly than the National Archivist?) There are several possible explanations for the desperation I can think of — none of which do credit to the attorney general. The first and most common supposition is that the documents which they claim must be kept even from the eyes of the Special Master relate to the FBI and DoJ’s role in fashioning and perpetrating the phony Russian Collusion fairytale. That would be damning indeed, and frankly, I see it as the most likely explanation…
So do I.
Compare And Contrast
Blue Origin
Hearing that they had an in-flight abort on a research flight (no one on board). Capsule reportedly landed safely.
[Update a few minutes later]
[Update a few more minutes later]
Here is the story at SpaceExplored.
[Update a while later]
Bob Zimmerman has video.
[Update a few minutes later]
Here’s the story from Eric Berger.
[Afternoon update]