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Posted on 05/22/2012 7:07:20 PM PDT by Kaslin
Free Enterprise: For those worried that America's leadership in spaceflight died with NASA's downsizing, meet SpaceX, a private company that showed Tuesday how capitalism will do what government does and better.
NASA was once the pride of a country fighting a tense Cold War. It planned and executed what is arguably man's greatest achievement. It indeed engineered a giant leap for mankind.
Yet since those lunar landings, the agency has gotten bogged down in politics and bureaucracy, plagued by waste and ambitions that were never reached. Some believe President Obama's decision to cut NASA's budget and the closure of the shuttle program signal the end of manned spaceflight for the U.S. But it doesn't.
In the pre-dawn hours Tuesday, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket that was topped with the company's Dragon capsule. The unmanned Dragon is on course to dock with the International Space Station, where its 674 pounds of food and supplies will be welcomed by the crew on Friday.
On May 31, Dragon will return to Earth loaded with completed science experiments and other gear it will bring back from the space station.
Eventually, SpaceX will put more than hardware and supplies into orbit. It will put men into space.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Thanks Kaslin.
As long I they don’t have TSA screeners!
/johnny
And it's supposed to be good for 10 re-entries from LEO.
sure thing.... let me know the launch date for the next Mars mission
With their Falcon heavy, essentially a triple booster they will be able to throw enough mass into LEO in two launches as the Saturn 5 did but cost much less. Plus they may be able to reuse two of the three boosters.
This could be the space model T. Not new capability, just an order of magnitude cost shift which is just as important.
They burn kerosene as opposed to liquid hydrogen. Can you say V2?
Don’t be duped into believing that our space program can be outsourced fully to private enterprise. It can’t, but this can be a convenient excuse to further dismantle a once a premier world-class agency. Private enterprise, alone, cannot take the long-term risks and and investments that are necessary.
The date from FedGov has always been 30 years away, for the last 40 years.
That's a long wait where the train don't come.
/johnny
Hey, why not just outsource it to China? /s
There will be failures. Just like PanAm failed, and the Crosley Motors car company.
/johnny
Heinlein’s dream of Delos David Harriman may be fulfilled yet.
We will see in the next 2 decades more advancement in space exploration than in the last 50 years.
God Bless NASA for getting us to the moon — but it is time to step aside and let the private sector get ‘er done.
Bullcrap. Government screws up every single thing it touches almost without exception.
SpaceX efforts are "private" and "commercial" only through the loosest of characterizations. They have received well over $ 1 billion dollars in federal money over the years, mostly from DoD and NASA. Moreover, their promises greatly exceed their accomplishments -- to date, their Falcon 1 has two successes out of five attempts (and since rapidly dropped in favor of its successor) while the Falcon 9 has flown twice, not entirely without incident. No SpaceX launch vehicle has yet delivered a single paying commercial (and only one government payload, for Malaysia no less) to orbit.
SpaceX is one of three "high-tech" companies started and owned by Elon Musk, an Obama contributor. His other two companies make an electric car (Tesla) and solar power arrays (Solar Cities). Both of these companies have received DoE grants for development. Three companies, each taking federal dollars -- the grifter's trifecta.
The most egregious part of this bogus "commercial" New Space scam is that it is being marketed to the public as a new direction in spaceflight. In fact, it is merely another form of government contracting and the vehicles go nowhere beyond low Earth orbit, where we have been already going for the last 50 years. This fraudulent portrayal by the current administration and their lackeys is designed to deflect attention away from the fact that Obama has quietly and systematically dismantled the American civil space program.
You are correct.
I don’t think that can be said enough.
This is what I’ve been beating into the minds of FReepers for some time now.. When I think NASA I think America, Old Glory, and ‘UNITED STATES’.. WE. When I see a SpaceX rocket go up I think of a dude with a lot of money with ‘SpaceX’ emblazoned on his oversized Estes rocket and I don’t think ‘WE’ and this less patriotic and less nationalistic mindset is Obama’s motive for crushing NASA and the long traditional history that goes along with it.
The exception must be that thing they're supposed to dock with.
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