What? Musk and SpaceX have almost single handily put the USA back at the forefront of space and rocketry. They are everything we need in the aerospace world right now. I couldnât be prouder ofmeverything theynha e accomplished.
Musk and SpaceX have put themselves at the forefront of space and rocketry. Not the same thing.
Hate all you want, today was awsome.
Iâm glad, I think people really need a win right now. I wish I could shake lingering worry that, in the long run, this isnât one. At least itâs better than paying the Russians.
Quaro
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Trump weaponizing this historic event that should be uniting all people into a rant about his enemies and how terrible Obama is⌠really puts a bad taste in my mouth. Turning this off. Iâll check the highlights on Twitter.
I have NASA TV in the background. Fortunately DISH automatically DVRs the station you are watching, so I was able to skip over Trumpâs speech. Watching him would have ruined the best of the day of the month.
I just watched the post launch news conference. Iâm going to say something thatâs probably going to be unpopular. NASA administrator Jim_Bridenstine is the most charismatic head NASA had for a generation. I hope Biden keeps him.
For those of you whoâve forgotten Jim, is a Trump appointee and supporter, whoâs nomination barely squeaked by on 50-49 party line vote. On paper he was only marginally qualified, Naval aviator and ran the Tusla air museum before becoming a congressman. His calls for stopping researching on climate change were certainly troublesome, before reversing course in 2018 and fulling endorsing it.
Iâve watched Jim at least 1/2 dozen times, the last couple of years and his love for NASA and the mission is infectious. He may support Trump but it doesnât imitate at all. For instance, he thanked Obama NASA administrator Charles Bolden at least four times for his early support of SpaceX and commercial flight when it was unpopular. Which in truth is being a bit generous to Bolden since he wasnât a SpaceX fan.
During the press conference, an obviously exhausted and emotionally drained Elon Musk, was hardly coherent. He sounded more like Trump than a normal human being. So it was pretty cruel for a reporter from the Times of London to ask. âElon I understand you meet with Doug and Bobâs small boys and promised to bring their dads home, how does it feel to have the responsibility?â Elon tried to answer, but ended saying it was all to hard to process and couldnât give a coherent answer. At the next opportunity Jim stepped into to save Elon. He talked about how NASA did a safety and cultural audit of Spacex (AFAIK this is right after Elon smoked dope on Joe Rogan podcast). Jim, waxed eloquently how safety was foremost in the mind of every employee at SpaceX from the guy on the assembly line, to the engineers, all the way to the top. Then a women from NASA, talked about how the folks at SpaceX called Bob and Doug, Dad and they werenât going to let anything happen to dad.
Normally, I think NASA has been a huge benefactor of the SpaceX halo, but today NASA really helped SpaceX.
Elon is always sounds âhaphazardâ when he speaks. Just how he is.
Nice highlight of todayâs launch.
It still blows my mind how roomy it is.
Crew Dragon is now docked to the ISS.
Docking confirmed â Crew Dragon has arrived at the @space_station! pic.twitter.com/KiKBpZ8R2H
â SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 31, 2020
Right? Jim Lovellâs book talks about how the running joke at the time was that Apollo was an âold manâs rocketâ because it was more spacious and a much smoother ride than Mercury or Gemini. This thing is a luxury liner by comparison, needless to say.
Glad everyoneâs safe and sound.
Crew Dragon is 330 Cu ft vs Apolloâs 216 cu ft volume. So about 50% more.
Why, because private enterprise is evil? You realize that the âgovernmentâ projects are built by private contractors, right? I would guess that the government leasing a ride on a privately owned vehicle is going to wind up costing the taxpayer less than the traditional cost-plus contract of the NASA-owned vehicles.
Seems like 2001 was just yesterday.
I spent about an hour watching the docking, with a fair amount of fast forwarding. I must say I feel a bit better about my docking skills in Kerbal after watching it, Iâm actually a bit quicker typically. I am also jealous there is no autodocking in Kerbal
Doug said the SpaceX docking sim was quite similar to Endeavor. Which means Iâm totally qualified to be an astronaut! Some dreams never die.
This Youtuber had the best interviews with Elon and Jim of the whole week.
The news reads like something out of a 1980âs science fiction short story.
the keyword in his sentence was âMuskâ not âprivateâ
