I’ve had my differences with him over the years, but he has a piece in the WSJ with which I basically agree. I’d say the only thing he gets wrong was that it was Apollo itself that set us on the wrong path. The Shuttle was just a symptom of Apolloism.
[Behind the paywall, but do a Google search for “Mission to Nowhere” and it should come up]
Tory Bruno and Gwynne Shotwell have very different space-business philosophies. I think that Gwynne is right, but the good news is that for now, the two companies are more complementary than competitive. And the Air Force will want to continue to maintain two providers.
Alan Boyle interviewed him on stage on Tuesday afternoon. Here’s the transcript.
What he said may have been new concepts to many, but they’re all ideas that go back decades. The difference is that he’s funding them himself, and not waiting for the government to do it.
Bob Zimmerman has some thoughts.
A nice video of the history.
Is the ISS the last aluminum spacecraft?
Maybe for spacecraft launched from earth, but I think it partly depends on sources of materials. There’s a lot of aluminum on the moon, and not much carbon.
Bridenstine has introduced his bill. It has its own domain. Haven’t read yet, but will have thoughts when I have.
The NASA History Office has issued a new book, that is quite long, but has some interesting-looking essays in it.
First he sells several billion dollars worth of cars, then he lands a rocket on a ship, live on television, while throwing a private expandable hab into orbit.
From SpaceX’s standpoint, they now have another used rocket that they will almost certainly refly, for testing if not another operational mission.
If I could retweet this x100 I would. Space Access! https://t.co/oWuMBkj8tO
— The High Frontier (@thehighfrontier) April 8, 2016
[Update a while later]
I tweeted prior to flight that they were probably expecting a successful landing, given that (unlike last time) they weren’t downplaying chances of success. Nice to see Elon confirm that.
[Update a few minutes later]
Hope I’ll see some of you at Space Access.