Here’s an overview of the state of the art of needed technologies to beam power to earth, from almost three decades ago, when I was working at Rockwell. I ran across it in trying to reduce the entropy of my office. It’s funny how little has changed.
Sorry about the rotation; that’s how it scanned into the PDF. Just rotate it with your browser.
It’s getting ready for the flight attempt. Watch it live.
[Update a while later]
Looks like another scrub; they’re detanking. Probably not today.
A reader emailed me, asking why I hadn’t mentioned this weekend’s return of Endeavour from ISS (it will be splashing down in about three hours). I replied that there wasn’t much to talk about; the entire mission has been utterly nominal. At this point, like Elon, I’m much more interested in Starship. It would be great if it can take its first flight on the same day that Dragon returns with crew, though.
[Noon PDT update]
They’re in the water, and SpaceX’s job is done. It appears to have been a perfect flight.
[Update at 1230 PDT]
Where the hell was the Coast Guard? How did those private boats get so close to the capsule? I can’t believe they didn’t set up a perimeter. Meanwhile…
We may soon be able to predict them. That would be nice.
Starship could take its maiden flight as soon as Sunday.
Well, things are getting interesting.
[Update a few minutes later]
As noted in comments, the grays broke the link. I’ve fixed it now.
[Update a while later]
How worried should we be that they’re buzzing our military assets?
As noted, the problem is not what we know about it, but what we don’t know.
[Late-afternoon update]
Today’s (other) fake news in space.
I haven’t had time to read it yet, but the White House has released a new document from the National Space Council.
The Pentagon wants to buy some.
These can be done pretty quickly and cheaply, both because the cost of access has dropped, and because the customer actually wants them, not a jobs program. ISS has warped our notions of what space stations have to cost and how long they should take to build as much as Apollo has about how much going to the moon has to cost.
Thoughts from Bob Zimmerman.
They’ve been courting a lot of American companies with money, but as with Luxembourg, there are strings attached. The investment requires that the companies locate there. Pretty sure I’d rather live in Luxembourg than the Emirates, though.
OK, not new footage, but a new version of it, enhanced by AI.
BTW, I’ll be on The Space Show at 1900 PDT tonight, to talk about the 51st anniversary of Apollo 11, and Evoloterra.