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Simonyi Arrives At the ISS After Shuttle Lands
RobGoldsmith writes in with news of the further adventures of Charles Simonyi, whose first trip to the ISS we discussed a couple of years ago. The Russian Soyuz vehicle carrying Simonyi and two others docked a day after the US space shuttle Discovery landed in Florida. "Space Adventures, Ltd. ... announced today that its orbital client Charles Simonyi and his crew successfully arrived at the International Space Station after launching on-board the Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 26. The spacecraft docked to the ISS at 9:05 am (EDT) with Dr. Simonyi and Expedition 19 crew members Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and NASA astronaut Michael Barratt. They were greeted at approximately 12:30 p.m. (EDT) by the Expedition 18 crew..."
Going twice? Now you're just showing off.
Umm, unrelated?
Perhaps some people don't realize that Discovery just finished a mission at the ISS and undocked four days earlier. Quite a quick turn around.
So now spaceflight must be routine if slashdotters think a private citizen being able to fly to space with nothing but money is no longer newsworthy 8)
This is hailed as the end of the tourism. I am guessing that there will be at MOST 3 year delay, and I am starting to think not even that much. The shuttle sounds like it will be extended for 1-2 years due to the ares I delay. In fact, I am guessing that the dems will extend the shuttle UNTIL SpaceX is on-line with crew capability. The shuttle will be used to rotate crews until 2012, and most likely we will plant a dragon on the ISS as a 7 person lifeboat, which will solve the issue of requiring 2 soyuz. We are about to have plenty of up cargo capability (Progress, ATV, HTV, and within another year or two, spaceX and Orbital). SpaceX will be the only down cargo. The important issue is crew. If SpaceX has a number of launches by mid-2011 (when they are suppose to have their human rated capsule ready), then I could see the shuttle being stopped and dragon taking over the western crew.
In addition, Bigelow will almost certainly run their system up once falcon 9 flies.
Tourism is about to make it BIG. It will all be for the bloody rich, but, those same ppl are not impacted on something like this.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I'm just hoping he spends lots of time on the Amateur Radio on the ISS, racking up lots of contacts with eager hams on the earth. Like me.
Get your own free personal location tracker
I'm sure that the docking mechanism must be exhausted.
So Simony walks in, and the astronaut 1 goes "so you're the Hungarian douchebag in "Hungarian notation", eh?!"
Simonyi arrived BEFORE the shuttle landed.
Two private "bloody rich" business guys go up at the same time, "discuss business", then get to deduct expenses off their taxes.
this is the guy who invented Hungarian Notation.
how long until
Newsflash: Barrat has left Kazakhstan to do cultural learnings of the open space!
I would not mind seeing us offer up a SMALL taxcut to get some folks thinking about. In fact, I would like to see us offer a small cut for anybody going up on American equipment.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
...okay, you're stinking rich and I certainly understand going the first time. But to go again - that is just frakkin' RUDE! We all wanna go! Why rub your riches in our face? Someone, please, take him for a walk outside with a nice big leak in his suit.
Doc, normally, I would agree with you, but not now. You are SO FAR OUT THERE.
There is no doubt that Russia has made a nice sum of money on tourism. In fact, they have been charging 25M/seat and are raising it to 50M/seat for US to buy them. I think that they are trying to rip us off on that. BUT, the tourism has started a GREAT thing. Now, it makes Bigelow/spacex/etc look great. As to the price that Russia is charging, it is what the market will bear. I say AWESOME. That price should cause CHOKING by our congressmen. Musk has it right. He can send up 7 ppl for about 2/3 of the price of 2 Americans via Russia. Basically, Russia is doing America, in fact, the west, a favor. Otherwise, if they were below Spacex prices, it would make arguing for SpaceX COTS-D difficult. It is no different than when OPEC ran up the price of oil. I LOVED IT. We were moving forward with AE.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I started to read a thread about Charles Simonyi and the space station, and all I got (1st 10 messages) was a bunch of racist crap about niggers, fags, eating assholes, etc,etc... /. has no moderation except the "Karma" crap (of course mine is waaaay down- LOL!) but-
/.er's spell it "looser's" with the requisite apostrophe's) website...!
