Elon Musk

[ELB]

And then there’s NASA:

NASA increases cost estimate for SLS development

They’re not saying how much just yet but it triggers a notice to congress which means it’s at least 30% over the baseline established in 2014.

No rockets have flown yet. Maybe end of next year.

[ELB]

Elon's Spacex fired off a reusable Falcon 9 booster from Florida for the seventh time a week ago Tuesday (24 Nov) and recovered it by landing it on one of the recovery barges off the coast of Florida. New world's record for reused and recovered boosters. Also the fairings were recovered for future use. And it successfully launched its 60 satellite payload.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/watc ... enth-time/

The Saturday before that another one of his Falcon 9s launched two government satellites, one from NASA and one from ESA, from Vandenberg. That booster was also recovered, landing on.. well...land. Upright.

He plans to launch a Starship heavy lift rocket prototype this week...maybe today... to 47,000 feet, and land it back at the Boca Chica, Texas, facility. He says there's a 1 in 3 chance it will crash on landing tho. Two more prototypes already built are waiting behind this one.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech ... -week.html

He plans to send Starship to Mars unmanned in 2022, and with a crew in 2026.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/01/elon- ... ur-to-six/

NASA is just hoping they get back to the Moon by then.

[ELB]

...
He plans to launch a Starship heavy lift rocket prototype this week...maybe today...
...

Ok, maybe today (Friday) or this weekend:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/12 ... as-friday/

[ELB]

NOTAM issued that bans flying over the Boca Chica launch site from From December 06, 2020 at 1800 UTC to December 06, 2020 at 2359 UTC.
https://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_0_0092.html

So by my calculations, noon tomorrow to 5:59pm, weather permitting.

Also, Elon is apparently going to be (or is already) a Texas resident. Gov Abbott says Elon has a Texas DL. He is selling or sold all this California houses.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/02/tesla-c ... s-say.html

[ELB]

OK, now it's Tuesday afternoon for Starship. There will be live streaming of event. Once they actually launch it takes only a few minutes, goes up about 8 miles, return to Boca Chica, and hopefully land. Elon things one in three chance it will land succussfully.
https://www.space.com/starship-sn8-star ... ht-webcast

[ELB]

OK, maybe today.

https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2020/1 ... 607438300/

[ELB]

It launched. It achieved some degree of altitude, don't know the numbers yet, engines shut down, it turned horizontal, fell/glided down horizontally for some period, engines reignited and turned it pointy end up again, and it came down tail first right on the landing pad. Unfortunately a little too hard, since it then collapsed into a fireball, but Elon been saying that there was only about 1 in three chance it would stick the landing. This time.

Exciting stuff.

[Chemist45]

Immediately after moving to Texas, Musk announces Tesla AR-15

https://babylonbee.com/news/to-celebrat ... ered-ar-15

The new firearm will look similar to a standard AR-15 but will in fact be a battery-powered railgun capable of firing 3 million rounds per minute. It will also feature a fingerprint sensor, Bluetooth capability, heat-seeking ammunition, and a chainsaw bayonet,

Yes, its a joke - its the Babylon Bee

[Rafe]

Immediately after moving to Texas, Musk announces Tesla AR-15

https://babylonbee.com/news/to-celebrat ... ered-ar-15

The new firearm will look similar to a standard AR-15 but will in fact be a battery-powered railgun capable of firing 3 million rounds per minute. It will also feature a fingerprint sensor, Bluetooth capability, heat-seeking ammunition, and a chainsaw bayonet,

Yes, its a joke - its the Babylon Bee

"We really wanted to re-think self-defense," said Musk. "This new firearm will be the go-to rifle for our SpaceX volunteers when they encounter hostile aliens. It's also a celebration of the Second Amendment. If any federal authorities try to confiscate it, the rifle will automatically connect to the internet and file a lawsuit for you!"

The Federal Government has requested that Tesla at least remove the AI-powered "self-driving" feature on the firearm before selling it.

