November 3, 2024

"Trump Already Wins on Space Program" - Newsmax


President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris may take vastly different policy directions for NASA, commercial space, and defending the high frontier.

Will America lead the world to great accomplishments and opportunities in space, or surrender our lead to China? The stakes are critical for our future and that of the free world.

Americans have been astonished by the grand achievements by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and by NASA over the decades. Soon, NASA and SpaceX will take Americans back to the moon.

President Trump achieved a powerful record of successes. He resurrected the return to the moon that President Barack Obama had abolished. He established the United States Space Force. He recreated the National Space Council for the first time since 1993 and made it a serious policy-making entity.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT NEWSMAX

October 29, 2024

President Trump's Record of Success


Photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

President Trump rescued NASA and our space program at a dark time. President Obama had cancelled our return to the Moon for without logical reasons. 

There's three likely theories. Obama's expressed ideological opposition to anything that looked like 'American exceptionalism.' The possibility that China threatened to block rare earth exports if we dared return to the Moon. Too much of a 'Bush program.' Evidence points to perhaps all three.

Had Obama supported the minor increase in NASA's budget that the Augustine Commission identified would be necessary for the return to the Moon, Congress would have passed it. That was a time of unlimited deficit spending and earmarks. 

But that was not the purpose of the Commission. In Washington, if you want to do something or do not want to do something, but create a 'commission' designed to give you the answer you wanted. The Commission was designed to conclude that returning to the Moon was essentially impossible, not report the actions and budget necessary to return to the Moon.. 

We literally could have a base on the Moon today, and children today could point to 'the light on the Moon' that showed humanity had forever escaped decades of Earth-orbit-bound research and into a bright future of unlimited space exploration.

Today, as a result of Obama's actions, China is racing to beat us to the Moon--and they intend to rule space as they advance towards a world ruled by China and their Communist system. They have an unlimited budget and no political opposition. The stakes are that high; China seeks dominance of space as demonstrated on Earth.

Ye Peijian, the head of China’s military-led Lunar Exploration Program declared China's intentions in 2017:

“The universe is like the ocean: the moon is like the Diaoyu Islands and Mars is like Huangyan Island.”

Those are China’s names for the islands in the East and South China Seas that China seized and militarized in violation of the 400 years of freedom of the seas and the Law of the Sea Treaty; an ominous warning of their goal to similarly dominate outer space.

Kamala Harris's known record of leadership on space is almost non-existent after four years as the Chair of the National Space Council. Aside from embarrassingly-incomprehensible remarks about space and a few prepared speeches, there's little reason to believe she has more interest in space than she did as Border Czar to secure the border. 

The Biden-Harris White House has thrown roadblocks in the way of developing SpaceX's Starship. We cannot expect that would improve under an even more radical Harris-Walz administration--and could result in actively preventing the development of the Starship that NASA has contracted to land astronauts on the Moon as part of Artemis III.

Harris and Walz never congratulated SpaceX for the recent capture of their Starship booster--something that was science fiction until this month. That sends a chilling message.

As a Vice President who would chair the Council (unless it is abolished), Gov. Tim Walz's public statements regarding space have only been to attack Elon Musk for what can only be described as childish and partisan reasons. 

Due to the ideological battle against free speech on the internet, Harris and Walz may carry out threats made by many Democratic Party leaders to actively punish or bankrupt Elon Musk for running X.com. As an example, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich called for arresting Elon Musk and cancelling all government contracts with SpaceX--which would ground our space program, doom the International Space Station, and end the Artemis program to return to the Moon. An administration more focused on 'getting Elon' than advancing space exploration could subject him to multiple investigations and legal charges.

The Coalition to Save Manned Space Exploration judges Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as not just incapable of advancing our space program, but because both are on the hard-left-wing of the Democratic Party, they may repeat Obama's dismemberment of the return to the Moon--which gave China a 20-year head start to claim the Moon. 

President Trump has a proven track record for rebuilding our space program and returning us to the pathways to the Moon and Mars. He will cease the Biden-Harris war on Elon Musk and we'll get to the Moon and Mars far sooner than NASA's current plans and delays would indicate.

As president, Trump will advance America to a bold future of exploration and commerce in space, and advance the day when children will marvel at the 'light on the Moon.'

October 14, 2024

Starship Success!

 

Photo credit NasaSpaceFlight.com

Congratulations to the SpaceX Starship team for a spectacular launch and landing! What was science fiction last week is science fact today. The precision required to ace the landing is incredible. 

This is a major step towards routine Starship operations that can launch huge cargos to orbit, send NASA probes to distant planets, and land American astronauts on the Moon. And one day sooner than most imagine, uncrewed and crewed landings on Mars.

This is the ship that will build bases on the Moon and Mars. This is the ship that will take tourists to orbit for the cost of a luxury cruise. And this is the ship that could provide point to point service to anywhere on Earth in an hour.

