Americans Celebrate SpaceX Starship’s Successful Mechazilla Booster Recovery
Meanwhile, CEO Elon Musk intends to sue the California Coastal Commission for rejecting more SpaceX rocket launches by citing Musk’s X posts.
Americans started their Sunday morning this week celebrating the fantastic accomplishment of the SpaceX team’s fifth Starship test launch, as the spacecraft’s 232-foot Falcon Super Heavy booster rocket returned to the launchpad and was “caught” by a pair of enormous mechanical arms nicknamed “Mechazilla.”
The successful test flight, which took off at sunrise at SpaceX’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, represented an engineering first and provided a glimpse into the future of space travel, starting with a pair of manned NASA missions to the moon in 2026.
..NASA Administrator Bill Nelson also took to X to extend his congratulations to the company.
“As we prepare to go back to the Moon under Artemis, continued testing will prepare us for the bold missions that lie ahead,” he wrote.
What a great catch by Team SpaceX! Catch of the century! pic.twitter.com/VMpjSAtk4w
— Don Wick (@yayavarkm) October 13, 2024
The joy people are having in this success cannot be overstated. The continued pressure of wokeness is applied to science, and technology has been toxic to innovation, exploration, and discovery. The left’s erasure of American heroes and their accomplishments has also deprived our country of icons to look up to and draw inspiration from.
People are noticing social justice brings no added value to physics or engineering.
The SpaceX Starship team that sent a skyscraper into space, and then caught it with giant chopsticks.
Meanwhile, Boeing's space program has 50,000 employees and stranded 2 astronauts in space.
But, at least they received a 100% DEI rating and the designation of “2022 Best… pic.twitter.com/KuhTuBbbe3
— John LeFevre (@JohnLeFevre) October 13, 2024
This catch was one short moment for SpaceX and one critical moment for Americans.
Words can’t describe this incredible rocket. Seeing it up close gives me great pride for the USA. Go @SpaceX 🚀🇺🇸
Stack it, light it, then catch it! #txlege @TXSpaceComm pic.twitter.com/Ji5BJnSaBi
— John Cyrier (@JCyrier) October 11, 2024
Why is this particular test so important? These boosters are expensive, and prior to this development, a new one would have to be built for every launch. SpaceX’s program has just allowed mankind to take a giant leap forward in making space travel a reality.
Mr. Musk’s company, in addition to having built and flown the world’s largest and most powerful rocket, has also demonstrated a key technology needed to make the vehicle completely reusable and able to fly again and again quickly, more like a jetliner than a rocket.
…At 8:25 a.m. Eastern time, the rocket, nearly 400 feet tall, lifted off from the SpaceX launch site near Brownsville, Texas. The upper-stage Starship vehicle, stacked on top of the first stage, known as the Super Heavy booster, will be capable of carrying more than 100 metric tons to orbit.
After the booster successfully pushed Starship upward through the densest part of the atmosphere, it dropped away as Starship continued to head toward space.
The booster then ignited a few of its 33 engines to propel itself back to the launch site. As it fell out of the sky at supersonic speeds, it set off sonic booms that astounded spectators but annoyed some residents.
This is what will matter 1000 years from now , it is an Engineering marvel. @elonmusk /@SpaceX has successfully sent the most powerful rocket to space and brought it back and parked it at its location. ALL IN FIRST ATTEMPT.
This is Interstellar ! pic.twitter.com/a8lxAx6gKS
— Shreyas Dixit (@Shreyas__Dixit) October 13, 2024
Unfortunately for SpaceX, part of its operations involves contending with innovation-killing bureaucrats, this time at the California Coastal Commission.
Apparently, they have denied permits to the company because commission members are unhappy with CEO Elon Musk’s comments on “X.”
SpaceX’s plans to launch more rockets from the California coast were rejected by a state commission this week, with some officials citing Elon Musk’s political posts on X and raising concerns about the billionaire’s labor record at his companies.
The plan to increase the number of rocket blasts into space up to 50 a year was rejected by the California Coastal Commission on Thursday despite assurances from Space Force and Air Force officials that they would increase efforts to monitor the effects that rocket launches have on nearby wildlife.
