SpaceX launches 4 astronauts for NASA after private flight
Source: AP
By MARCIA DUNN
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Wednesday, less than two days after completing a flight chartered by millionaires.
It’s the first NASA crew comprised equally of men and women, including the first Black woman making a long-term spaceflight, Jessica Watkins.
“This is one of the most diversified, I think, crews that we’ve had in a really, really long time,” said NASA’s space operations mission chief Kathy Lueders.
The astronauts were due to arrive at the space station Wednesday night, 16 hours after a predawn liftoff from Kennedy Space Center that thrilled spectators.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, April 27, 2022. NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on the Crew Dragon spacecraft begin a six-month expedition on the International Space Station. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/space-launches-elon-musk-spacex-exploration-science-de770890369d48f9b8be33b99b5d30f0
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BumRushDaShow
(161,728 posts)New York (CNN Business)A SpaceX rocket and spacecraft took off Wednesday morning carrying four astronauts destined for the International Space Station, including the first Black woman to join the ISS crew. Takeoff occurred at 3:52 am ET. The astronauts, riding aboard their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, will spend the day free flying through orbit before docking with the ISS around 8 pm ET.
This mission, called Crew-4, marks a return to the crewed launches that SpaceX conducts in partnership with NASA after the company concluded the first all-private mission to the space station for wealthy paying customers on Monday. On board are NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Jessica Watkins, and Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, who is flying on behalf of the European Space Agency.
What makes this flight historic?
Jessica Watkins will become the first Black woman to complete such a mission. Though more than a dozen Black Americans — including four Black women — have traveled to space since Guion Bluford became the first to do so in 1983, no Black woman has had the opportunity to live and work in space for an extended period, as the ISS has enabled more than 200 astronauts to do since 2000. "This is certainly an important milestone I think both for our [space] agency and for the country," Watkins said during a press conference last month.
"I think it really is just a tribute to the legacy of the black women astronauts that have come before me as well as to the exciting future ahead." She has a long history with NASA, having begun her career there as an intern, and she previously held roles at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where she worked with the Curiosity Mars rover. A trained geologist, she's studied the surface of the red planet. atkins' crew mates refer to her by the nickname "Watty."
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/27/tech/spacex-launch-crew-4-wednesday-scn/index.html
Congrats!
SuperCoder
(300 posts)Isn't posting support of republicans in this manner against the forum rules?
jimfields33
(19,382 posts)
IronLionZion
(50,095 posts)He was a big supporter of the Reddit Gamestop effort to screw over hedge funds. Many lefties support that kind of activism.
rockfordfile
(8,742 posts)His racist car company toward a black employee. His true colors have come out. I bet Musk spouts the N word like a KKK pos from South Africa.
hueymahl
(2,865 posts)rockfordfile
(8,742 posts)There's really no difference between Musk and Putin. Both are anti-democracy. Both are racist pos. What Musk posted against our President and the Prime Minister of Canada? He gave support to the right-wing domestic terrorist in Canada.
MarineCombatEngineer
(16,152 posts)Swing and a miss.
Emile
(38,283 posts)jimfields33
(19,382 posts)I sure were paying some of these missions as with other corporations. But results are what matters.
speak easy
(12,454 posts)speak easy
(12,454 posts)Do you really want those taxpayer dollars going to Putin?
Boeing has being working on a competitor for SpaceX Falcon rockets. They have been plagued by delays and technical set backs.
Emile
(38,283 posts)as a huge cost saver to tax payers.
OnlinePoker
(6,031 posts)Cost for Starship which will be fully reusable - $2 - $10 million ($10 - $50 per kilogram).
The majority of the new SLS will end up in the ocean or as space junk.
EX500rider
(12,038 posts)Before SpaceX we had a government-approved monopoly called the ULA (United Launch Alliance) which is composed of Lockheed Martin (using Atlas 5 rockets) and Boeing (Delta 4). These two firms have dominated U.S. space launches for over half a century.
A ULA rocket launch that cost $420 million could be done by SpaceX for $90 million.
