QUIZ

 "OF COURSE I STILL LOVE YOU"

What is this?

1.  An offended lover's sad promise.

2.  A song by experimental vocal artist Dylan Brady

3.  A sister of "JUST READ THE INSTRUCTIONS"

4.  A spaceship's name in a sci-fi classic

5.  A good name for a boat.

Answer:  All of the above.  

Elon Musk's fabulous company called SpaceX continues to astound me.  In the last two days, it's Falcon 9 rocket propelled an automated Dragon-Cargo space capsule up into orbit.  It made a successful docking with the International Space Station at about 17,500 mph.  Dragon-C carried over 3 tons of food, clothing, supplies, and scientific test materials to the people in the station.  Two of those people were transported there a few weeks ago in a manned Dragon capsule.  

There are many amazing facets to these feats but the most lasting one may be that they are able to return the first stage of the Falcon rocket, the one with the big engines, to Earth and safely land it on a floating ship at sea.  The first stage of the rocket on this trip has now been used four times.  

SpaceX has built two oceangoing autonomous drone ships especially for the purpose of providing these rockets a safe place to land.  Watch it sometime on YouTube, you will be amazed.

Oh, yes.  Musk named the first ocean ship "Just Read The Instructions" and the second "Of Course I Still Love You."  These were the names of space ships in Lain M. Banks' sci-fi novel, "The Player of Games".