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SpaceX's Falcon 9 Appears As UFO In Australia
RobHart writes "ABC (the Australian Broadcasting Commission) has reported extensively on a bright spiraling light that was seen in Eastern Australia just before dawn. It has just broadcast a report from an Australian astronomer who has suggested that the light was probably the successful Falcon 9 launch, which would have been over Australia at that time on its launch trajectory."
Update: 06/05 22:20 GMT by T : Setting aside the literal exhaust fumes, reader FleaPlus says, It's "interesting to look at the reactions from those in Congress who control the purse-strings for NASA (one of SpaceX's biggest customers). The successful launch was congratulated by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL and former astronaut) and Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-FL), both praised and criticized by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) due to the successful launch being a year later than previously predicted, and blasted by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) for merely replicating what 'NASA accomplished in 1964,' who added that the company's success 'must not be confused with progress for our nation's human spaceflight program.'"
I think it's oddly ironic and evidence of how off base Republicans are with science that they can decry this as being unimpressive. Normally they'd be touting this as evidence that NASA needs to be canceled so that the private sector can do it without federal funds.
Because ultimately this is a big deal, private businesses haven't been able to do this sort of thing nor really was the US government able to without a massive amount of money.
Gotta love the quotes from the wonderfully progressive Republican party folks including this gem from Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL): "[Shelby congratulated SpaceX on what] 'NASA accomplished in 1964,' [and] added that the company's success 'must not be confused with progress for our nation's human spaceflight."
That's really rich seeing that NASA can't even do what SpaceX has done. Welcome back to 1964, maybe, we SpaceX is now years ahead of the now hopefully defunct Aries I program, despite NASA's extensive experience, which SpaceX is benefiting from. Even more ironic that a Republican senator is unhappy that private enterprise is doing something that a government agency is apparently unable to do. Oh how the Republican party has fallen. They're now caught by their own positions. I mean are they for private enterprise and the free market or not?
Regardless, he sounds like an ignorant ass. I really do hate both political parties. They are both filled with buffoons, just left buffoons and right buffoons.
I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) for merely replicating what 'NASA accomplished in 1964,' who added that the company's success 'must not be confused with progress for our nation's human spaceflight program.'"
The bit he left out was the fact that America as a "nation" has lost the space race altogether. Unless of course you count buying seats on Soyuz spacecraft as part of the "American manned space program"... Yes America put a man on the moon - but what have they done SINCE then, Shelby - while YOU were in office? In fact, while Elon Musk was busy building a billion dollar company (PayPal) that many people use every day, all you did was suck up taxpayer dollars feeding off of society and pretending to be important. Then Mr. Musk goes on to found another visionary company while you just whine and bitch and believe that you actually contribute to society. Truth is that Shelby can be replaced instantly by someone just as mediocre.
SpaceX has demonstrated it can now lift useful, heavy payloads into orbit. This is the beginning of a business model - one that never worked for NASA. Instead of whining about how America did this a long time ago he should realize that this is not costing the taxpayer anything at all AND is the beginning of regular self funding, sustainable space flight. A boon to ALL of humanity.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Ah,, don't inject truth, reason, and sanity into this. Can't we just bash one party or the other for the hell of it and leave false impressions to the masses? I mean how are we supposed to get our guy elected if we can't get everyone else to believe the fallacious positions we put the opposition in.
I bet you don't like puppies. Nobody listen to this guy, he doesn't like puppies, or kittens either.
This is bigger than you realize, yes nasa did it in 1964 in what is essentially a lewis & clark type exploration project, the mercury / gemini / apollo series of flights. This is different than 1964 its akin to the opening up of the railway systems in the east that eventually lead to the transcontinental railway. Spacex is just the first company to get there under their own steam. Yes they have government contract, but they developed their own medium lift vehicle powerful enough to launch a man rated space craft into orbit. that is the Dragon space capsule. They did it all in house at a fraction of the cost of the defunct Aries & constellation projects. The dragon now needs to go through a full vetting process to get it man rated but even then it will take 3 years, that will still beat the first full up test flight of the Aries by 3 years[nasa's best guess]. The best part of this is it was done privately for a fraction of what the public sectors failed attempts cost. The Republicans, well, they are just upset the Democrats killed Aries thats why they are kvetching on this, I say if Elon wants to win this hands down, press to get the dragon man rated in 18 months. As there are plans to get the Constellation project restarted already afoot
What is interesting is when I hit Republican candidates for office on private commercial spaceflight.... they are all for it until the word "Constellation" comes up and then try to defend that program as if ATK has completely financed the entire development for that project out of their own pocket.
Sometimes I don't really know what is going on, and it seems as though politicians will simply bend in the wind if you start to blow back. We'll see, I guess.
Support for the Constellation program won't survive the light of day when people really start to realize what it is and what it is doing to NASA. Once it is built, if it is ever built, the first act of the next President of the USA will be to cancel it. Right now we just have to see if Obama has the backbone to get it canceled for good before another dozen billion dollars are spent on that black hole.