fomalhaut
SpaceX successfully launched, deorbited and recovered their Dragon 9 spacecraft yesterday.
Pretty cool that a private company is getting in on the action. The first manned test of the system is going to be historic; that’s for sure.
Still feel like NASA should do the heavy lifting (pun intended) and lead the way, though. Had a conversation with David about it last weekend. With all the insecurity over American students’ aptitude in science and math and hand-wringing over the possibility that this generation will grow up less educated and less prepare to compete in the global economy than the previous, why shoot ourselves in the foot by axing one of the most inspirational creators of a desire to study science and math, namely, NASA’s manned space exploration efforts. How exactly does a “focus on low-Earth-orbit and private spaceflight ventures” dazzle students, capture their imagination and make them want to be astronauts and engineers? It doesn’t, and the loss of that perception of being the vanguard, both domestically and abroad, could have more far-reaching effects than some foresee.