[ELB]

Brutal comparison of Elon's and NASA's efforts to go to the Mars:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/12 ... an-encore/

Cliff's notes:

Elon has spent about $16 billion to $20 billion of government and private investor money, developed three rocket booster types, three spacecraft types, three rocket engine types, built four launch sites, developed capability for the boosters to land themselves and rapid reuse of them, launched to orbit successfully 105 times, flew 20 resupply missions to the space station, sent crewed spacecraft to the space station twice, put 955 satellites with a working Wi-Fi system in orbit (making SpaceX the world's largest operator of satellites), is developing a new booster and a new spacecraft and a new launch site (Boca Chica) (none of them already counted above) to go to Mars.

NASA has spent $23.7 billion on the Artemis program and launched the Orion spacecraft, unmanned, once. Six years ago. There's another one that's supposed to launch in the next two years, but will still not be capable of carrying crew. The $23.7B does NOT include the SLS booster that Orion is supposed to ride on (which has yet to fly and not even Trump could get them to get it ready by now), nor the Service Module that provides power and propulsion to Orion as the SM is paid for by the European Space Agency.

NASA can't even boost Orion on one of Elon's rockets because Congress had decreed that it must fly on SLS.

[ELB]

LOL.

[Paladin]

Brutal comparison of Elon's and NASA's efforts to go to the Mars:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/12 ... an-encore/

Cliff's notes:

Elon has spent about $16 billion to $20 billion of government and private investor money, developed three rocket booster types, three spacecraft types, three rocket engine types, built four launch sites, developed capability for the boosters to land themselves and rapid reuse of them, launched to orbit successfully 105 times, flew 20 resupply missions to the space station, sent crewed spacecraft to the space station twice, put 955 satellites with a working Wi-Fi system in orbit (making SpaceX the world's largest operator of satellites), is developing a new booster and a new spacecraft and a new launch site (Boca Chica) (none of them already counted above) to go to Mars.

NASA has spent $23.7 billion on the Artemis program and launched the Orion spacecraft, unmanned, once. Six years ago. There's another one that's supposed to launch in the next two years, but will still not be capable of carrying crew. The $23.7B does NOT include the SLS booster that Orion is supposed to ride on (which has yet to fly and not even Trump could get them to get it ready by now), nor the Service Module that provides power and propulsion to Orion as the SM is paid for by the European Space Agency.

NASA can't even boost Orion on one of Elon's rockets because Congress had decreed that it must fly on SLS.

Obama and Lori Garver pretty much destroyed NASA's Human Spaceflight program... Having non-technical political science people like Lori making technical decisions is never a good idea. Its very, very difficult to put a human spaceflight team together. My hat is off to Elon for assembling the best in the world. Now NASA astronauts get to fly on commercial vehicles.

Honestly there are so many vested interests (Congressional districts, current suppliers, major aerospace companies) that NASA is having a ton of difficulties making decisions on a technical basis. It's like with the Ares I rocket... we've got these solid rocket boosters... so lets reconfigure and fly it as Ares I...even though there was no clear path through the substantial technical difficulties.

[Ruark]

Where is Musk on firearms? I haven't been able to find much.

[PriestTheRunner]

Where is Musk on firearms? I haven't been able to find much.

The dude released a wide-scale, commercial flame-thrower company line. I think we all know his stance on guns.

His inclusion into lefty circles and financing, however, likely limits his ability to be vocal about pro-2A.

(For those interested: https://www.boringcompany.com/not-a-flamethrower )

[Rafe]

Well, this sorta sounds like something out of an apocalyptic sci-fi movie...

Geomagnetic storm causes SpaceX's newest fleet of satellites to tumble out of orbit, burn up
https://abc13.com/spacex-starlink-satel ... /11548537/

February 9, 2022

Up to 40 of the 49 small satellites launched last week have either reentered the atmosphere and burned up, or are on the verge of doing so, the company said in an online update Tuesday night.

SpaceX said a geomagnetic storm last Friday made the atmosphere denser, which increased the drag on the Starlink satellites, effectively dooming them....

SpaceX still has close to 2,000 Starlink satellites orbiting Earth and providing internet service to remote corners of the world. They circle the globe more than 340 miles up (550 kilometers).... Each satellite weighs less than 575 pounds (260 kilograms).