OnlinePoker
(6,031 posts)For crewed launches in Dragon, it's (as of 2019) $55 million per seat. Boeing's Starliner (if it ever flies) would be $90 million per seat. By contrast, they were paying $86 million per seat to Russia for Soyuz launches so SpaceX is a bargain.
https://www.space.com/spacex-boeing-commercial-crew-seat-prices.html
hueymahl
(2,865 posts)Two different products. NASA is doing one thing, SpaceX another.
The interesting question is why is NASA's product so expensive relative to SpaceX?
EX500rider
(12,038 posts)A lot less then Lockheed Martin and Boeing did?
ripcord
(5,553 posts)
speak easy
(12,454 posts)He has achieved something substantial.
Farmer-Rick
(12,115 posts)He might have tweeked it a bit but he's standing on the shoulders of some very great men. Great men who worked for our government for very little pay. I know, my father was one of them.
And now someone, who was handed leftover capital, (did Not work for it, it was pure luck he was born to some filthy rich people) is doing it with our tax dollars.
But I guess people who do nothing for their wealth have to do something with it.
speak easy
(12,454 posts)Making something reliable IRL is a little more than 'tweaking' .
On the other hand, yes, entrepreneurs should pay for the fruits of government research, and IMO, that money should go back into research. win-win or whatever.
EX500rider
(12,038 posts)When did the government (really you mean Lockheed Martin and Boeing) "figure out" how to land 1st stage boosters and reuse them?
That would be never.
EX500rider
(12,038 posts)SpaceX
First privately funded fully liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit
First privately developed liquid-fueled rocket to put a commercial satellite in orbit
First private company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft
First private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station
First landing of an orbital-class rocket's first stage on land
First landing of an orbital-class rocket's first stage on an ocean platform
First reuse, reflight and (second) landing of an orbital first stage
First controlled flyback and recovery of a payload fairing
First re-flight of a commercial cargo spacecraft
First private spacecraft launched into heliocentric orbit
First private company to send a human-rated spacecraft to orbit
First private company to autonomously dock a crew-capable spacecraft to the International Space Station
First private company to send humans into orbit
etc
Farmer-Rick
(12,115 posts)So......they launched this crew less than two days after completing a flight chartered by millionaires.
So, they separated out all the millionaires and did an extra special private flight just for them.
Is it really diversified if you separate out the classes and do separate launches for the filthy rich class and then another launch for everyone else? This is definitely not egalitarian, equal treatment or diversified.
What are they afraid some of the dirt from the middle class is going to rub off onto the filthy rich? Separate but equal never worked.
jimfields33
(19,382 posts)Believe it or not it took a long time for the first middle to low income person to travel in an airplane.
Farmer-Rick
(12,115 posts)But why should it start that way? Since the other classes are paying more in taxes they should be given first launch.
And you can't claim diversifed until you have the filthy rich class in with the others.
hueymahl
(2,865 posts)I.e., basic economics?
Maybe NASA should be doing this more. I think they should, but we don't have funding for it.
The private sector has stepped into its place and that is how the private sector works.
Farmer-Rick
(12,115 posts)Other economic systems do not cater to the rich class. They don't give the filthy rich more perks than the class that pays the most taxes. This is not democracy.
Giving extra benefits to those born into special families that have accumulated more capital is more a trait of feudalism. It's as if the filthy rich were kings controlling our government to give themselves extra.
We need more democracy in our economic system and in our government. It's almost as if democracy and capitalism are opposites.
hueymahl
(2,865 posts)And while it may be flawed, it is proven to be the best system we have come up with.
The problem is politics. Specifically the tax code and captured regulatory agencies that has been manipulated by special interests to create large moats around established players while incentivizing centralization in the economy.
Respectfully, democracy and capitalism are from the same branch of the tree of freedom. It is the perversion of capitalism and democracy by the monied classes that is the problem. See, e.g., Citizens United.
Farmer-Rick
(12,115 posts)It was very flawed yet it was the best economic system at the time.... Well until another one developed.
If politics can so easily corrupt capitalism, then there is something wrong with capitalism that it allows for such massive corruption. Capitalism encourages monopolies as did feudalism. Bother systems had built in encentives to monopolize.
Democracy is about one person one vote. What vote do we get when we are born into one of the poorer classes? Buying something is not a vote.
