The eight miserable years of ObamaNation ended and we may be back in the game in Space within a month or so.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA and SpaceX are now aiming for a March debut of the first capsule from a private company designed to fly astronauts to the International Space Station.
No one will be on board for the crew Dragon’s inaugural test flight to the orbiting outpost.
Officials on Wednesday set March 2 as the latest launch date. If the demo goes well, two NASA astronauts will take a test flight in July aboard the SpaceX capsule.
It would be the first launch of U.S. astronauts into orbit, from U.S. soil, since NASA’s shuttle program ended in 2011.
Boeing, meanwhile, is shooting for an April launch of its first Starliner capsule without a crew. The first Starliner flight with astronauts would be August at best.
IIRC, there were more than a few spats with NASA in even allowing this to go forward.
I think we hit "Peak NASA" with the Apollo program…..
The erosion of 44's legacy continues. Hurrah!
The Earth is just too small and fragile a basket for the human race to keep all its eggs in. –Robert A. Heinlein
Nice to see NASA is no longer trying to make Muslims feel better.
It's so hard to believe that was ever a thing…
Kick islamic feelings to the curb (and the moslems too while you're at it). We have a lot of catching up to do.
The SPACE FORCE needs reliable craft.
That stubby looking space unit on the right looks like the one Matt Damon used in "The Martian" to make his rendezvous with his rescuers. Maybe not quite as meaty, though.
NASA was meant for space exploration, not trying to enlighten us on the contributions the Muslims have given to the world. That could have been done in one of the shortest books ever printed. Another Obama failure.
Yes, those were halcyon days, and after that it sort of devolved. Entropy?
President Trump is working hard to make America great again, despite the sustained efforts of the Deep State.
Yes, I know, Ed, but it certainly was. President Obama felt bad that the Muslim nations never accomplished much besides allowing Americans to build oil wells for them.
When that becomes the MISSION of any part of a SPACE AGENCY, you have some serious leadership issues — which we had. I'm glad that Barack is gone and that his legacy (if you want to call it that) is dust.
They're coming LSP. Your boys would make good Starship Troopers. They need to heed the call.
I wonder if the designers took their plan from the film? I sincerely hope not, but you never know.
X2 John.
Very good thing. About time we put our own astronauts in space again.
And even Apollo was problematic. The Apollo 1 fire showed many of the same problems that brought about the loss of two shuttles. It had already become a big government bureaucracy.
It's about damn time!
DanH
There was an interview worth watching from Verge, about the first astronauts who will fly on the SpaceX capsule. The key point is about the 2:15 or 2:20 mark. One of the astronauts is talking about how hard it was to change procedures or anything at NASA, while at SpaceX, they just get it done. Anyone you ever meet who worked for NASA, or even contracted to them, would tell you the same story.
Arthritic bureaucracies don't conquer new frontiers. They don't "boldly go where no man has gone before".
Everybody I know who worked for or with (myself included) NASA will tell you the same story…."The spacecraft won't be ready to fly until the stack of paperwork exceeds the height of the Launch Vehicle".
SpaceX has an interesting ring to it…
I will second that. I worked colaterally on the Scout Launch rocket calibrating test equipment. It was so hard to change test procedures approved by NASA that they were using 20+ year old test equipment in the early 1990's.
From the test technicians, I found out that the launch vehicle was using electro-mechanicl control systems from the 1950's and 60's.
While I have my issues with Elon Musk, SpaceX and its fellow travellers are more likely to get the U.S. ahead in space than Boeing, Lockheed-Martin and their crowd as the latter are somewhat in the same league as NASA.
It's expensive to do business with the Federal Government. Boeing, Lockheed and their ilk have been doing it so long that they have morphed into an extension of that federal bureaucracy, paperwork and all. The newer private space agencies have a different profit incentive and seem to have slimmed down a lot that the cumbersome federal red tape created. Let's hope.
I've heard criticism of Musk, and friends, but he seems to be right out there at the tip of the spear when it comes to building machines that will go into space.
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