SpaceX launches US spy satellite
SpaceX buys in Easter moves
Hey Guys,
I’m still figuring out how I want to cover the Space technology sector in this Newsletter. I want to cover Space news but also at the intersection of SpaceX. I also want to cover bigger stories about our place in the Universe, astronomy and the future of being a multi-planetary species. Eventually this means covering Mars.
So what is SpaceX again?
SpaceX was founded to revolutionize space technology towards making life multiplanetary. SpaceX is the world’s leading provider of launch services and is proud to be the first private company to have delivered astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS), and the first and only company to complete an all-civilian crewed mission to orbit.
SpaceX Update
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket boosted a classified National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) payload into orbit early Sunday after a foggy California launch, the company's 14th flight so far this year.
SpaceX launched a clandestine spy satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and landed the returning rocket back on Earth today (April 17), acing a spaceflight twofer on Easter.
A two-stage Falcon 9 rocket carrying the NROL-85 spacecraft lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California today at 9:13 a.m. EDT (1313 GMT; 6:13 a.m. local California time).
The SpaceX rocket's two stages separated about 2.5 minutes later. The first stage headed back to Earth, making a vertical touchdown at Vandenberg's Landing Zone 4 roughly eight minutes after launch in what may be the ultimate bunny hop on the Easter Sunday holiday.
SpaceX ended its live webcast of the launch just after the Falcon 9 landing at the NRO's request due to the mission's classified nature.
Mounted atop pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base northwest of Los Angeles, the rocket's nine first-stage engines ignited with a rush of flame at 9:13 a.m. EDT (6:13 a.m. local time), throttled up to 1.7 million pounds of thrust and smoothly pushed the vehicle away from its seaside firing stand.
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Twenty miles up, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket streaks toward space after launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, carrying a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload.
Today's flight marked the first time that an NRO satellite has flown on a used rocket, NRO officials said.
"It also marks our 114th overall successful recovery of a first-stage booster," John Insprucker, SpaceX's principal integration engineer, said after the landing.
The irony about news about space is that China is closer to Mars than many of us assume. China has a better chance at becoming the leading space-power in the 21st century, a higher probability of it winning in its artificial intelligence of quantum computing. This is due to its centralization and talent in large infrastructure projects of scale. It likely has multiple private space companies (state-backed) that are cloning many of the technologies we see SpaceX using today.
Space is now another battleground between the U.S. and China amid a broader technological rivalry for supremacy, one that could have scientific and military implications on Earth. The race for Mars is real, and it’s not just between Elon Musk and his imagination.
I admit, I’m just at the beginning conception stages of implementing this Newsletter about space, space news, space technologies and SpaceX in paritcular.
If you want to support me so I can keep writing, please don’t hesitate to give me tips, a paid subscription or some donation. With a conversion rate of less than two percent, this Newsletter exists mostly by the grace of my goodwill (passion for A.I. and space) & my own experience of material poverty as I try to pivot into the Creator Economy.
Anyways I hope you enjoyed the topic, that’s all for today.