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[20200530_203823 UTC: UPDATE: Launch was successful, all systems nominal, first stage successfully landed on the drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You", and Ben and Doug are on their 19-hour flight to the ISS (International Space Station). Live coverage continues all the way through docking.]
Today's the day— weather permitting, America is returning to space:
During Wednesday's technically smooth countdown, NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken came within 17 minutes of launching before a scrub due to poor weather. Now the crew will suit up and try again on Saturday despite still iffy weather.
SpaceX is working toward an instantaneous launch at 3:22pm ET (19:22 UTC). The big concern again today is the development of thunderstorms near the launch site this afternoon, which could violate a number of weather criteria, including not just precipitation, but also residual electric energy from lighting in the atmosphere. Overall, the chance of acceptable weather at launch time is about 50 percent, forecasters estimate. They are also watching for down-range conditions in case an emergency abort is required during the rocket's ascent to space.
This is nothing new for NASA or U.S. human spaceflight. As the commander, Hurley, noted on Twitter Friday that his first space mission in 2009 scrubbed five times for weather or technical issues before it finally lifted off. "All launch commit criteria is developed way ahead of any attempt," Hurley said. "This makes the correct scrub or launch decision easier in the heat of the moment."
It has been such a long, long road for NASA and SpaceX to reach this moment—thousands of engineers and technicians have labored to design, develop, test, and fly hardware for the Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket over the last decade. But now the hardware and crew are ready, and at just the right time, to go fly.
[...] A combined NASA and SpaceX webcast will begin today at 11am ET (15:00 UTC).
Launch is scheduled for exactly 2 hours from the time this story goes live.
You can also join the discussion on channel #Soylent on IRC (Internet Relay Chat).
Link to the YouTube Live Stream.
National Weather Service Current Conditions and Forecast and Hourly Forecast Graph.
Interactive, real-time lightning map
Twitter feeds for NASA, SpaceX and Elon Musk.
Recently:
(2020-05-27) SpaceX to Launch Crew Demo 2; Weather Causes Today's Launch to be Scrubbed; Try Again Sat.
(2020-05-27) SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-2 Launch Timeline
(2020-05-26) Spacex - Crew Dragon Demo 2 Launch - 2020-05-27 20:33 UTC (16:33 EDT)
(2020-05-13) SpaceX Crew Dragon Simulator Challenges You to Dock with the ISS, and It's Not Easy
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday May 30 2020, @05:38PM (2 children)
The forecast links look terrible.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @05:47PM (1 child)
Trump jinx, again.
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Saturday May 30 2020, @05:49PM
It got jinxed decades ago:
https://www.currentresults.com/Weather-Extremes/US/wettest-states.php [currentresults.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by martyb on Saturday May 30 2020, @06:39PM
"Go for propellant load"
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Saturday May 30 2020, @06:55PM (8 children)
The photos of astronauts wearing the new spacesuits look like they are wearing a two piece ensemble that is open at the waist. How do you pressurize that? Apparently the specs have not been made public, but reports I’ve read say that the suit weighs about half of their predecessor NASA equivalents.
Is EVA possible? What about a loss of cabin pressure? Very little discussion of this to be found in the tech press that I can find— just a lot of blathering about how stylish they look...
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Saturday May 30 2020, @06:59PM (6 children)
They are not spacesuits. They are "flight suits".
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/astronauts-test-out-their-new-flight-suits-180972882/ [smithsonianmag.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @07:07PM
Also fits around XXL Depends® adult diapers.
(Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Saturday May 30 2020, @07:30PM (4 children)
Fine. They are “flight suits”. What kind of pressure differential can they support and for how long?
I understand that there are trade offs relative to how you distribute life support redundancies, but I’d still like to know more about the suits. Guess the millions of us curious tech types are too dumb to understand.
Works well on an unprotected mannequin floating in a Tesla though!
(Score: 2) by NateMich on Saturday May 30 2020, @08:02PM (1 child)
The old space shuttle orange pumpkin suits were also just flight suits.
