It’s scheduled for less than an hour from now.
[Update late morning]
As noted in comments, it seemed to be a spectacular success. Recovered both capsule and booster (they had been downplaying expectations for the latter). This is a huge milestone, and bodes well for commercial flights of humans into space in the next year or so.
A history. I’d dispute this, though:
“Humans are pretty needy,” Lyles told me. “You’re taking water, you’re taking all of their environmental control systems, and whatever they need on a really long mission. A large, heavy launch vehicle is almost a no-brainer.”
NASA is not alone in this conclusion. During a two-week span last month, private companies SpaceX and Blue Origin both unveiled giant, SLS-scale launchers that will become key parts of their future spaceflight aspirations.
One of these things is not like the others. SpaceX and Blue Origin want to build big rockets because they plan to put thousands of people into space. NASA is doing it because Congress wants to keep thousands employed in the right zip codes (as the article makes clear).
Kelsey Atherton was underwhelmed.
Tomorrow’s test of the escape system (that will likely destroy the booster) has been rescheduled for Wednesday, due to weather.
Hanging out a bit longer in the Texas desert til weather behaves https://t.co/bkIWerr79X
— Ariane Cornell (@arianecornell) October 3, 2016
…has its day in court. I suspect that it it were to get to even the current SCOTUS, it would lose. Like many of the other administration’s initiatives, this is lawless tyranny.
Why they are at least as moral as wages. This kind of irrationality is more than partly a consequence of the failure of the public-education system. Or its success, depending on one’s point of view.
I don’t think that vertical takeoff, horizontal landing is the best way to go. Anyway, I’ll believe it when I see it.
[Update a while later]
Bad link is fixed now, sorry.
The new standard that pushes 5 Gb/s through Cat 6.
What looks to be an interesting paper from Martin Elvis, an astrophysicist who groks private spaceflight.
This won’t be the first take on it, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. He worries too much about Martian winds, though.
[Noon update]
Is Elon Musk this generation’s von Braun?