Oh, no! Mankind might finally be on the verge of spreading life to the rest of the universe. Better crap on it lest people – worse, Americans – gain a measure of hope and optimism.
Remember when Boeing was a company of engineers, a company that could get the job done?
Sigh.
We've determined #Starliner will return to our factory for deeper-level troubleshooting of four propulsion system valves. With @NASA, we've decided to stand down for this launch window to make way for other national priority missions.
More: https://t.co/oycWeRz156 pic.twitter.com/UzCZN66451
— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) August 13, 2021
As should be well known hereabouts, I have great hopes for SpaceX. That’s both for their ability to get craft such as Starship working, *and* to make spaceflight far cheaper. But in order for them to truly succeed at the latter goal, they will need to be challenged by a realistic competitor. I would rather by far that SpaceX’s greatest competitor be another American company. Boeing, historically *should* have been one of those competitors.
They are not.
A 1963 USAF report describes work on an emergency “space suit.” It’s meant to be something that can be worn as a normal outfit and then zipped up at a moments notice in the event of a pressure drop. This includes a flexible helmet with a flexible “faceplate.” the end result looks like something out of a bad 1970’s pre-Star Wars disco-era sci-fi flick. Note, though that the actual test item is substantially less Giant Polyester Leisure Suit Lapels and more Cheap Plastic Poncho.
Forwards:
SpaceX stacked Starship onto Super Heavy:
Ship 20 and Booster B4 have been stacked!! 🤩🚀🔥@NASASpaceflight pic.twitter.com/Vm8Uqa1N1C
— Mary (@BocaChicaGal) August 6, 2021
Backwards: anything Boeing.
Forward: smaller private space enterprises:
Substantial grid fins…
Booster B4 has been stacked in the high bay. Look at those grid fins! 🤩🚀@NASASpaceflight pic.twitter.com/9NRwNJIngO
— Mary (@BocaChicaGal) August 1, 2021
Many Raptors are installed on B4. 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Join us live at – https://t.co/V9tgT0VtZn
@NASASpaceflight pic.twitter.com/20QBxAB2Vj
— Mary (@BocaChicaGal) August 2, 2021
Two boxes with fifty copies of “SR-71” showed up yesterday. Woo! These will be signed and with any luck at all sold.
As previously mentioned, I’m working on a pair of 18X24 prints to go with the signed copies. if you’re on the mailing list, you should have recently received a message (or three… email continues to be problematic) about this.
Here’s a glimpse of the work in progress.
The first SpaceX Super Heavy prototype fired three of its Raptor engines for what looks like about two seconds:
It’s a start.
Full transparency: I visited Blue Origins office in Seattle a while back and dropped off my resume, aiming to be a conceptual designer. That was… 2003, I think? I’m sure they’ll get back to me on that any day now.
Anyway, tomorrow (Tuesday) morning the plan is for Jeff Bezos and three other passengers to ride the New Shepard rocket to the edge of space at 6:30 AM central time.
They say they’re going to fly passengers to space today. Livestream:
UPDATE 1: Stephen Colbert is hosting. It’s cringe. *Really* cringe. Oh-God-Make-It-Stop cringe. But the aircraft seems to be in flight anyway…
UPDATE 2: Successful launch, they’ve reached apogee. The rather chipper talking head is not as cringeworthy as Colbert, but she’s still cringey in a “Dear Leader” sort of way.
UPDATE 3: Landed safely. This would be the best space story of the year… if this was 2015 or so. As it is, “SpaceX launches it’s bajillionth re-flight of a Falcon 9 booster” or “SpaceX sends yet more people to the ISS” kinda has “a few people got a few minutes of microgravity” beat.
