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SOME PARTS OF AMERICA STILL WORK: SpaceX targeting Wednesday-Thursday launch doubleheader from Cape Canaveral in Florida. “Though SpaceX has not publicly announced these missions, Federal Aviation Administration and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency navigational warnings indicate two rocket launch windows are planned within a roughly 24-hour span.”
SpaceX isn’t quite on track to hit the company’s goal of 144 launches this year — or at least not yet.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Switzerland Signs Artemis Accords.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: China moving at ‘breathtaking speed’ in final frontier, Space Force says.
SOME PARTS OF AMERICA STILL WORK: SpaceX’s most-flown reusable rocket will go for its 20th launch tonight.
Pretty much every day, SpaceX is either launching a rocket or rolling one out of the hangar to the launch pad. At this pace, SpaceX is redefining what is routine in the space industry, but the rapid-fire launch rate also means the company is continually breaking records, mostly its own.
Friday night’s launch will break another one of those records. This first-stage booster, designated by the tail number B1062, has flown 19 times since its first flight in November 2020. The booster will now be the first in SpaceX’s inventory to go for a 20th flight, breaking a tie with three other rockets as the company’s fleet leader.
When SpaceX debuted the latest version of its Falcon 9 rocket, the Falcon 9 Block 5, officials said the reusable first stage could fly 10 times with minimal refurbishment and perhaps additional flights with a more extensive overhaul. Now, SpaceX is certifying Falcon 9 boosters for 40 flights.
This particular rocket has not undergone any extended maintenance or long-term grounding. It has flown an average of once every two months since debuting three-and-a-half years ago. So the 20-flight milestone SpaceX will achieve Friday night means this rocket has doubled its original design life and, at the same time, has reached the halfway point of its extended service life.
Plus this: “Remarkably, this will be the sixth Falcon 9 launch in less than eight days, more flights than SpaceX’s main US rival, United Launch Alliance, has launched in 17 months.”
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) stunned attendees at a high school solar eclipse event Monday by claiming the rock-solid moon is a “planet” that is “made up mostly of gases” — before adding she still wants to be “first in line” to learn how to live there.
The former top Democrat on the House Science Committee’s space subcommittee badly botched elementary lunar facts while speaking during the gathering at Booker T. Washington High School in Houston.
“You’ve heard the word ‘full moon.’ Sometimes you need to take the opportunity just to come out and see a full moon is that complete rounded circle, which is made up mostly of gases,” Jackson Lee, 74, told teenage pupils who gathered on a sports field ahead of the rare celestial event.
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In a statement to The Post on Tuesday, she admitted she was wrong to describe the moon, which has virtually no atmosphere, as being composed mostly of gas to the schoolkids.
“Obviously I misspoke and meant to say the sun, but as usual, Republicans are focused on stupid things instead of stuff that really matters. What can I say, though, foolish thinkers lust for stupidity!” she said of GOPers who swiftly criticized her glaring gaffes.
This isn’t the first time that the final frontier has vexed Jackson Lee:
During a 1997 visit to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, Jackson Lee, who was then serving on the House Science Committee and on the Subcommittee that oversees U.S. space policy, asked a guide whether the Mars Pathfinder would be able to show an image of “the flag the astronauts planted there before.” When it was subsequently pointed out that the flag to which she was referring was in fact the one that Neil Armstrong had planted on the Moon—not Mars—in 1969, Jackson Lee complained that she was being mocked by bigots. “You thought you could have fun with a black woman member of the Science Committee,” her then-chief-of-staff wrote angrily in a letter to the editor.
How bad have Jackson Lee’s gaffes been over the years? Even her fellow leftists at the Daily Beast has goofed on her worst moments: The Constitution Is 400 Years Old and More Pearls From Sheila Jackson Lee.
UPDATE: Citing Jackson Lee, America’s Newspaper of Record reports: American Transition To Idiocracy Running Ahead Of Schedule.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: America is losing its GPS dominance to China’s BeiDou satnav. “GPS’s capabilities are now substantially inferior to those of China’s BeiDou.”
SOME PARTS OF AMERICA STILL WORK: SpaceX begins 2024 with several record-breaking feats. “While SpaceX’s goal of achieving 148 launches in 2024 may be a tough challenge, the company did achieve twelve Falcon 9 launches in a single month in March 2024. This is the number of launches that the company would have to have every month during 2024 if it wants to come close to its year-end goal.”
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Musk outlines plans to increase Starship launch rate and performance.