Space

And we have done it! Americans, launched from America back into space! After almost a decade of PAYING DEARLY (to the Russians) for every American seat traveling to the ISS, we are FINALLY BACK! (I can hear the Russian Space Agency groaning from here! There went a HUGE part of their funding).

You have to hand it to Elon Musk and SpaceX. I can't remember how many years back it was that SpaceX leased the SLC-3 West (Space Launch Complex-3, the west side...the east side is used for Atlas V)  right here at Vandenberg Air Force Base, and they had basically a tent out there on the concrete pad, and finally they had a Falcon-1 rocket standing out there for weeks/months. It's been quite a while, and they WANTED to launch their Falcon-1 but weren't allowed to because the US Government  had a spacecraft awaiting it's launch out at one of the other 2 pads on Vandenberg Southbase (either SLC-4 or SLC-6...can't remember exactly which one). I remember driving by SLC-3 seeing the Falcon out there, so it might have been in 2005 (when I was still working at SLC-4). Turns out the US Government (ie, US Air Force) had a lot more clout than the fledgling SpaceX company, and were able to dictate that you are NOT going to launch ANYTHING over the top of a few billion $ hanging out at the other launch pad (we had a spacecraft on-pad awaiting launch). The Falcon-1 was a single-engine rocket with the original Merlin engine I seem to recall.

The Falcon-1 was only a test-rocket, used for testing their brand new Merlin engine which was intended to be used on much larger rockets once it was perfected. Which they did, and which it is. The Merlin engines are used on the Falcon-9 (for 9 engines per rocket). Boeing's Delta IV rocket uses two Rocketdyne RS-68 engines (designed and made in the US by Rocketdyne corp...my big bro works there still, has been there since the Space Shuttle was still being built). And the other player BEFORE SpaceX came along for the larger (ie heavier spacecraft) US Government launches is the Lockheed Martin Atlas V (both Delta IV and Atlas IV are now ULA...or United Launch Alliance). The  Atlas V uses a Russian RD-180 twin engine very similar to the Delta IV's. Elon determined that more cheaper engines were better than fewer bigger more expensive ones, especially as all engines are one-time-use disposable...they fall into the ocean after the 1st stage burn is complete. The beauty of the 9 engine cluster is that 1 or even 2 engines can have an issue and the rocket can still reach it's destination as the others can be throttled-up to compensate. Pretty brilliant. And I believe from near the very start Elon was planning on re-using the boosters.

I can just picture the meeting long ago, with Elon and all his smartest rocket-people in the room, discussing how to make space-launch cheaper and one-up the Boeing and Lockheed rockets that were sharing all the government launches. Up to that point every launch the paying customer (the owner of the spacecraft being launched) paid for the entire booster, fuel, range, and probably a ton of other stuff, as well as a hefty profit margin for the manufacturer. Every pound put into orbit has a set dollar amount, and it was a LOT. Let's take water...even today water is a very expensive commodity in space. The ISS filters all it's water for re-use over and over, but there are huge losses due to human beings breathing out water vapor with every breath. Water is shipped up all the time on the resupply missions at great expense to the taxpayers. Anyway...just picture Elon telling this assembled lot of brilliant people we need to cut costs, the question is how to do it. No idea is too stupid, speak up, don't be afraid. People started tossing out ideas, that's good...that's good..yep, that will save some, good idea. Finally everybody was done, the room was quiet. Elon is looking around, so far it's all been chump-change in the big scheme of cost per pound to orbit. And finally one person sheepishly raises their hand from the crowd...everybody looks, and this brave brilliant engineer meekly says "why don't land the boosters and re-use them?", which after a few moments of incredulous silence was met with throwing of rotten food, popcorn, water, anything the crowd had, as THAT was such a stupid idea! Yes, I was wrong, there IS something too stupid, and that was it.

But Elon was not throwing stuff nor razzing this brilliant engineer who so bravely tossed out a game-changing idea. He was already rolling that around in his brilliant mind. The idea was set. Now how to make that happen. (I have no idea whatsoever if this is how it happened, maybe Elon himself came up with this idea which is very possible, however from the very start of SpaceX he has surrounded himself with the brightest minds money could buy...he literally went to Rocketdyne and hired away some of their best and brightest top rocket-scientists to leap-frog over the VERY EXPENSIVE learning curve of building a brand new rocket engine without blowing up dozens of them and the test-stands during development (which Rocketdyne has done many  many times). I remember hearing about this "Plan" to land boosters and thought it was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. I also remember the failed attempts at landing them yet how close they actually were (and how much they learned with each failure) until that one day when they stuck the landing on the barge at sea. I thought it was one of the most amazing things I had ever witnessed...they had done the impossible. Even after that first success they had other failures, but they started to rack up successes until now it is quite common. Here is a bit I copied from Wikipedia:

"Falcon family core boosters have successfully landed 52 times in 62 attempts. A total of 23 boosters have flown a second mission, including two pairs as Falcon Heavy side-boosters, six boosters have gone on to fly a third mission, four boosters have flown a fourth mission and one has flown five times."

