Well….today is a big day for the US and SpaceX and I am getting excited about the first launch of astronauts from US soil in almost 11 years….it’s only an hour away and, while I know it’s not a milestone like the Alan Shepard or John Glenn launches…both of which I watched by the way…okay, I’ll admit I’ve seen every launch that I could from the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Space shuttle missions..yeah, I’m that old…and I saw the first successful landing of a Falcon 9 first stage so I guess that makes me a space geek…and I’ll freely admit that. One of the things that will make you laugh is that I actually cheered at the first Falcon 9 launch and it’s first landing…after all, it is too damn cool that we have the talent and drive to do something that no one has been able to accomplish in my lifetime…oh, and there is one bit of comedy that I’m probably the only person who has made that connection….the two astronauts who are flying today are named Bob and Doug…does that strike any memory for you? Well…if you were alive in 1980 I’m sure you watched the Canadian tv show SCTV where they had a skit with a pair of brothers named Bob and Doug McKenzie who hosted a tv program called “the Great White North” that was one of the funniest damn things I had ever seen…and when I heard the astronauts were named Bob and Doug, I immediately flashed back to SCTV and laughed my head off…good luck Bob and Doug..eh? Okay, it looks like the launch is going to be a no go for weather today…darn….
Tag Archives: Space X
Space X sticks the landing…
Well…just a shorty on the Falcon Heavy launch I just watched…another great launch and, for the first time, all three boosters landed successfully! I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of seeing rocket launches…ever since I was a little kid at the start of the space program, I have always been mesmerized by how we humans can have built these machines…and now a private company is leading the way…okay, with help from the government but still…it was never in anyone’s plans to land and re-use boosters until Space X came along…nice job…one last thing…what’s the deal, space X? My ad blocker has blocked over 350 ads in the 20 minutes I have had the live stream running…that sucks…shame on you…
Cool stuff….
Well…with all of the criminality and idiocy coming out of the right these days, it is nice to think about something else for a change since there is some cool stuff happening. Just Saturday morning, SpaceX launched it’s first Crew Dragon on a test flight to the ISS as part of the certification process that will lead to a manned flight later in the year…and just this morning, the flight was completed with the spacecraft automatically docking with the ISS after a series of maneuvers testing the craft and it’s ability to pace the station and match it’s orbit. I didn’t stay up to watch this launch and landing since it didn’t launch until almost 3 am…but I was able to watch it Sat morning with the videos being uploaded to Youtube from SpaceX…and that just made a thought come into my head….we really don’t have many shared experiences in this world anymore…at least as related to tv, as we did when I was a kid. When the first moon landing happened in July of 1969, everyone in this country and across the world were watching it and could then discuss it the next day….and that made these events even more exciting knowing you were part of a huge community that was participating in something special…not like today where there are other things to do and watch. Now, I’m not going to go on that the “olden” days were better than today…different, yes, but they both have things that made them special…and, I’m glad I’ve lived through them both….
Elon, WTF?
Well…just saw some disturbing news about Elon Musk that is going to turn a lot of people’s stomachs…I thought he was a okay guy who understands that climate change is going to destroy this planet, and that equality for all is necessary for a fair society. Yeah, not so much…it was revealed today that he wrote a check for 40,000 dollars to the super pac whose sole purpose is to keep repubs in control of the House…yep, the guy that stands up and lies to everyone that he believes in social justice is trying to ensure that the knuckle draggers who are trying to take us back to the 1800′s keep control of the House and do more damage to this country…so, to any gays that are thinking about buying a Tesla, the profit from your car is going to make sure you will never be equal in this country…to any women out there who are thinking of buying a Tesla, the profit from your car is going to the party that is doing everything they can to make sure you won’t have control over your own body anymore…I know I can’t afford a Tesla, but I have been supportive of Space X and now that ends with this sickening bit of news…I guess money is the only thing that matters to Elon…should have figured that out….WTF Elon?
Bitchin’ about Elon….
