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| Science & Technology |
| TheSpace Age is making a comeback, but it's cheaper this time with SpaceX. |
| 2020-06-04 |
| Puppy-blender in USA Today Though the news is filled with stories of riots and a pandemic, the most transformative things going on at present are in a totally different sphere. One of those things is pretty obvious, the other less so. The obvious transformation involves SpaceX’s successful launch of a human crew into orbit, the first such launch involving an American spacecraft in nearly a decade, and the first such launch ever by a commercial spacecraft. D. D. Harriman to the white courtesy phone This is huge, but in a sense, nothing new: We were launching people into orbit over 50 years ago, after all. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule is bigger and fancier than a Gemini, but the mission profile is not all that different. And of course, our last mission to orbit, on board a space shuttle, was basically old hat itself. But SpaceX is doing it for much less, and that’s revolutionary. To get a kilogram into orbit on the space shuttle costs $54,500. To do the same thing with SpaceX’s newest rocket, the Falcon 9, costs $2,720. That’s basically a twenty-fold reduction in cost. Lots of things that are too expensive to do at $54,500 become doable at $2,720. And SpaceX isn’t standing still. Its Starship reusable rocket, under development now, is to cost a mere $2 million per launch, and Elon Musk says its cost per kilogram to orbit will be at least 10 times lower than the Falcon 9. There are a lot more things that become doable at $272 per kilogram. At those prices, things like space tourism, space hotels, lunar mines and asteroid mining become feasible. Unless, of course, commercial space companies will be subject to affirmative action quotas. |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #14 And SpaceX has gotten a few hundred billion from the taxpayer too. Just sayin. Excuse me? How much? I think you better check your numbers there. SpaceX hasn’t received more than about $5billion, which is way short of your grossly exaggerated number pulled from your fundament. |
| Posted by: Phineter Turkeyneck6202 2020-06-04 23:30 |
| #13 Imagine. At the Nuremburg trials, it was "I was just following orders." At the Annapolis and West Point Trials it will be "I was just listening to Twitter..." |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2020-06-04 14:32 |
| #12 Well, if we have to really clean house... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2020-06-04 14:30 |
| #11 The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised, will not be televised... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2020-06-04 14:28 |
| #10 ^ There is no progress. We're back to 1969. Black Panthers => BLM Weathermen => Antifa. Only worse, much worse: Now the Pentagon brass, our corporate leaders and the entire Democratic Party stands with the savages. |
| Posted by: Lex 2020-06-04 14:20 |
| #9 Unless,of course, commercial space companies will be subject to affirmative action quotas. In snarkum veritas. Want to know what ultimately poisoned our original space program? The adoption and society-wide spread of the mindset expressed in the following: |
| Posted by: charger 2020-06-04 14:06 |
| #8 How many people here would be more offended if someone desecrated a copy of the Augustine Report than the Bible? |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2020-06-04 11:41 |
| #7 How many of you are gonna vote for gun grabber Mark Kelly because "muh astronaut?" |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2020-06-04 11:38 |
| #6 A well run space program should be as uneventful as keeping potholes filled. The hero worshippers should look at the post about Mattis. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2020-06-04 11:36 |
| #5 Sadly if this had happened under Obama we might have seen the nation rally behind it but now, in the Orange-man Bad world it'll be about stopping the wasted resources and ransacking of the solar system!. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2020-06-04 11:17 |
| #4 And SpaceX has gotten a few hundred billion from the taxpayer too. Just sayin. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2020-06-04 10:53 |
| #3 Important to point out Boeing, Northrup, Raytheon et al. are all commercial companies. They have had cozy monopoly relationships with the US military and NASA, but they are still companies anyone can buy stock in. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2020-06-04 10:52 |
| #2 As it exists now, Vulcan is still one use, but at least it doesn't have Russian engines. Still, ULA is falling further behind every day. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2020-06-04 08:41 |
| #1 Well, ULA and it's predecessors' business model was based on knowing the gummint would buy their overpriced one-use product. The game has changed now. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2020-06-04 08:34 |