I realize
hellooo! Isn't it time we cleaned up some of these ACs?
I am about to bail out of this loser (oh, sorry! real
I know, I know.. good riddance, aqk. Well, sorry for being literate.
.
- aqk
F U
There is no doubt that Russia has made a nice sum of money on tourism. In fact, they have been charging 25M/seat and are raising it to 50M/seat for US to buy them. I think that they are trying to rip us off on that.
WTF?
They're charging what the market will bear. The people who fork over $50M to go to space don't get a gun to their head, they give their money willingly for something they want more than the money. This is not a rip-off, it is a business transaction free of coercion.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
...one at a time, by shooting them into space.
Expensive, sure, but think of the long term benefits to the planet.
Minor correction:
"The Russian Soyuz vehicle carrying Simonyi and two others docked a day after the US space shuttle Discovery landed in Florida."
No. The Soyuz docked a couple of hours *before* Discovery landed, on the same day.
It's a monopoly. Without competition, there's no "choice". Market monopolies don't require necessities for consumption to abuse their control of their market. They don't even need to be the only vendor in the market to abuse it, just domination.
--
make install -not war
Actually, the tourists are paying 25M (though Simonyi paid 30M). The American gov will be paying 50M/seat for the same thing. And I SAID that it is what the market will bear, so I like what Russia is doing. Their actions will encourage congress to not be dependant on them. Of course, Congress/NASA now have to think ahead. Many inside of Congress/NASA are opposed to getting SpaceX to the point of doing crewed dragons, which is a major mistake. Space travel WILL progress regardless if America leads or not. It would actually be in America's best interest to pay to get SpaceX, Bigelow and even boeing/l-mart's new venture into space.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Subsidies mean we spent money on the ISS that Russia doesn't have to recoup in prices for vacation flights there.
Russia's home economy has all kinds of other subsidies, not least the energy costs in their huge and devastatingly abusive energy industry.
I'm all for the competition, the growth of tourism, the publicity. I don't even envy Simonyi - I wish there were many more of him, and eventually me, too once they've brought all the prices (and risks) down. I'm just annoyed that I'm subsidizing Russia's benefits, when Russia is doing me no favors (and in fact is still the perennial existential threat to the US, and to its own people). And it's showing no signs of driving down prices the US pays our own contractors for space services. So I'm going to complain until this whole "virtuous cycle" gets around to doing something for me, after the years I've been doing something for it.
--
make install -not war
Actually, Russia has done a great job of trying to get their companies (note: not their ppl) to be paid what American companies are paid. I am fine with that. SpaceX, Scaled, etc are what will bring down the obscene profits by American space companies. Russia is not the enemy on this. Instead, it is the fact that the prices that we pay for our space systems is keeping us from developing real space bases (i.e. mars, moon,etc). Russia pushing their prices up is the best thing that happened to us. If they charged 10M/seat for Americans, it would make THEIR program bloom. NOW, it is our commercial systems that will grow. Assuming that SpaceX is successful with Falcon 9/Dragon/Falcon 9 Heavy, THAT will force Boeing/LMart to re-do their approach. Heck, those 2 are fighting against orbital for ISS -resupply, with a craft that will be a fraction of the costs of shuttle. If we are lucky, those two will push for money from cots-d and get a system into space. Once we have several private companies in LEO, AND Bigelow, we will see an explosion in space systems akin to what opening the internet did.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Watching the NASA TV footage of the Soyuz approaching ISS, I immediately started humming "The Blue Danube"... Anyone else?
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
That must have been one heck of a see-saw if the space shuttle descending on one end was enough to get him all the way to the space station. Shall he have but a penny a day? Can he not work any faster?
Stick Men
There's no abuse whatsoever when nobody forces you to buy/sell or not buy/sell a certain item. As in, threatening you with a gun.
(to the tune of "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah")
We'll send Ronald Reagan on a rocket to the moon,
We'll send Ronald Reagan on a rocket to the moon,
We'll send Ronald Reagan on a rocket to the moon,
When the Red Revolution comes!
Glory, glory, Hallelujah,
Glory, glory, Hallelujah,
Glory, glory, Hallelujah,
When the Red Revolution comes!