The military also vowed to mitigate the reach of sonic booms that often span across 100 miles of coastline, an issue that has caused controversy.
Members of the California Coastal Commission commended Space Force and Air Force representatives for reaching an agreement, but some cited their concerns about Musk, the owner of SpaceX, before rejecting the plan.
Among the issues raised were Musk’s decision to insert himself in the presidential race, his spreading of conspiracy theories, the labor record of his companies and derogatory comments he has made about the transgender community.
“We’re dealing with a company, the head of which has aggressively injected himself into the presidential race,” commission Chair Caryl Hart said.
Musk says he intends to sue over the matter.
Incredibly inappropriate. What I post on this platform has nothing to do with a “coastal commission” in California!
Filing suit against them on Monday for violating the First Amendment. https://t.co/bDgFPTdNal
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 13, 2024
I wish Musk all the best success in pursuing the case. We need more innovation, construction and discovery and less political moralizing, social justice, and bureaucracy.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Reprising the different YouTube sites that have been following SpaceX, everyone was in awe of this breakthrough and breathtaking achievement. The speed of the advancement is amazing. The new Raptor 3 engine is 3-D printed with all of the usually seen external tubing internalized. One can sense the “can do!” attitude in all of this. Plus, they are having fun at the same time especially in naming the drone recovery ships. There is a danger that the public will begin to expect perfection, but for now forget Buck Rogers in the 25th century…. it’s Elon Musk and SpaceX in the 21st century. Occupy Space!
It’s amazing what can be achieved when merit is the only criteria used to create teams.
And, in the case of SpaceX, a huge portion of that “merit” is willingness to learn and the humility not to call yourself an “expert.”
And, remember folks: the company that did all this is owned by an African American!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLX35p5XBI0&t=590s
Which proves real African-Americans can not only succeed in America, they can become the richest man in the world.
Okay most won’t manage that, but success is relative – sufficiency versus abundance versus oppression and poverty.
He became so rich yet never had a rap-song hit the charts and – to my knowledge – has never scored hoops on a basketball court!
free market to corrupt government
anything you can do
we can do better
A government agency actually came out and denied permits based on who the owner of a company supports in a Presidential race… and they had zero problem announcing it publicly.
Welcome to Commiefornia. Hopefully, a new regime can get in and slap these local tyrants down.
People should get fired for doing this.
It’s at moments like this – pure Marxism on display in Kalifornia – to remind people that before Reagan signed the 1986 Amnesty Act, California was a reasonably reliable RED state, only voting for the Democrat presidential nominee a handful of times in the 20th century. They had 13 GOP governors and only THREE DNC governors in the 86-years of the 20th century, prior to passing that act. Then, in 1992 – the first year those who received amnesty were becoming eligible to vote – California only voted for DNC president & senators and eventually governors. Now, it’s tone off the most reliably blue state in the Union.
Illegal immigration is the Kryptonite to limited-government.
and made more possible by the welfare state which told americans
not to “worry” about feeding your family etc
cause the taxpayers will subsidize you and also allow you to sell drugs for that boost of an extra income ( which of course was fought against by the government too…again,, a symptom of a welfare state)
Imagine being denied an operation, a drivers license or anything else because of your political opinions. The left will definitely do it if they could
This will be the result of the social credit score system. Lefties appear to love it, since they can’t comprehend how it could be used against them.
Certainly seems like Article 4, Section 4 could be invoked over that one.
My Dad worked for Martin Marietta for decades as an engineer and in management. Titan, Skylab, and the Viking Mars lander. He absolutely loved the space program. I can only imagine what he thought of this incredible mission.
This is a truly insane and magnificent engineering accomplishment that can almost scarcely be believed.
And we went to the moon on July 16, 1969
Right…
We did. If we hadn’t, but claimed we had, the Soviets would have exposed the lie.
Seriously?
Seriously
Van Allen Radiation Belt
Seriously. You’re a moron.