Since you asked though, I'll take 5 seconds to search for an article for you:
https://everydayastronaut.com/up-close-and-personal-with-spacexs-space-suit/ [everydayastronaut.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Saturday May 30 2020, @08:08PM
Rupert wants numbers and facts, not photos.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by martyb on Saturday May 30 2020, @08:02PM
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @09:35PM
One of the purposes of a flight suit is to protect the astronauts in case of a loss of cabin pressure, so they have to be capable of handling pressure down to zero.
They're still not real space suits, though. They require a connection to on board oxygen, and they aren't designed to withstand the external space environment. Doing an EVA in one would be "Martian" level improvisation.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @08:38PM
The shark here is. “Hey austro-nut, Disney.wants its costumes back!”
Then watch them ride in a Tesla Ad followed by a military armoried vehicle. I guess they would shot it the Astro-mutes tried to run.
Lastly seeing the destoried launch pad 39-a. I wanted to see the crawler crawl out and smashed those SpaceX buildings. Now that would be a MONSTER TRUCK event!
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Saturday May 30 2020, @07:35PM (27 children)
Booster landed on drone ship, Dragon separated from upper stage.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Touché) by stormreaver on Saturday May 30 2020, @07:41PM (1 child)
Everything was flawless.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @08:14PM
White rocket containing white males kneeling on the neck of black space. Flawless.
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Saturday May 30 2020, @07:45PM (20 children)
Paraphrasing: Bridenstine says his predecessor Bolden fought hard for this program when it wasn't getting support from Congress.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Funny) by takyon on Saturday May 30 2020, @07:48PM (19 children)
UH oh, he said he hopes the launch inspires a young child to become the next Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or Richard Branson. EAT HIM ALIVE!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @08:12PM (7 children)
Trump launching this rocket is a blatant racist affront to george floyd and all the protestors. I cant imagine anything more dispespectful to minorities for Trump to do right now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @08:36PM (2 children)
no, it is just a desperate measure by a clown trying to snag some glory from anyone, anything, instead of dealing with his chaotic shit storms.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday May 30 2020, @10:26PM (1 child)
The launch has been planned for years, and the launch dates were set by NASA and SpaceX.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @11:11PM
You are just parroting republican talking points.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @09:23PM
Trump didn't launch the rocket. He'd never be able to get it up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @09:56PM
Leave the trolling to the MSM!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @01:25AM (1 child)
I was just thinking how unfortunate the timing was, the more things change ....the more they stay the same
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/05/gil-scott-herons-poem-whitey-on-the-moon/239622/ [theatlantic.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @03:35PM
Looking at things from a different perspective there's also the saying, 'When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.' That statement was made by a man who lived about 2,500 years ago.
If we spent our time since then trying to solve all of these petty problems instead of just moving society forward, it's likely that society and technology today would look pretty much as it did 2,500 years ago. Some guy acted like idiot, the police killed him. I do care about this issue because I think police brutality is not really helping anybody, but among the list of priorities for society it ranks nowhere meaningful. It'd be one thing if police were randomly assaulting people, but they're not - they are attacking people who actively and intentionally provoke them. That doesn't justify their behavior, but it minimizes the negative consequences of it. Don't act like an idiot to police and they won't act like idiots towards you - regardless of race, religion, or creed.
Beyond this, what do you want to do? People chimping out over another dead idiot is not only going to fail to achieve anything productive whatsoever, but will likely end up doing the exact opposite of what the rioters ostensibly think they want. After the LA riots the LA police didn't suddenly go 'Oh dang, we should be a bit more careful about beating the shit out of people in the future.' They instead decided 'We need to be able to crush these sort of riots more effectively in the future.' and became even more militarized and relentless. The riots end up creating the very cause the police will use to become even more militarized which trends towards greater brutality. This whole thing is an endless circle of people, on all sides, responding to stupidity with even more stupidity.
By contrast it's not out of the question that America could be colonizing other planets within 10-20 years. And that would completely reshape not only our society but our entire species. Imagine something akin to manifest destiny except without the nastiness involved when that destiny already is claimed by somebody else, and one that basically never ends. *That* is one potential future for humanity - a time of literally endless fruits for any who seek them. And today we just got a whole lot closer to achieving this future.
