Curmudgeons Corner
Random thoughts on politics, current events, popular culture, and whatever else interests me.
Monday, March 18, 2024
Sunday, March 17, 2024
One of the little-noted facts of modern American politics is how much space, NASA and the military are not partisan political issues.
Shortly after he took office, President Joe Biden indicated that he would continue both Project Artemis, the program to send astronauts back to the moon and eventually Mars, and the Space Force, the new military branch charged with operating in space. Since President Donald Trump started both Artemis and the Space Force, Biden’s decision to retain them was met with surprise and delight by many.
However, President Biden differs from his predecessor and potential successor in one policy that could affect the commercial space sector adversely. Whereas Trump favors tax cuts, the better to stimulate economic growth and job creation, Biden supports a soak-the-rich policy that he claims will address the deficit and restore “fairness” to the tax code.
Saturday, March 16, 2024
Starship returned to integrated flight testing with its third launch from Starbase in Texas. While it didn’t happen in a lab or on a test stand, it was absolutely a test. What we achieved on this flight will provide invaluable data to continue rapidly developing Starship.
On March 14, 2024, Starship successfully lifted off at 8:25 a.m. CT from Starbase in Texas and went on to accomplish several major milestones and firsts:
For the second time, all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy Booster started up successfully and completed a full-duration burn during ascent.
Starship executed its second successful hot-stage separation, powering down all but three of Super Heavy’s Raptor engines and successfully igniting the six second stage Raptor engines before separating the vehicles.
Following separation, the Super Heavy booster successfully completed its flip maneuver and completed a full boostback burn to send it towards its splashdown point in the Gulf of Mexico.
Super Heavy successfully lit several engines for its first ever landing burn before the vehicle experienced a RUD (that’s SpaceX-speak for “rapid unscheduled disassembly”). The booster’s flight concluded at approximately 462 meters in altitude and just under seven minutes into the mission.
Starship's six second stage Raptor engines all started successfully and powered the vehicle to its expected orbit, becoming the first Starship to complete its full-duration ascent burn.
While coasting, Starship accomplished several of the flight test’s additional objectives, including the opening and closing of its payload door (aka the pez dispenser,) and initiating a propellant transfer demonstration. Starship did not attempt its planned on-orbit relight of a single Raptor engine due to vehicle roll rates during coast. Results from these demonstrations will come after postflight data review is complete.
Starship went on to experience its first ever entry from space, providing valuable data on heating and vehicle control during hypersonic reentry. Live views of entry were made possible by Starlink terminals operating on Starship.
The flight test’s conclusion came during entry, with the last telemetry signals received via Starlink from Starship at approximately 49 minutes into the mission.
While our team reviews the data collected from this flight, Starship and Super Heavy vehicles are preparing for upcoming flights as we seek to increase our launch cadence throughout the year.
Friday, March 15, 2024
Thursday, March 14, 2024
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Monday, March 11, 2024
Sunday, March 10, 2024
Adm. Richard Truly, former astronaut and NASA administrator, recently passed away at the age of 86.
His death has been met with accolades for his accomplishments as a naval aviator and astronaut. But his term as NASA administrator during George H. W. Bush’s presidency was fraught with controversy. Truly was the only NASA chief to have been fired by the president who appointed him.