JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: Moore’s Law meet Musk’s Law: the underappreciated story of SpaceX and the stunning decline in launch costs.

Many reporters, as well as the general public, fail to grasp that SpaceX’s approach to rocket development differs fundamentally from NASA’s. Instead of extensive ground testing and a cautious pace to minimize launch failures — which can lead to longer development timelines and higher costs — SpaceX embraces rapid iteration and learning from failure. Elon Musk’s company views each launch, whether completely successful or not, as an opportunity to gather valuable data and improve future designs. Starship is no different. Its “failures” are stepping stones to success, at least so far.

That iterative approach, combined with their vertical integration and in-house manufacturing capabilities, allows SpaceX to move more quickly and cost-effectively than traditional aerospace players — with amazing results. . . .

Berger’s key phrase: “a world in which launch is cheap and abundant.” It’s worth spending a moment on the revolutionary decline in launch costs, the key enabler of the emerging new space age. As Citigroup outlined in a 2022 research note, NASA Launch costs dropped significantly from over $100,000/kg in the mid-1960s to around $5,400/kg for the Saturn V used in the Apollo launches starting in 1967. After the Apollo 11 lunar landing, the average launch cost remained relatively stable for decades, averaging about $16,000/kg for medium/heavy payloads and about $30,000/kg for light payloads. This was due to factors such as the use of existing launch systems, reduced number of launches, high reliability requirements for human spaceflight, and a government-funded spending culture. Bottom line: There simply wasn’t much innovation or financial motivation to be innovative.

Then came SpaceX, which pioneered lower launch costs with the Falcon 9 in 2010 ($2,500/kg) and Falcon Heavy in 2018 ($1,500/kg) that are 30 times lower than NASA’s Space Shuttle in 1981 and 11 times lower than the average launch costs from 1970 to 2010, according to Citi.

I discussed this change and its implications a few years back in my America’s New Destiny in Space.

I’M A FEW DAYS LATE FOR THE BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION, BUT IT’S STILL WORTH NOTING: The man who wrestled global hunger to the ground. Happy 110th birthday to Norman Borlaug, a great American credited with saving a billion lives.

Environmentalists aren’t crazy about him, though, since he made it possible for so many to avoid starvation.

MAKE THE RUBBLE BOUNCE: Captured Hamas Operatives Say Group Collapsing.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Travis Kelce’s dad-bod is preferred by stunning women like Taylor Swift, according to science.

Kelce is, of course, a world-class athlete, but he’s not visually striking at all.

Flashback: This article from back when Salon was actually readable.

TO BE HONEST, I’M GRATEFUL FOR THE HYPOCRISY HERE: Biden Suddenly Uninterested in Environment When Uranium is Involved.

The largest uranium producer in the United States is ramping up work just south of Grand Canyon National Park on a long-contested project that largely has sat dormant since the 1980s.

The work is unfolding as global instability and growing demand drive uranium prices higher.

The Biden administration and dozens of other countries have pledged to triple the capacity of nuclear power worldwide in their battle against climate change, ensuring uranium will remain a key commodity for decades as the government offers incentives for developing the next generation of nuclear reactors and new policies take aim at Russia’s influence over the supply chain. . . .

The biggest change is the fact that the Biden administration is suddenly going all-in on nuclear power. That may come as a surprise to parts of his base who have continued to oppose nuclear power ever since Three Mile Island. In fact, I won’t be shocked if some of them start showing up and protesting Biden over this as soon as they finish their pro-Hamas protests. Then again, he’ll probably convince at least some of them by reminding them that nuclear reactors produce no carbon and are thus blessed by the Climate Goddess.

The other factor is the fact that Russia controls a significant amount of the world’s current uranium supplies. They’re not exactly fans of ours at the moment and the price of Russian uranium is continuing to rise. Much the same way that China is capable of cutting off the global supply of rare metals needed to make batteries for electric vehicles, Russia could choke off much of the uranium supply. We have plenty of uranium in the United States, but we haven’t mined much of it since the early days of our nuclear weapons program.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with the current progress that’s being made. I’ve been saying here for years that I’m in favor of an “all of the above” energy plan, and that includes nuclear. The problem is that it takes forever to get a new nuclear plant approved because of endless government regulations, so few energy companies want to invest in it. What bothers me here is all of the blatant hypocrisy on display, not that this is anything new. Nuclear power was evil and bad until somebody realized that it might fit in the climate cult model. Then, almost overnight, it became popular. Fine. Do whatever it takes. Just make sure you look into those new small modular reactors that are in development. They really make nuclear power a lot more flexible and usable in more areas. They’re also a bit cheaper.

I agree entirely.

KURT SCHLICHTER ON THE LEGAL CHAOS SURROUNDING TRUMP: “I shake my head when people ask me my legal opinion about what’s going on. My legal opinion about what’s going on is it has nothing to do with the law at all.”

WATCH WHAT THEY DO, NOT WHAT THEY SAY:

The true state of international relations is most candidly expressed not in diplomatic statements but in defense budgets.https://t.co/GMyaiDsQMH

— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) March 31, 2024

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: U. Oregon professor to lecture on ‘surplus’ white nationalism and its ‘climate obstruction.’

I remember when higher education was supposed to make intellectual contributions.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: ‘Equity-Based Algebra’ Is as Bad as You Imagine It to Be.

