Winning in Space!
A reader with the alphanumeric name of DGG3565 write in to add to our celebrations of pure win:
Can I offer some other winning as well?
Right now, Elon Musk and SpaceX are simultaneously building suborbital (“Starhopper”) and orbital test platforms for their next rocket–the one slated to take people to Mars–down in Brownsville/Boca Chica, Texas (livestream channels here and here).
It will be fully and rapidly reusable, cheaper to launch than a Falcon-9, have a payload capacity of a hundred or more tons (approaching that of a Saturn-5), be constructed of stainless steel (image here), land on its fins, and there’s already a paying customer that will use it for a Moon shot in 2023 (#dearMoon, which will take six to eight artists and musicians around the Moon).
They’re developing it at a pace four times faster than the reusable Falcon-9. Moreover, this rocket is equipped with full-flow staged combustion engines, the “holy grail” of rocketry. They already did an ignition test today, are slated to begin tests with the suborbital platform this week, and plan to hold the first tests with the orbital platform later this year. They plan to build the rocket at factories in Boca Chica and Cape Canaerval. Add to that that Blue Origin is developing their reusable New Glenn rocket (slated for 2021) which will also be built at Cape Canaveral. That doesn’t even count the glut of private launch startups, or the companies developing commercial fusion power.
The Trump administration and NASA director Jim Bridenstine are all-in on commercial space. The administration has issued space policy directives 1, 2, and 3 to streamline federal regulations and smooth the way for private space. Space policy directive 4 kicks off the formation of the United States Space Force, while a unified space command is being created in the interim.
Everything’s starting to look so retro-future, I’l think put in a pre-order for my jet pack, hover board, and flying car.
You had me at suborbital, but I fell head over heals at “Mars” and, yes, by the time I got to “Land on its Tail Fins” I will in Heinlein heaven.
This is a great time to be a alive in the greatest nation God ever blessed on this green Earth.
And, God willing, if we as a nation eschew our godless socialist perversion of all this is holy, repent our corruptions and filth, atone for our sins and return to our fountainheads of strength and hope, perhaps we will be the greatest nation ever to establish permanent bases and colonies off this green Earth as well.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
