Now comes the fun part.
I’m writing a piece similar to this for The New Atlantis. It’s hard for people who are still thinking in Apollo mode to get their head around just how revolutionary this is.
Category Archives: Space
Look Out Below
First they loose a pandemic on us, and now the Chinese may be about to drop a used rocket on us.
Space Force
Matthew Jenkins writes that it needs better PR.
Gwynne Shotwell
[Update a few minutes later]
Elon shows the way: ” The promotional video, captured and shared on the Chinese social network Weibo, shows two different concepts for achieving suborbital passenger flights about two decades from now. What is interesting about the video (which I’ve mirrored on YouTube) is that the first concept looks strikingly like SpaceX’s Starship vehicle. It shows a large vehicle capable of vertical takeoff and vertical landing. “
You don’t say.
Michael Collins
RIP.
We continue to lose that part of the greatest generation that did some of the greatest things. I suspect that even if he hadn’t been an astronaut, he could have been a successful writer.
You Don’t Say
Elon says that a bunch of people will die going to Mars.
I don’t know if he’s read it, but I gave him a copy of the book (via Gwynne) when it came out.
A Multi-Cultural Approach To Space
This op-ed seems a little aerie faerie to me, and I’m not sure what exactly he’s proposing, but someone should tell him that space is not the common heritage of mankind.
NASA’s Starship Award
Five reasons it’s a watershed moment in human spaceflight.
It’s the biggest departure from the ancient Apollo mentality that the agency has ever made.
[Sunday-morning update]
Casey Handmer does a thorough analysis of just how revolutionary this capability is. We will get not only cheap lunar (and other space) transportation, but cheap lunar bases based on one-way trips of Starships. It also probably means that, for a long time, lunar ISRU for propellant will make no economic sense.
[Bumped]
When Will SN15 Fly?
An interesting new video.
The Martian Atmosphere
…just became slightly more breathable.
This is the kind of thing that NASA should be spending more money on, instead of unnecessary giant rockets.