(Score: 1) by Frosty Piss on Saturday May 30 2020, @09:19PM (10 children)
Bezos and Branson are not serious contenders for any real NASA work - both operate Vanity Projects. Bezos was included in the moon thing because he has enough money to make a stink if they leave him out, but he’s got nothing to offer. Quite frankly Boeing is on the edge of being an “also played” ... who would want to fly on their suicide mission?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @09:27PM
It might be safer than a 737 Max 8.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday May 30 2020, @10:20PM (8 children)
Christopher Ferguson, Michael Fincke, and Nicole Aunapu Mann.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by Frosty Piss on Saturday May 30 2020, @11:04PM (7 children)
Only because they drew the short straws and so lost out on the Crew Dragon.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday May 31 2020, @01:58AM (6 children)
True, but if they wanted to bitch out, they could do so at any time, and there are backup crew members ready to step in. Since they aren't quitting, they are *likely* confident that they won't become burnt stardust. Or they are crazy/suicidal.
Either way, looks like SpaceX will fly a 4 astronaut mission before Boeing even takes off. If the Starliner problems are worse than originally thought, Boeing could be cut out of the program entirely. I think they will fly though.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @04:03PM (3 children)
I find most the stuff you say pretty reasonable, but I have no idea where you're coming from on this one. These guys have all spent their entire lives building up their careers. If they back out, those careers are dead. They have 0 choice here. On the other hand, every single one of them was a military test pilot. And requirement #1 there absolutely is prioritizing adrenaline over safety. You get to test out the most cutting edge hardware there is, but the price you pay is one of life expectancy.
So I do think they'll all fly on it, but these guys are all brilliant and I think there's 0 doubt they all also recognize that this is probably going to be one of the most dangerous missions they've ever taken on. Boeing's pad abort was a failure with only 2 of 3 of their chutes deploying under nominal conditions. They got NASA to call it a success and let them move on to a test flight. And that test flight was a complete and utter catastrophe in every single way imaginable short of the pod outright blowing (or burning) up. And even there they nearly got NASA to let them go straight to flying humans. Boeing has enough political clout to let them get through this while being held to a far lower standard than SpaceX is being held to and that's not good for anybody, but most of all - for these test pilots. They're putting their lives at risk to test second rate hardware that should have long since been scrapped.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday May 31 2020, @05:02PM (2 children)
They definitely have choices, and they can throw a wrench in the works and accept whatever consequences come. They aren't mindless adrenaline-seeking automatons and they would like to fly in a spacecraft that works. They themselves could probably squash Boeing's flight (which has already been postponed to 2021) by raising concerns, and they have a better chance of doing it now that SpaceX has been successful.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @06:19PM (1 child)
Were you just watching the news conference from the ISS by chance? You should be able to catch it by zooming through this [youtu.be] video at the tail end. I had a lot of hopes for Bridenstine and I do think at the beginning of his tenure that he was everything we need. But I have no idea how congress/Boeing does it, but they corrupt pretty much everybody. After this docking was completed flawlessly, he went on to praise this as the advent of the Artemis project, their partners for the moon program, and went on some babbling identity politics things before to finally conclude non-ironically stating that he's more popular than ever on Twitter and it's thanks to these astronauts. And that was literally his entire spiel. He mentioned SpaceX literally once, in passing.
This is, with 0 hyperbole, one of the most important achievements in human spaceflight ever achieved primarily thanks to SpaceX, and it was Boeing + identity politics + I'm popular on Twitter. He's like an entirely different person and has absolutely checked out from everything and is just doing the real life equivalent of shit posting while peddling for Boeing. Even the astronauts seemed taken aback and were the ones repeatedly mentioning SpaceX. He managed to make Ted Cruz sound thoughtful and insightful, by contrast. No I definitely think speaking out, or really showing anything short of unadulterated love for Boeing, in this environment is as good as resigning.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday May 31 2020, @06:55PM
I'm looking at it. It starts at 3:13:00 in your link.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @04:18PM (1 child)
And you know what the worst part here is? We might like to imagine that even if the worst happens, well at least it would change things. But it wouldn't. We are watching, in real time and in public view, exactly what happened with Challenger. Challenger should not have flown. The direct of the solid rocket motor project refused to sign off on a launch recommendation for the *exact* [nasa.gov] reason that ended up causing the rocket to explode. But NASA pushed ahead because special interests demanded that rocket get off the ground. They're doing the exact same thing again. Boeing and whoever's souls they clearly own are pushing NASA to let them go ahead and NASA is acting spineless as usual.
