Monday, December 08, 2008

Pardon Our Mess


Future Under Construction.

From Yahoo News:

Secretive Space Vehicle Tested at Private Texas Site

Leonard David

space.com Mon Dec 8, 1:15 pm ET

That secretive rocket work being bankrolled by billionaire Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com fame has shed some new light on its activities.

Blue Origin is developing New Shepard, a rocket-propelled vehicle that takes off and lands vertically and is designed to routinely fly multiple astronauts into suborbital space at competitive prices.

Flight tests of the suborbital craft have been staged at a private launch site in Texas.
...


True enough, but because I love y'all like a milkshake, at great risk to wing and wallet, I smuggled out this Exclusive!Footage!

And remember kids, like interstate highways and Internets, space travel is an enterprise which, by its very nature, is something that the Evil Gummint cannot and will not ever be able to achieve!

No, Manned Space Flight will only ever be developed in the United State the way all innovations requiring massive, patient investments over many years have occurred: by the visionary industrialists of Private Enterprise acting in concert for the harmonious mutual benefits of public good and private profit.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

TANSTAAFL (unless you're a financial institution too big to fail).

Porlock Junior said...

OMG, Destination Moon! Gee, it seems a long time since I saw that. I guess it was, if you call 50+ years a long time.

Nice tie-in there, with the Private Enterprise theme; such a very Heinlein plot.

But then, Rocketship X-M! Does anyone remember that dog? Didn't they get off course and land on Mars? Something like that, I'm sure. Admittedly I might have it slightly wrong, it being a long time ago and my having been rather young at the time.

Anyway, Destination Moon was definitely much touted for its attempt to get things technically right, and probably deserved it. Art by Chesley Bonestell, no less; that part I didn't remember.