Business, Space

The SpaceX Press Conference

12 Comments

Elon is saying that the mission was completely successful, but they lost the first stage. First relight to gentle the entry was successful, but the second one to come into the ocean resulted in an exceedance of attitude control authority for roll. Centrifuged propellant shut down engine prematurely. But they’re getting all the pieces, so they’ll be able to figure out how to fix for next time.

[Update a few minutes later]

First and second stage engines performed better than predicted. Pad also worked well.

[Update a few minutes later]

Second stage shut down prematurely, but didn’t affect mission, apparently. They know why and will fix for next flight. Next two flights won’t attempt first-stage recovery, in order to maximize payload for customers. [All via @Jeff_Foust]

Next recovery attempt will be on CRS-3. Vehicle may also have landing legs (implies attempt at flyback to land, not ocean — today’s flight must have inspired confidence).

[Update a while later]

I mistyped above. The second stage didn’t shut down prematurely, it had a problem with restart. But I think it was just a test of the vehicle, and didn’t affect the primary mission.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

The Democrats’ Demagoguery

1 Comment

I’m less amazed that they do this (it’s who they are, it’s what they do) than that the media lets them get away with it.

It’s hard to say which is worse: that so many prominent Democrats believe they aren’t responsible for any of Washington’s gridlock—or that they’d say these things anyway. Not all that long ago, a presidential spokesman using this language would be talking about murderers who hijacked airplanes or drove explosive-laden trucks into the barracks of U.S. Marines—not political opponents with differing notions about federal spending.

With suicide bombs going off daily around the world and funerals for the Washington Navy Yard victims still taking place, one might expect a modicum of rhetorical restraint from inside the White House. No such luck. For five years now, such metaphors have been the cudgel of choice for administration officials, along with their fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill and journalistic fellow travelers.

It all starts with President Obama, who routinely accuses Republicans trying to thwart his spending plans by putting “party ahead of country.” Last January, when talking—as Dan Pfeiffer was this week—about GOP insistence on trading spending cuts for agreeing to raise the nation’s debt limit—the president said he wouldn’t negotiate with those holding “a gun at the head of the American people.”

Joe Biden asserts Republicans are holding the country “hostage” with their spending stance, and in a 2011 meeting with congressional Democrats the vice president agreed with the suggestion that Tea Party groups were “terrorists.”

Among Democrats on Capitol Hill, it starts at the top, too.

On This Week this morning, they were shameless about saying that the lying president of Iran was “more reasonable” than Republicans. But I guess that’s who they are and what they do, too. At least Jake Tapper called them on it.

Business, Space, Technology and Society

Eight Minutes To Launch

5 Comments

Things are looking good for a Falcon-9R launch from Vandenberg. I’ll be watching for it from the balcony in Redondo Beach.

[Update a while later]

Looks like everything went perfectly. Just waiting to hear if they had a successful relight and splashdown of the first stage. We didn’t see it from our place, though. Not sure if the house next door was blocking, or what. Next time we’ll go to the beach.

Media Criticism, Philosophy, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Social Commentary

Diagnosing the IPCC

2 Comments

It’s suffering from permanent paradigm paralysis, and it’s time to put it down:

Paradigm paralysis is the inability or refusal to see beyond the current models of thinking. The vast amount of scientific and political capital invested in the IPCC has become self-reinforcing, so it is not clear how move past this paralysis as long as the IPCC remains in existence. The wickedness of the climate change problem makes if difficult to identify points of irrefutable failure in either the science or the policies, although the IPCC’s insistence that the pause is irrelevant and temporary could provide just such a refutation if the pause continues. In any event, there is a growing realization of that neither the science or policy efforts are making much progress, and particularly in view of the failure climate models to predict the stagnation in warming, and that perhaps it is time to step back and see if we can do a better job of understanding and predicting climate variability and change and reducing societal and ecosystem vulnerabilities.

Read the whole thing.

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