Category Archives: Space

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

SpaceX’s Latest “Failure”

24 Comments

Thoughts on why it was a spectacular success, from Bob Zimmerman.

By the way, the podcast of my talk on The Space Show is available.

Also, I’ll be on John Batchelor’s Hotel Mars segment tonight, at 6:30 PM PDT.

[Update a few minutes later]

Here’s the video, though it doesn’t show the tipping over.

[Afternoon update]

OK, here’s the best video yet. Looks like they may not get much back. Note the top thruster trying to keep it vertical, but lacking adequate thrust.

[Update a few minutes later]

Whoops. If you missed it, you missed it. They just made it private. But I think plenty of people saw it, so not sure what the point of hiding it is now.

[Update a few more minutes later]

OK, I’ve update with a new one that seems to have come back on line.

[Late-afternoon update]

Slow motion, color corrected. This looks official (I got it from Elon, via Amanda Stiles).

Business, Space, Technology and Society

The SpaceX Launch

61 Comments

You can follow live here. Weather is looking good half an hour before liftoff, with no technical issues.

[Update after the launch]

Perfect primary mission, but they landed on the ship too hard to survive, according to Elon.

[Update almost an hour post launch]

[Update a little over an hour after the launch]

Thoughts from (SpaceX investor) Steve Jurvetson.

[Update a while later]

Lee Billings has the story over at SciAm.

[Update a while more later]

And here‘s the Space News report.

Popular Culture, Social Commentary, Space, Space History, Technology and Society

Yuri’s Night

9 Comments

If you’re in LA, this is the place to be.

Don’t go in hopes of seeing me. I can’t see spending money to be tortured with awful, loud music. But if you’re into that sort of thing, and what passes for dancing in this society, knock yourself out.

No, this has nothing to do with me being old (though I do seem, unaccountably, to be aging). I’ve never been into clubbing, or awful, loud music. The twenty-year-old me wouldn’t have gone, either.

Business, Education, Health, Media Criticism, Philosophy, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

Tech Titans And Life Extension

10 Comments

Here’s a good overview of what Google, Thiel and others are doing. I wish they’d stop calling it “immortality,” though. That’s not the goal, and if it were, it would be unrealistic. It’s just indefinite lifespan. As I often notes, expansion into space and extended lifespan go hand in hand.

[Update a while later]

Sorry, link was missing. Fixed now.