SPACE

I made an entry almost six years ago and part of another from last year that I'm copying here.  (You know, you can pull up every entry I've ever made by just entering a single word in the search block or date in the archive block.  I entered SpaceX and here's what I got.) 
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5/29/2012

SPACEX

Last week, another memorable step took place in the transition of our space program.  The federal government space agency, NASA, has stepped aside and American private enterprise is taking over.  SpaceX, a private American corporation, launched a rocket and unmanned space craft into lower Earth orbit and it has docked at the International Space Station (ISS).   This was the second in a series of demonstration launches to prove viability.  The spacecraft, named Dragon by SpaceX, was loaded with supplies for the astronauts staying in the space station.  They will fill it with used goods for its return flight to Earth.  It will fall into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California for recovery by its owners.  

The thrilling part of this, to me, is that SpaceX is only one of six or seven corporations working on the same goals.  Each group is working on its own designs...each trying to do it more quickly, economically.  Each hoping to make its fortune.  American ingenuity will win out.  This is the way capitalism works. 

John Kennedy is lauded for giving us the goal to land on the moon before the end of the decade of the sixties.  That got us there first but probably set back the overall development of a space program by years.  We dumped billions into the project for fifty years and now we are starting over.  Starting over without the government bureaucracy to hold us back.  Starting over without meaningless budgets and wasteful budget fights.  Starting over with people spending their own money and taking the chance of losing it.  Free enterprise will win out.  I hope I'm here to see a good part of it.

3/07/2017

DID YOU KNOW THAT . . .

. . . the Moon does not rotate?  We are always looking at the same side.  Only a few humans have seen the other side.  Now, two with deep pockets have paid Elon Musk of SpaceX to take them on a trip circling the Moon - and back to Earth.  If all goes well, they will see the other side and come back to Earth to tell us about it.  The 45-year-old Musk is the guy who co-founded Pay Pal and Tesla Motors.  His company, SpaceX, is the one that sent a rocket into space last week to resupply the space station and had the booster rocket return to Earth to land in a designated spot.  Hooray!  Keep the government out of the space business as much as possible. 

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Well, SpaceX has done it again.  They launched the most powerful rocket ever made last week;  they called it Falcon Heavy.  It was a test launch.  One of the things it carried into space for the test was a Tesla automobile.  They sent a two-seater convertible into Earth orbit with an astronaut dummy at the wheel.  American ingenuity and American humor.  I love it.  

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