For one thing, that info on how many have been landed and how many have been reused is simply amazing! I don't have the date of that post on Wikipedia, but if that data was current, then you can add 1 booster to the total that has landed, being as they again stuck the landing on their barge at sea today. But it was last year, or maybe the year before that I think (during the maiden launch of their Falcon-9 Heavy, which is 3 Falcon-9's bolted together to launch the heaviest payloads we have and challenge the Delta IV Heavy for the heaviest payload launch contracts) where the mission was the Demo of the Heavy and Elon launched his own personal Tesla Roadster with the space-suited dummy driving the convertible Lotus body Tesla, which is even now zipping along on it's way to the sun after a successful launch. Anyway, they stuck the landing of both the outer booster cores which landed on the ground at Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral almost simultaneously...it was THAT video of the 2 boosters in the same frame of video landing which is now the coolest thing I have ever seen. The center core (which had the payload on top of it) burned longer than the jettisoned outer-cores, and for that one they had the barge at sea and were still hoping to land it, but from the start they knew it was a long-shot as it was likely to not have enough fuel, and still they came THAT close (it hit the barge but at too much speed due to not enough fuel and was lost). Even now there are launches where they know the booster is going to be lost due to the mission parameters (how much weight to what orbit) and not enough fuel to even try to land it. 

Wow...I really digressed there and got pretty chatty...sorry...I know that is quite rare (GRIN!) What I MEANT to say from the very start is HOORAY!!! I was even a bit teary-eyed at the huge accomplishment today that we all witnessed! It was a HUGE deal! Humans (who just happened to be Americans) launched to the ISS on a private-company rocket! It's a brand new world ladies and gentlemen! Boeing is falling way behind the curve with THEIR human rated capsule (the CST-100 Starliner)...and Blue Origin is even further behind on THEIR human rated capsule New Shepard. Boy, you'd best get going folks! And neither ULA nor Blue Origin has ever landed a booster btw. Blue Origin still hopes to...ULA is just going to continue launching expendable Delta IV and Atlas V rockets. I'd say they are WAY behind already, and getting further behind by the minute. The only reason ULA is soon to still be in business is due to government mandated contracts (they don't want only 1 contract for space launch, too risky even if it costs the taxpayers a LOT of $...SpaceX can WAY underbid ULA due to their proven multi-use rockets).

Anyway, Ya HOO! Americans launched into space FROM America! Yeah for US!

The Game is most definitely ON!

And on a more somber note, we (my brothers and I) just found out that our Dad who lives in an assisted Living facility in Las Vegas was admitted to the hospital last Thursday night with a raging UTI, a fever, and also with breathing issues (they thought he might be having a heart-attack). After being admitted he was tested for (and has been confirmed to have) the Covid-19 virus. So far he is doing ok. He is on 3 liters of oxygen a day (when it gets to 5 he will be admitted to the ICU).  His biggest issue is he is not eating. Antibiotics knocked down the fever, but they have him on IV sustenance as he just refuses to eat. He has dementia so is quite confuses as to where he is and why, he just wants to leave. They have a constant watch on him (he is now restrained) and he wears mittens as he pulls out his IV and trys to leave on a whim. And due to the pandemic there are no visitors allowed...and his hearing aids and cell phone are back at his room in the assisted living facility so we can't even talk to him. They have him very mildly sedated as his heart rate and blood pressure go up quickly whenever anyone enters his room. They are afraid to sedate him any more due to his age (he is 88, turns 89 in July). And that's all we know, and there is absolutely nothing we can do. 

OK...well, that's where we are. We have no idea how he got it (he is one of only 8 in the entire facility he lives at who have now tested positive). And oddly enough, he is the only person my brothers and I know in person who has this virus. But consider that only 1/2 % of the US Population has had it I guess it's no wonder that very few people know anybody who has it (unless you live in a big city, especially NYC). Crazy times we live in for sure. And we (me and my work-crew) are still preparing to travel mid June to both Boulder CO and Cape Canaveral FL. That game is also still ON.

And now that is the end.