Well…I am constantly amazed at what people bitch about these days and how the trolls always try to turn something good into something ugly. This morning, when I got up and checked into twitter to see what was going on, there was a meme developing that was attacking
Elon Musk and SpaceX for launching Elon’s Tesla roadster into space…saying that it was a waste of money, that people are starving and Elon is an ass for launching the car. Now, I have my experience with trolls here on my site that I ignore every day, but I marvel at the ignorance of the commenters on many sites that I read every day….let’s get something straight, this launch was not just to send the car into space for a joke, it was to test a new rocket that will be essential to putting the US back in the lead in space travel and give us the capability to stop using the Russians to get to the ISS, along with the future trips to both the moon and Mars. Scientific progress is made when people support the work that goes into that progress, and to launch a car into space and to livestream it so people can be part of it give us a shared feeling of hope that we are progressing…and SpaceX has been visionary in this work…the last thing: not one dime of tax dollars went into this launch…it was a privately financed scientific experiment that immediately drove us forward…I have this to say to the haters out there…where the hell were your comments when the idiot trump spent $100 million dollars golfing…or when he proposed spending $30 million dollars just to fluff his ego? Until I hear that from you ignorant right wingers out there, just shut the hell up…geez….
Oh, and one last thing to remember…Elon is an immigrant from South Africa who, like millions of other immigrants, has made this country better…and the idiot trump tweeted his support for him Tuesday night…I wonder if that would have happened if he was a black South African? Yeah, we all can guess that one….
Not much going on…
Well…sitting here trying to come up with a topic without much luck so far…so, I guess I’ll just talk for a while and see what happens…I did see the Space X launch today and it was pretty cool…they even had a long distance shot of the maneuver that the first stage makes when it starts the descent process…and then they had the onboard camera showing it landing and it was so clear you could see the smoke trail from the launch as it came down…pretty darn cool. Oh, the repubs tax giveaway is going to be released late today and these idiots want to vote on it Monday…giving interested parties only two days to go over the 500 pages and figure out just how bad it is….even more of a reason for us to get out to vote next year so we can undo this monstrosity….hmmm.. what else? Not much right now, I guess….trying to stay away from the news a little today so I don’t have much to say right now…more later….
Still a little bored today…
Well…sitting here still a little bored today and wondering if it is too weird to be geeked up about the Space X launch that is going to happen in about an hour. This will be the first time the entire rocket and capsule will be used ones and the booster will be landed back on the cape…and it is going to be streamed live on their website that I already have up with a little countdown counter in the corner…okay, I’m more that a little bored but this will help with that….
It’s aliens….
Well…if you’ve been looking at the news over the past week or so, you’d have seen that a SpaceX rocket blew up during fueling and the cause has not really been determined yet. Now, with the internet and lots of people with time on their hands, we have the explanation…it was aliens! A video that shows an object passing just over the top of the rocket when it explodes has been posted…and I just watched it in my Twitter feed….not sure if I would say aliens but it gave me a great laugh….wonder what the next theory will be?
Red Dragon on Mars….
Well…sitting here waiting for the Fedex guy to come and thought I’d do a little comment on an article I read this morning by Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy. There was a little noticed announcement last week by Elon Musk and Space X that they are going to try to land one of their Dragon V2 capsules on Mars by 2018…yep…when everyone else says they can’t get there until 2025 at the earliest, Space X is going to try it in two years…unmanned, of course, since the Falcon Heavy that they are going to use to launch it has not been tested yet and the Dragon V2 has not been flown either…but, I find it just so cool that private industry is going to do what NASA can’t…and beat them to Mars by 7 years. I know there have been many successful Mars probes sent by NASA and I applaud their work…work that continues to amaze me…but, to fly the hardware that is going to be used to send people to Mars in that short a time frame goes up the scale to really cool. Oh, and one more thing with the Falcon Heavy, which is essentially three Falcon 9′s strapped together….when they test launch the Heavy later in the year, Space X is going to try to land all three boosters; two on land and one on the autonomous barge where they landed the last Falcon 9….that is going to be so cool and I had hoped they would try something like that…Space X is putting excitement back into space and even this old guy is pretty geeked….
Nice job Space X…
Well…just finished watching the live launch of another Falcon 9 by Space X and I never get tired of seeing them…but this time, they finally landed the first stage on the barge in the ocean off the coast of Florida and it was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while…it’s only been a few years that they have even been in business and they are doing things that the others in the space business said couldn’t be done….Well done Space X…..