That's the name Space X gave the ship the reusable rocket booster is supposed to land on. They had a hard time getting that to work the first time. That's partly why it's named that.
Congratulations to Elon Musk and his private company Space X for taking America back into space! This is a huge day for me. It's the beginning of a new era. Fly safe Bob and Doug.
Here a 20 minute version of the launch from the Canadian news network. References to the Canadian Bob & Doug are to the hosers where you have to have seen them to know, eh.
The planned rendezvous with the ISS is at 10:30 EST this morning. I wish I'd put that in knowing that is 7:30 am on the west coast. I'm sure there will be live coverage on utube.
This is historic on numerous fronts. It's the re-establishment of the USA being able to get into space without needing to hitch a ride. It's the first manned flight by a private company. It's people -not government - that put these people into space.
It's another route to the ISS which matters to every country that sends astronauts there. More importantly, this is the process of validation that opens up space to private enterprise because SpaceX is mastering the ability to get there very cheaply compared the the billions of dollars that the pioneering Apollo and space shuttle cost the government.
Finally, it's a big step in Elon Musk's vision of going to mars. They're planning to open up tourism to outer space on a money making basis. It's also a cheap way of launching satellites which SpaceX has been doing for some time. That will fund the fuller purpose of SpaceX in going to the next step of sending a ship to mars and back.
I’ve been reading my Mother-in-law’s books. Just picking a book off the shelf and reading it. Days before the SpaceX launch I picked up “The Pilgrim Project” from 1964. It’s a novel about a secret project to put a man on the moon before the Russians. I couldn’t put it down. Wolf, you might like it. You can find it on ebay or amazon.
Today I picked out another book. Copyright 1954. When I was born. Main character lost her husband four years ago. He was quite a bit older than she. Her family are Quakers from Rhode Island- Like my ancestors. She meets a man and he takes her for a ride on the “el” and to the Automat! I remember being enthralled with the Automat when I was very young on an infrequent trip to “the city”. It’s pretty interesting. In the 50s you could get a cupcake there for two nickels.
A guy who worked for me on the B-2 program went over to the SpaceX program back around 1997. Wonder if he’s still there. He was the only one who had heard of the Lake where I live now.
Tonight, just an hour or so ago, Space X again launched a rocket this time putting up about 60 new satellites.
The rocket body is in it's fifth flight and this would be the first time they've landed a rocket for the fifth time. It's trying to land on the barge Just Read The Instructions since the barge Of Course I Still Love You is still being towed back from Saturday's flight.
Here's the launch. The real coverage starts at 4:54 where the rest is just music. To skip ahead move the cursor over the image to highlight the timeline along the bottom and move it along that band as close to 4:54 as you can and click there. For those that are interested this is the first time video had captured the rocket faring land without the video breaking up.
Next step is to bring the astronauts back from the ISS which hasn't been decided. It could be next month or it could be four months or so before NASA wants them to return from working on the ISS. The maiden flight from Saturday won't be complete until Bob and Doug are back safely. This is likely to be at least a month or so before they attempt that.