Posted on 11/22/2023 6:48:03 PM PST by algore
Elon Musk once branded Jeff Bezos a 'dilettante' of space exploration, but the Blue Origin founder is poised to beat SpaceX to Mars.
NASA announced Wednesday that it will send two scientific spacecraft to the Red Planet aboard the first Blue Origin New Glenn rocket in August 2024 - a contract that costs $20 million.
Musk's SpaceX company was initially set to carry the NASA payload on a Falcon Heavy rocket in October of this year, alongside NASA's Psyche mission, which was bound for an asteroid.
However, the space agency pulled the additional crafts from the launch because the Falcon Heavy would not put them on the proper trajectory to insert them into Mars' orbit.
The new timeline announcement comes shortly after Musk's Starship rocket - the ship he wants to use to ferry crews to the moon and eventually Mars - blew up in a second launch attempt.
An identical pair of spacecraft making up NASA's Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorer (ESCAPADE) mission will hitch a ride on the unproven Blue Origin New Glenn rocket, each carrying three experiments to investigate the effects of solar winds on the planet's magnetosphere.
This launch is part of a broader NASA effort to use private contractors to get to Mars more cheaply.
The US space agency has made a habit of swinging by our planetary neighbor to drop off orbiters, landers, and rovers, most recently in 2020 with the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter.
NASA's decision is the latest chapter in the billionaire space race between Musk and Bezos, which earlier this year saw each company win separate multibillion-dollar contracts with NASA to go to the moon.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
What an amazing list. You betcha award was political. Just damn.
Punishment for Musk and what he has done with twitter.
“Since SpaceX has very serious technology, only citizens are allowed to get near.”
Not only that, SpaceX is launching the most highly confidential payloads for the National Reconnoissance Office. No non-citizens are getting anywhere near that.
To me it looks like the government has chosen the Leftist bidder. Musk is not on the top of this administration’s chosen winners list. Bezos is.
Fictional Space Craft design attributed to character Professor Flexi Jerkov : image in the 1974 movie "Flesh Gordon"
I saw Bezos Blue Horizon’s ship lifting off and my mind brought up thoughts of the R rated cult classic soft core comedy homage of the Flash Gordon serials of the 1930s.
Just a small six degrees of separation aside, but back in the early 80s when my first wife decided to run a day care, one of the client mom’s was doing a stint as the casting director for the sequel to Flesh Gordon… “Flesh Gordon and the Cosmic Cheerleaders”. It was nowhere nearly as good or as funny or sexy as the original.
Musk doesn’t need NASA. NASA needs Musk. They also still need the Russians.
NASA would go with the Russians, now that Musk is the enemy of the state.
What would be hilarious would be if the Blue Origin gets to Mars and Musk has a crew waiting there with welcome banners.
What rocket? Bezos has never even launched a rocket into space.
NASA chose Bezos because of Musk. It’s one of those bad decisions like technically capable least cost.
If all that money we send to other countries was kept here with billions being put into the space race, we'd be living on mars already.
That would be priceless!
I saw that at the Biograph theatre on Chicago’s North Side back in the ‘70s.
The “Penisaurus” had me in stitches…
The original, that is…
Fun times back then!😎
You have a point!
Hey I hope you have a great Thanksgiving!
It’s not an ideology thing in terms of why I would keep my money on Musk.
Musk’s truly believes in what he is doing and the reasons for it when it comes to space X.
Bezo’s involvement appears to be about his ego.
Oh I’m really rich too, let me do some space stuff… just like Branson’s involvement as well
I agree absolutely, it isn’t about ideology, he just happens to align with many of us on some key things, but in the end, it is because we admire competence.
Musk may be off the wall in many things, but when it comes comes to competence, it isn’t about money. He just knows how to get things done.
He is the polar opposite of affirmative action, especially him being an African American and all...:)
It figures. B O cannot even keep one in the air…so NASA, as usual, chooses the underdog.
“Musk’s truly believes in what he is doing and the reasons for it when it comes to space X.”
Absolutely.
Musk is the 21st century Nikola Tesla just without the money problems.
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