And once again if this launch ends up with a catastrophe there will be some investigation, some tearful and charismatically delivered speeches, thousands of pages of documentation and blabbering written down, probably a scape goating or two, and then they'll get back to doing the exact same thing again. I just find it so frustrating. I guess the one good thing we have now is this milestone itself. The government, of which I include Boeing, are no longer the forces behind human space flight. SpaceX is a completely private company, and they just sent two men to the ISS. Regardless of NASA, space and even American space in particular, will continue to rapidly grow and progress.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday May 31 2020, @06:05PM
Go Fever for Boeing to launch is going to be reduced considerably. Boeing can no longer embarrass SpaceX by beating it to the first crewed launch. It's possible that SpaceX's Crew-1 and Crew-2 missions will fly before Boeing can fly. They won't get away with the same level of risk at this rate. The political backing of Boeing can only go so far. Their recent lunar proposal was thrown into the garbage can:
New document reveals significant fall from grace for Boeing’s space program [arstechnica.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Saturday May 30 2020, @07:47PM
👍
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @09:14PM (2 children)
too bad we gotta wait for all the new-from-scratch high tech parts to come back together down to sub millimeter precision for the next launch ... oh no wait... how long for stage one to harbour, eh?
in a society with one way hygen plastic wrap since birth i do feel the REAL feet was totally kindda like ignored?
thanks "i still love you"!
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Saturday May 30 2020, @10:31PM (1 child)
It's not exactly the first time a Falcon 9 booster has been landed. They've done it over 50 times.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @12:37PM
Now did it really land? We did not see that because of signal outage in just that moment. Empty pad [signal lost] rocket standing on pad. This proves it. Earth is flat!
(Score: 3, Funny) by fishybell on Saturday May 30 2020, @07:48PM
I guess now we all just watch, still on the edge of our seats, for the next 19 hours for them to dock, then another 2 and 1/2 before they actually get on board the ISS!
Sunday Sunday Sunday! Tickets for the whole seat are $5, but you're only gonna need the edge!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @09:31PM (4 children)
execellent!
i hope the next "cargo" (to the iss) will be the design team for the raptor(?) engine.
paid 3 week holiday. nothing to do but purge gravity from their minds and figure out that warp drive thingy ^_^
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @09:55PM (3 children)
Next step is to send a black man to the ISS. And then a cop to kill him,
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @10:02PM (2 children)
srsly? this is like a totally american thing, right?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @07:21PM (1 child)
worry not. the law on the future moon colony sayz that on arrival everybody will get a injection from a friendly german scientist that will turn the arrivalist white. however, if arrested and sent to moon prison a injection will be given to turn them black ...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @07:24PM
and sent to the helium3 mines.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @11:53PM (1 child)
Watched the MSM news and no mention of Musk's name. CBS showed his face in a collage of images and mentioned "he was an immigrant", otherwise they only mentioned it was organized by a private company.
I guess Musk is almost unpersoned in the MSM after he ripped the mask off California's Covid-19 farce.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @04:27PM
He's been unpersoned by the media for a long time now. He doesn't play ball with them, and so they have been taking aim at him for some time now.
For instance when one media type asked him “Do you think it's in the interest of powerful people to A: support a free press that exposes their lies, or B: tear it down so their lies are easier to tell?” he responded [twitter.com] : “Who do you think *owns* the press? Hello.”
The US media, now largely owned by a tiny handful of extremely politically connected corporations, don't like it when people actually think. That was back in 2018.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by corey on Sunday May 31 2020, @12:08AM (1 child)
The other day I tuned in at 0630 AEST but today couldn't be bothered getting up at 0520. Tuned in shortly after when the kids woke me up though. But great news, it's a real milestone and with success, it looks to be a start of a bright future for NASA and SpaceX partnering.
But really great to see that end to end sovereign capability back up. Congrats to the US. Finally some bloody positive news from there.
I'd like to hear the astronauts feedback on the rocket ride and the new UI touchscreens they have. It certainly isn't the first time they've used them but in my opinion, I'd prefer knobs and switches with haptic feedback.