They knew about the Van Allen belt at the time, calculated, and measured the radiation as they passed through it every time. They had probes dedicated to measuring the radiation. They’ve exhaustively studied it in the decades since.
For a human to actually receive a deadly dose of radiation would require them to spend around 2 months in the belt. The astronauts spent nowhere NEAR that amount of time.
By just parroting VAN ALLEN BELT, all you do is verify that you have no understanding of the actual data and science on the belt, and are just spewing out what you read on a dumb conspiracy site that likewise provides no actual data or numbers.
Moon landing conspiracies are for morons desperately trying to believe that they’re ‘smarter’ than normal people.
And again on Nov 19, 1969
And again on Feb 5, 1971
And again on July 30, 1971
And again on April 21, 1972
And again on Dec 11, 1972
And again, you’re a moron.
Ok
Always, and I mean always, when they ain’t got nothing, they try to demean you by calling you names…
Moron… nice
That all you got?
I’ve educated you before with regards to the Van Allen Belts. I came with easily verifiable and well known facts which you have quite obviously ignored. So yes, you ARE an ignorant moron, because your own actions make you so.
Got nothing?
I literally just provided you 5 more dates we went back to the moon, EVERY SINGLE TIME with verifiable data, video, and telescope pictures. And all you can do is whine and spew nonsense.
All I got is the truth. All you got is moronic insinuations and ‘questions’ that have been answered a dozen times over but insist on ignoring the answers because you can’t refute them.
So yeah, you’re a moron.
Do you think that John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, and the rest of myriad astronauts who had “the right stuff,” were all puppets in a U.S. government-sponsored propaganda play? These dudes were all ex-military and tough as nails; that is just not how they conducted themselves and they wouldn’t have been privy to such a campaign, and, would have exposed it if it had been contemplated.
As dotard Biden might say, “come on, gal!”
Dozens of astronauts, hundred of engineers, thousands of NASA personnel, more thousands of the various contractors’ employees would all have had to be in on these alleged pretend moon shots and kept silent about it for the last half century.
That would be impossible.
I’m not sure why its so important for some (quite often virulently anti-Semitic) folks to believe in the fakery of the moon landings, but certainly its not uncommon to find it at various sites.
It’s important because most of them are frankly quite stupid, and its something that lets them believe that they’re somehow smarter than people that are ‘fooled’ by it.
They seize on certain things that SOUND smart like ‘VAN ALLEN RADIATION BELT’, because a decent amount of normies are only passingly aware of it, and act like that invalidates everything. Of course they’re unable to actually provide any FACTS or numbers about the fabled belt, other than DEADLY BELT OF RADIATION, because if they actually did the research they’d realize how stupid they sounded.
It’s no different from the 9/11 nonsense where they seized upon, and kept spewing out JET FUEL DOESN’T BURN HOT ENOUGH TO MELT STEEL. Despite the fact that heating metal to make it softer is literally the entire principle of blacksmithing that has been known thousands of years, they acted like that one single ridiculous ‘fact’ invalidated anything else.
The upper stage completed its mission, too. It hit its target in the Indian Ocean, within camera range of a buoy placed there to film it. It still had some re-entry heat problems, but nowhere near as bad as the last flight.
It hovered above the ocean for a second, then fell, fell over, broke apart and made a spectacular explosion. Part of it stayed on the surface for a while burning. Impressive, but soon enough they’ll be confident enough in Ship’s re-entry capability that they’ll give it another chance to come down on land.
Even with the burn through on the fins it made it down..again. The use of stainless steel was a sound choice. Not as much burn through so they are getting better. Super great video from all angles ….
“SpaceX’s plans to launch more rockets from the California coast were rejected by a state commission this week, with some officials citing Elon Musk’s political posts on X and raising concerns about the billionaire’s labor record at his companies.”
I have a pal who could tell you, off the top of his head, what chapter of “Atlas Shrugged” this occurs in.
Anyone who sues the California Coastal Commission is a hero.
Literally hours after Boeing announcing 10% layoffs.
One of the best pithy analyses of this:
I was fist-pumping while watching it, and grinning from ear to ear.