Upward mobility has become a thing of the past. Feudalism died out because it became stagnant and corrupted. It monopolized common resources for royalty and lords. The same thing is happening with capitalism.
hueymahl
(2,865 posts)But what other system is there?
If you say communism "because it has never been implemented properly" then we have to agree to disagree.
But truly, capitalism balanced with smart regulation (mostly addressing tragedy of commons issues and safety) and workers rights is the only thing I can come up with. And I have looked.
Farmer-Rick
(12,115 posts)There is a traditional form of economics. It involves buying and selling stuff in the traditional way like we do at Farmer's markets and such. This is Not Capitalism. And that is where most people get confused. They equate markets with capitalism.
Capitalism is the use of capital, (allowing the collecting of excess capital in just a few hands is a by-product of capitalism,) to control markets and the means of production.
Markets will always be with us. They were there with feudalism and with slavery. Doing away with capitalism will not do away with markets, private ownership, buying and selling or commerce. It will probably do away with stock markets, a lot of banks and corporations, but probably not commodities trading.
We will have to move to a form of socialism because our planet is being destroyed and wars are breaking out due to capitalism. If we don't end it, it will wipe out humankind.
We will have to start planning markets, controlling them for the good of the planet and humanity. We will have to stop one filthy rich person, our a group of them, from using their capital to build a factory or corporations and then making all the decisions for the factory or corporation. It affects too many lives when they inevitably make a bad, wrong and corrupt decision.
We may have to pay farmers and other workers as government workers, much like we do judges and school teachers, to control how they farm and work.
We will have to consider the good of society before allowing a company or corporation to do anything. We will have to allow workers to make decisions on how the corporation or factory will run. If you work there you get a controlling voice there.
This is how I see the future evolving. If it doesn't go there in some form or another, we will slip back to feudalism or wipe out our species.
It's gonna change one way or another.
EX500rider
(12,038 posts)See:
USSR
Cuba
Venezuela
N Korea
EX500rider
(12,038 posts)Yet none that work as well.
Your basic choices are:
Market economy ("hands off" systems, such as laissez-faire capitalism)
Mixed economy (a hybrid that blends some aspects of both market and planned economies)
Planned economy ("hands on" systems, such as state socialism, also known as "command economy" when referring to the Soviet model)
former9thward
(33,424 posts)EX500rider
(12,038 posts)They had one private chartered flight and one NASA chartered flight, of course they are different flights, why wouldn't they be?
Farmer-Rick
(12,115 posts)Good luck getting on that first flight if you aren't filthy rich.
And in the 2nd flight, the participants were actually working. Do you think those millionaires were working on that first flight?
But they take it a step further and ignore the blatantly obvious class segregation, and dare call the flights diversified. That's like rubbing it in. See how far they have conditioned everyone to see only race and gender differences but ignore wealth class imposed segregation.
We are so conditioned to this inequality, that we can't even see it when it's pointed out. Separate but equal never did work.
I think those poor folks who lived under feudal and slavery economic systems couldn't see the injustice of it either. They had all sorts of rationalizations to discount the brutish force of their economic systems too.
EX500rider
(12,038 posts)Again they chartered one flight to the private people they chartered one flight to NASA those are separate flights paid for by separate charters nothing to do with diversity.. that's how chartered space flight works
Farmer-Rick
(12,115 posts)Why did the article bring it up? To rub the lie into our face? To test how well the capitalist apologist have been trained?
Yeah, the filthy rich have provided all sorts of rationalizations to explain away the inequality. And we grab on to them every time someone dare question the status quo. Much like religion.
rockfordfile
(8,742 posts)NASA is us. SpaceX is a company.
EX500rider
(12,038 posts)Last edited Fri Apr 29, 2022, 06:32 PM - Edit history (1)
If they don't use SpaceX they will be using the much more expensive Lockheed Martin (using Atlas 5 rockets) and Boeing (Delta 4) or Russian rockets.
ripcord
(5,553 posts)There are some really ignorant comments made here. Ever since NASA was formed they placed the orders and corporations built the rockets and equipment. NASA has never constructed its own rockets!!!
Emile
(38,283 posts)
myohmy2
(3,681 posts)...elon going to visit the ISS and buy it?
...we don't get along with russia and russia doesn't get along with us...
...isn't time to privatize?
...