But damn, America is a weird place right now, this historic launch at the same time as riots all over the joint, and covid-19. Plus the shit that president comes up with. Our media barely have to look to find stories to report on.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday May 31 2020, @02:11AM
They have some non-touchscreen controls:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/08/spacex-reveals-the-controls-of-its-dragon-spacecraft-for-the-first-time/ [arstechnica.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @12:11AM (2 children)
It's amazing that the rocket was able to take off with a fat white police officer sitting on its neck. #BLM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @12:43AM
Rocket was white.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @12:57AM
We are looting NASA JPL in Pasadena right now - lots of huge display panels, only slightly used.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by linkdude64 on Sunday May 31 2020, @02:24AM (4 children)
And hooray for every county's space program that stands to benefit from the increased crew safety and lower cost of these launches! Get more developing countries space economies going! Let kids in the congo and south america shoot things into space too! Everybody benefits. Thank you Elon Musk and thank you President Trump for supporting space development and logistics which will surely be critical in the coming years. The greatness of the United States has ever been its entrepreneurial spirit, which is the human spirit - the spirit of Freedom!
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @02:18PM (3 children)
Trump, who observed the launch, said the United States had regained its place as the world's leader in space, that U.S. astronauts would soon land on Mars, and that Washington would soon have "the greatest weapons ever imagined in history."
NASA had to rely on Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, to get to the ISS since its final space shuttle flight in 2011, and Trump hailed what he said was the end of being at the mercy of foreign nations. The U.S. success will potentially deprive Roscosmos, which has suffered corruption scandals and a number of malfunctions, of the lucrative fees it charged to take U.S. astronauts to the ISS.
"The hysteria raised after the successful launch of the Crew Dragon spacecraft is hard to understand," Vladimir Ustimenko, spokesman for Roscosmos, wrote on Twitter after citing Trump's statement. "What has happened should have happened long ago. Now it's not only the Russians flying to the ISS, but also the Americans. Well that's wonderful!"
Moscow has said previously that it is also deeply worried about what it fears are U.S. plans to deploy weapons in space.
Moscow would not be sitting idly by, Ustimenko said.
"..We are not going to rest on our laurels either. We will test two new rockets this year, and next year we will resume our lunar program. It will be interesting," said Ustimenko.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @04:42PM
It didn't take very long for Trump to take a Victory Lap.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Sunday May 31 2020, @05:20PM (1 child)
That's easy to understand spin. The Russian space industry was deliberately kept alive with the creation of the International Space Station. Since 2011, ferrying NASA astronauts to the ISS has become a cash cow for them. They are losing launch business not just to SpaceX, but China and India. Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy alone are impossible for them to compete with when launching cargo. Now SpaceX can launch astronauts too. Throw in Starship and they won't be able to do anything. China and some other countries will probably offer up a proper response to Starship eventually, but Russia might not join the party.
There's also the origin story of SpaceX, in which Russia tried to fleece Musk for some old ICBMs [inverse.com]. And then various insults against SpaceX and NASA in recent years, including blaming Americans for putting a hole in the ISS.
Roscosmos is the drunk has-been space agency. They are crying internally, and this is just the beginning.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @06:59PM
teh biggest setback (in terms of wasted time and money) in humans history of spaceflight was most certainly the space shuttle.
tho it was the spark of the idea of reusability, methinks it was far from it.
if all the (excess) engineering and time would have been spent on "something else" early on when it became clear that the "reusability" factor of the space shuttle was abysable then maybe not so much "burocratic" weed would have grown in american governmental space industry...
the space shuttle was nice, like a statue of liberty with wings and a gold crown would have been nice to send to orbit.
-
overall, everybody NOT spaceX is gonna feel the pinch now. we will see if and how fast the weedy roots between government PR department (note: every givernment has a MAGA department) and industry will be severed (if at all); 'cause if they want to compete then governmental PR money will have to be spent fir more then one way "phew! we made it to orbit" rockets and flying statues.
my money is on the russians next :)
(Score: 2) by SemperOSS on Sunday May 31 2020, @02:41PM
What an amazing feat made possible by all the good people of SpaceX and NASA — the first crew on a commercial space vehicle has reached the ISS!
Wow!
I don't need a signature to draw attention to myself.
Maybe I should add a sarcasm warning now and again?