SpaceX

A private spacecraft successfully landed astronauts aboard the international space station for the first time.

Four astronauts aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Resilience have arrived at the International Space Station, circling 262 miles above Earth, where they will stay until spring.

The capsule lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday evening atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, chasing the ISS for 27 hours before matching its altitude and speed for an orbital dock. The flight marks only the second crewed flight for Crew Dragon, which became the first commercial vehicle to put humans in orbit when astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken launched in May.


Are NASA’s days numbered? Some think this is the beginning of a new era of commercial space travel and bloated government agencies like NASA won’t be able to compete with the private space geeks.

Unfortunately the disease of capitalism has infected space travel. But whatever. What I noticed watching the latest SpaceX launch, and looking at various footage from earlier launches, is that it’s just not exciting because, I’m sorry, their spacesuits look stupid. And the pre-launch events looked like some crap infomercial. AND the astronauts have gotten so ordinary. Look at the old footage of the Saturn launches. I mean you look at the capsules, those incredible suits, and learn about the astronauts, and I remember being in awe. These were superhumans who were incredibly smart and brave - test pilots, etc. I mean WOW. Nowadays, I guess it’s just a sign of the times, but everything is just so mundane. I guess that’s a good thing, but shaw it’s just not exciting.

Yeah they don’t look good. The old school astronauts were all former military pilots so they were more physically imposing, but even one of these guys was a military pilot and still he looks like a schlub.

Space travel itself is not really exciting today. The general public doesn’t really care anymore – which is probably a good thing as there are more important things to focus on.

When too much is never enough, . . .