HOPE FOR TURKEY:

including 14 large and significant ones such as Ankara (the capital), #Istanbul, Izmir, Antalya and more.
According to Turkish media, this was a surprise they did not expect. (2/5)

— AbuAliEnglish (@AbuAliEnglishB1) April 1, 2024

SOME PARTS OF AMERICA STILL WORK: SpaceX launches Eutelsat 36D, lands booster on seventh reuse anniversary. “The rocket’s first stage landed as planned on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean post-launch, marking the 273rd time SpaceX has returned a Falcon 9 booster for reuse. SpaceX launched its first reused Falcon 9 booster for a customer seven years earlier in a mission for SES of Luxembourg March 30, 2017. The Eutelsat 36D launch also marked SpaceX’s 30th mission this year. But less than four hours later, SpaceX launched a batch of satellites for its Starlink low Earth orbit (LEO) broadband constellation from a nearby pad at the Cape.”

Flashback: Hint: The parts that still work are not in the government or academic worlds.

FLASHBACK: Remembering the 2002 AOL/Instapundit takeover April Fool.

DON SURBER: Hamas-shielding AP went too far: By seeking a journalism prize for its propaganda, AP showed it is irredeemably evil. “AP just won an award for its pro-terrorist coverage of the Palestinian attack on Israel. People call it Hamas but it is just like blaming only the Nazis for World War II because the vast majority of Germans — like the Palestinians now — were all in favor of destroying Jews and anyone else who got in their way. For years, AP’s bureau in Gaza City provided cover for the military intelligence of Hamas. As long as AP was in there, Israel could not bomb the place. This was an open secret. Matti Friedman wrote of it in The Atlantic in 2014.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: How We’ve Gone from Institutions of Higher Education to Conformity Colleges.

Flashback: Thoughts on our ruling-class monoculture.

GOOD QUESTION: If ‘Diversity Is Our Strength,’ Why Is Our Military So Weak? “Race-conscious ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI) policies are making personnel shortages worse. Minority recruitment has remained steady or increased, which is fine, but a steep decline in white recruits almost entirely accounts for the ongoing recruiting crisis.”

The purpose of a system is what it does.

AMONG MANY OTHER THINGS: Bill Maher Mercilessly Drags the Media for Being Dead Wrong About COVID.

The experts were wrong. The people were right. The dissenting opinions turned out to be the ones who had a grip on science and reality. Even Maher noted he was the target of the media for pushing the theory that COVID came from a lab. It’s not a theory; even the FBI and the Biden administration, as the comedian noted, have come around to that determination for the cause of the pandemic. The lab was messing with COVID, conducting gain-of-function research on said virus, and ground zero was Wuhan. It’s not hard to connect the dots here, lab coats.

The fact that the dissenters were right and the political elites and their medical agents were wrong is why there will be no commission. Maher added that we love commissions. If there were one for COVID, Fauci would be pulled apart like pulled pork over his serial idiocy about the virus, the CDC’s endless contradictory and science fiction-based protocols, along with endless testimonies from families were denied mourning the passing of their loved ones because some busybodies were ensuring that the equally nonsensical social distancing edicts handed down by the medical class were enforced.

Fauci should lose his pension for what he did during COVID.

Among many other things.

ICYMI: MY LATEST SUBSTACK ESSAY: In which I go under the knife. Well, sort of.

And if you enjoy these essays, please subscribe.

OPEN THREAD: That’s right, today was a twofer.

HMM: Senate bills seek to reform commercial space regulations.

HUMAN BEINGS ARE MADE FOR SPACE: Astronauts Have an Unexpected Ability That Helps Them ‘Fly’ Through Space. “Based on our findings it seems as though humans are surprisingly able to compensate adequately for the lack of an Earth-normal environment using vision.” Well, human beings are surprisingly adaptable, anyway.

MY LATEST SUBSTACK ESSAY: In which I go under the knife. Well, sort of.

And if you enjoy these essays, please subscribe.

FASTER, PLEASE: Science’s Latest Marvel: Electronic Material That Grows Tougher on Impact.

OF COURSE THEY DID, THEIR PROTESTS ARE ESTABLISHMENT-APPROVED: Yes, Hamas Supporters Felt Perfectly Entitled to Interrupt Easter Services at St Patrick’s Cathedral.

But it’s not true, as claimed, that nothing is sacred. Do the same thing at a mosque — or an LGBT rally — and you’ll swiftly learn what’s held sacred by our establishment today.

FASTER, PLEASE: After Concorde, a long road back to supersonic air travel.

MORE GOVERNMENT-SPREAD MISINFORMATION: This FBI Tweet Just Got Nuked by Community Notes.

Plus: “Do we need reminding that the FBI is staffed with bad people, the worst in committing acts of government overreach? Agents visit people’s homes because they posted anti-Biden material on social media. Illegal FISA warrants are atrocious, but now they’re targeting Americans exercising free speech rights. Why? Are they compiling an enemies list? Would you be shocked? Not me.”

UPDATE (From Ed): FBI Agent Says He Hassles People ‘Every Day, All Day Long’ Over Facebook Posts. “It’s just an effort to keep everybody safe and make sure nobody has any ill will,” he claimed.