Another rocket on the way up and out

[Ranger99]

The "news" people say that a
rocket will soon be on the way
to space with 4 people aboard
to twirl around for a few days
up in the black nothingness.

I wonder if the American taxpayer
took a shot on this one?

[BUGEYE]

I saw the NASA honcho on TV talking about another moon mission to find water to convert to hydrogen and oxygen that will fuel'em up to head on out to mars, which is a total waste of billions of $$s.
Some people just ain't happy unless they are stealing my money and tossing it away on nonsense.

[Dixie-Dude]

Every $1 spent on the space program yields $100 in new technology and products.  The 4 civilians going up is totally paid for by one of the riders.  It is a SpaceX mission NOT NASA or the US government.  SpaceX's rockets, developed by Elon Musk have the only boosters that have ever came back and landed thus drastically lowering costs.  They now have launched 126 successful launches and landed 80 boosters back on earth.  By reusing their rockets SpaceX now launches 75% of the worlds satellites, astronauts to the ISS space station, spy satellites for the military, weather satellites, etc.

SpaceX is a private company and is now building at Boca Chica, Texas, the worlds biggest rocket, without government money.  This rocket will be taking astronauts to Mars within 5-6 years to start a colony on Mars.  This is SpaceX not NASA or the government. 

Look it up and see. 

The space program brought new synthetics, smaller computer chips, more powerful computers, better batteries, better ways to store food.  In the future they will make radio crystals and ball bearings in space.  Ball bearings without machining.  Lots of things have been happening lately.  There is platinum on the moon and is within the possibility of mining the moon. 

Again what SpaceX does is not government money unless the government gives them money to launch something they want to get up.  SpaceX saves the government money thus saving our taxpayer money. 

Oh, FYI, guys ONLY 1% of the TOTAL federal budget goes to the space program.  Most goes to the military and welfare programs. 

[ironglow]

.
  There are definite gains from the space venture.  ...But perhaps it is not something the government should be doing.

  It seems that any task undertaken by government, gets all tangled up in red tape, politics, unions, and just plain old raking off of the funds !

     The fact that it was private industries that began truly saving their launch vehicles for reuse, is just one demonstration of the cost saving done by private industry.

  The whole idea of private industry doing it, could be  a big benefit for the USA.  All other space efforts are by  governments of the world, and rarely does government do things efficiently.

  Entrepreneurs don't take these big risks just for fun however, since in most cases they expect a large return, on a large gamble.  That is to be expected.

[BUGEYE]

Well lets just eliminate NASA if Musk is doing their work.
Private industry is best anyway.

[Dixie-Dude]

Yep, Musk has a 30' diameter 400' tall fully reusable stainless steel rocket with 29 engines delivering 440,000 lbs thrust each for a total of  12,760,000 lbs thrust, ready to launch at Boca Chica Texas, but waiting on the FFA to approve the environmental assessment before they can launch.  All funded by Musk himself.  This is bigger than anything NASA is building or the Saturn V.  Here is the link for some pictures and sketches showing the size difference.  Most news sources are not covering this because it is not controversial enough. 

https://www.bing.com/search?q=Spacex+superheavy+pictures&cvid=04abd2133bd14a5296c9d1802b31e7b4&aqs=edge..69i57j0.8728j0j4&FORM=ANAB01&PC=DCTS

[Dixie-Dude]

Successful launch of the private crew.  Successful landing of the booster.  This was the 81st successful rocket landing for SpaceX and the 127th successful launch.  This was also the second use of the capsule.  It was used last fall to take NASA astronauts to the space station.  SpaceX is the only rocket company that has ever reused their hardware.  Not Boeing, not Lockheed.  Jeff Bezos has not even achieved orbit yet.  Neither has Branson.   

[Ranger99]

I didn't know much about it myself.
I didn't know if it was one of the many
taxpayer boondoggles or not.
It's good that private industry is
paying. It's a wonder that the gubmint
hasn't stepped in to prevent the project
from going forward for whatever
reason they can make up

[Dixie-Dude]

This was a COMPLETELY private adventure.  No government money was used.  As a matter of fact it gets lost in the news, but it was to raise money for St. Jude's children's hospital.  NETFLIX is showing all the information leading up to the launch and after the landing.  The final show about what they did in space will be released on September 30th by NETFLIX. 

Musk has stated for more than 20 years, his entire goal in life is to get to Mars and establish a colony on Mars to make humans multi-planetary.  His companies, like Tesla, Solar city, and the boring company are used to pay for his rocket infrastructure at Boca Chica.  It also doesn't hurt that he now gets 75% of the launches by under bidding everyone else with his reusable rockets.  He won contracts to resupply the space station, to take astronauts to and from the space station, to launch military satellites, weather satellites, and private communications satellites.  He is also launching his own satellites for world wide internet service with his Starlink satellites.  He has launched almost 2,000 of these now.  His cars, Tesla's are made in America with the most American made components of any car company.  His rockets and rocket engines are all made in America.  He has been moving most of his operations out of California and to Texas. 

[BUGEYE]

As a matter of fact it gets lost in the news, but it was to raise money for St. Jude's children's hospital. 

That is the biggest charity with Nancy and me.
So I wish Musk success.

[Dixie-Dude]

They raised $210 million for St. Judes.  Musk gave $50 million.  Musk also has 2-3 more private launches with people scheduled.  One is supposed to be with Tom Cruse going to space for a Mission Impossible movie if they can get NASA to give them permission to go to the space station.