We look forward to the next text flights, and hopefully soon, the first test landing on the Moon as part of Artemis.

Godspeed for your next Starship flight.




April 20, 2023

SpaceX Starship Launch: Success or Failure?

The April 20 launch of SpaceX's Starship was eagerly awaited and riveted viewers to their screens amid cheers from the launch team and spectators.

Some say the fact that the rocket blew up and the launch pad was torn up means that the mission was a failure. 

Not so! Elon Musk humorously refers to catastrophic destruction of his spacecraft as "rapid unscheduled disassembly," or "RUD," but SpaceX learns a tremendous amount from such failures. 

Hold that thought, and we'll first go through the four minutes of the launch and flight.

Watch the Video of the Launch!

At T-0, the engines lit and gradually built up thrust. The spacecraft very slowly cleared the pad and rocketed away. 

But the moment the thrust hit the ground, it broke up the cement underneath and dug a huge crater under the launch pad. Enormous clouds of dirt, cement and debris engulfed the rocket and damaged many nearby tanks and other infrastructure. It appears from videos that the force of the dust cloud might have pushed the rocket slightly. 

Due to the absence of a flame trench to safely divert the exhaust, and the absence of a water 'deluge' system to dampen sonic and shock waves, there were no means to limit the damage to the pad or damage to the rocket from flying debris. Virtually all other rocket launches use such systems.

It's possible this debris may have damaged some of the engines and other parts of the rocket.

However, the rocket roared to the heavens, reaching about 25 miles above earth. Along the way it passed a key hurdle, the "Max-Q" point of the maximum dynamic forces on the spacecraft. It continued unfazed.

Along the way, at least six engines failed, causing a loss of about 20% of its thrust. Several bright flashes were observed in the flame plume, possibly when engines or hydraulics failed.

At the point where the second stage was supposed to separate and fly to splash-down near Hawaii, the staging did not occur, and the complete rocket 'stack' was observed to rotate several times, perhaps due to an imbalance of remaining engines or loss of thrust vectoring. Then at the 4-minute mark, it was commanded to self-destruct via the autonomous self-destruct system, designed to prevent an out of control rocket from endangering others.

That's what everyone saw. Now let's look at what went RIGHT.

Elon Musk's low expectations for a completely untested rocket was just hoping it would at least clear the launch tower. Starship aced that!

The SuperHeavy booster flew for four minutes, in spite of several engines failing. The only test in advance had been a seven-second 'static fire' of the engines. 

By contrast, the Artemis SLS rocket core stage was fired for about two full minutes at NASA's Stennis Space Center's test stand, and tested again briefly at the Kennedy Space Center. 

The rocket held together for about three complete spins, experiencing high G-forces.

The autonomous self-destruct system did its job.

So what's that mean?

SpaceX now has terabytes of data to help discover what worked flawlessly or partially, and what failed. 

They learned the hard way that they need a flame trench and a water deluge system. Both at Boca Chica and at the Kennedy Space Center. There's a reason NASA designed launch pads 39-A&B to be as robust as they are.

NASA may over-test, and SpaceX may under-test--but learn via "RUDs." Each method can provide similar data. 'Build-fly-crash-build-fly-crash-build-fly-succeed' method can result in more rapid advancement, whereas the more risk-adverse NASA may take many years longer to arrive at the same eventual result. Because of the lessons learned from the few failed Falcon-9 launches at the beginning, that rocket system may have the best safety record of any launch system.

All this proves the aviation and space industry maxim, "why we test." And from failures come solutions.

'Success' for testing an entirely new spacecraft, that is more powerful than any other rocket in the world, isn't necessarily fully completing the intended flight to Hawaii. Just proving that the massive SuperHeavy booster could fly was a success.

Elon Musk offered the possibility of another launch in a few months. Due to the extent of the damage at the pad, that might be an optimistic estimate, but it's likely that one or two Starships will fly before the end of the year.

Musk congratulated the SpaceX team and declared the test launch a success.

Photo credit: SpaceX

April 18, 2023

Starship Launch Rescheduled for April 21 or Between 23rd and 28th

Get ready to watch the next launch attempt of the SpaceX Starship, now scheduled for the following launch opportunities: April 21, 23-28. Likely sometime between 8:00 and noon Eastern Time.

Check back for updates. As always, launches can be delayed for technical reasons, as well as bad weather or even boats offshore.

Launch coverage at SpaceX.com will begin about 45 minutes before the launch. Various space news sites will have independent coverage starting earlier.

SpaceX Viewing link: https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-test

Starship flight mission profile


Photo credit SpaceX

April 14, 2023

Possible Starship Launch April 17

Possible SpaceX Starship launch on Monday, 8:00-11:00 AM ET. 

Watch live at http://SpaceX.com




Photo credit SpaceX