All posts by Rand Simberg

Business, Space, Technology and Society

A Rare Event

34 Comments

I noted several years ago that SpaceX had made landing boosters routine, so much so that it was news not when they landed, but when they failed. On this morning’s flight, there was news.

It was a long-lived booster, with twenty-three flights under its belt. It will be very interesting to see what caused it, and if it was fatigue. When I was at the Cape three weeks ago, I was told that the original goal for reuse was ten flights, but with multiple boosters exceeding twenty, the new goal was forty. We’ll see if there is some life-limiting issue that can’t be maintained around.

[Late-morning update]

This is ridiculous.

I could understand their saying “No RTLS until you figure out what happened.” But to stand down launches over a landing failure? How can they justify that?

[Afternoon update]

Bob Zimmerman is less than impressed as well.

Business, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Space, Space Science, Technology and Society

Where No Woman Has Gone Before

14 Comments

It looks like Polaris Dawn is finally about to launch.

Everyone has noted that this will be the highest-altitude flight since Apollo, but all of the Apollo astronauts were men. Menon and Gillis will hold the altitude record for women after this, until a woman goes to the moon (which may or not be on Artemis, given the ongoing boondoggle).

[Update a while later]

Bob Zimmerman has thoughts on the latest SLS fiasco.

[Wednesday-afternoon update]

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

The Left’s Swift Shift After The RFK Endorsement

2 Comments

They lack a sense of irony:

The acrid scent of panic might have been expected among the limp-wristed, totalitarian faithful. And, in fact, beneath the amusing cologne of anti-Trump bluster, the panic was indeed discernible.

But there was also that trademark smooth-as-a-suppository (as Saul Bellow put it) suaveness, exemplified, for instance, by former Obama strategist David Axelrod.

“Robert F. Kennedy Sr.,” Axelrod posted shortly after the deed was done, “would have been appalled to see his son cut a deal to drop out for [t]he race and endorse Trump.”

Imagine: someone agrees to drop out of a race at the last minute and support a rival candidate! As the commentator Ned Ryan put it in response to Axelrod’s snippy post: “You suddenly seem offended by someone cutting a deal to drop out of the race and endorse someone else.”