A great week in space: Starship, China, Starliner
A great week in space: Starship, China, Starliner
Also, alternative visions of space exploration.
Greetings to all readers and subscribers, and special greetings to the paid subscribers!
Please scroll down for the main topic of this newsletter. But first:
Next week on June 18 I’ll participate in a panelist in a presentation / discussion of “Reclaiming Space: Progressive and Multicultural Visions of Space Exploration” (2023), edited by James S.J. Schwartz, Linda Billings, and Erika Nesvold.
The online webinar, titled “Alternative Visions of Space Exploration,” is organized by the Cultural Considerations Working Group of the Moon Village Association (MVA).
I was surprised to be invited to participate, because I’m not known as one who has too much patience for “wokeness” and I’m exactly one of those “male, white, politically libertarian” space enthusiasts whose narrative has shaped spaceflight so far.
But I’m a spaceflight maximalist: to me, advancing on the road to the stars is more important than other things, and I want to advance onward to the stars no matter how. I understand the importance of cultural support for space expansion, and therefore I totally welcome more inclusive narratives that can reach more people, especially young people. As a space maximalist, I think fostering public support for space expansion is more important than my own esthetic and philosophical preferences.
When the first black transgender astronauts will walk on the Moon or Mars, I’ll be among their first and most enthusiastic followers and admirers.
I love my VR worldlet spaceport9684, so I plan to add two new simple VR worldlets reachable via teleport links, one on a virtual Moon and one on a virtual Mars. The new VR worldlets will be lighter (no grass blowing in the wind or water to simulate) and more accessible to users with old computers or phones. This is a low priority hobby project and at the moment I have more pressing things to do, but I hope to have more time in a couple of months.
Last week was a great week for spaceflight.
On June 6 I was glued to all my devices to watch the fourth test flight IFT-4 of SpaceX’s Starship. I watched Everyday Astronaut’s stream on YouTube and of course the SpaceX stream on X.
Space expansion is a cornerstone of Turing Church, and important space missions like this are like religious services to me. In the picture below, watching the Starship service in my best church attire, I’m feeling in contact with our cosmic destiny among the stars.
Before the launch I posted to X:
If the test is entirely successful, it will be a little but important step on the long road to the stars. If the test fails or is not entirely successful, it will be a little but important step on the long road to the stars. Stars, here we come! To my old space cadet friends and Apollo orphans: we're slowly getting back to where we're meant to be. To my younger revolutionary friends: the old ways have too much inertia on this planet, but the first generations of people born on Mars will invent new ways.
Before the launch I was open to the possibility that this, like all test flights, could fail or partly fail. But IFT-4 has been a spectacular success. Starship took off, the launch ramp was left intact, the booster made a controlled soft splashdown in the sea (this makes me hope to see the booster successfully land in one of the next test flights), and Starship made it all the way (with some nail biting moments) to a controlled soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The payload of ITF-4 was the data, and SpaceX has acquired plenty of critical data that will be used to improve all system components and enable SpaceX to “continue rapidly developing Starship into a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond.”
I really wish that all Musk haters would shut up and fuck off, at least for a few days. But of course there are always some pathetic imbeciles like this idiot. Well, I believe in freedom of speech, so they can say all the BS they like, but I’ll ignore them and so should you.
I’m sure the next flight tests will be successful and Starship will become operational at some point and carry astronauts to low Earth orbit, to the Moon, and eventually to Mars. But I don’t hope to see the first crewed Starship flight soon.
And I don’t hope to see Artemis 3 astronauts walk on the Moon by 2026. Perhaps by the end of this decade. Which brings me to:
China’s Chang’e 6 mission successfully landed on the far side of the Moon, collected samples, and is returning the samples back to Earth. China is advancing toward the Moon steadily, one step a time, with “a stated goal of putting astronauts on the moon before 2030.”
I think the next astronauts to walk on the Moon could well be Chinese. After that, China could take steps to secure a de-facto ownership of the Moon and become the dominant spaceflight power.
The Chinese flag on the far side of the Moon should be a warning to the West, and a wake up call. Let's wake the fuck up, or else. My X post: Congratulations to China! If the West gets stuck in decel “culture” and related BS, I hope China will establish the first settlements on the Moon. But I still hope the West will recover.
Hoping that the West will recover, to me human space expansion is much more important than flags. I’m a spaceflight maximalist. So if it has to be China, so be it.
Too bad these two awesome space missions have eclipsed the successful Starliner launch and docking with the International Space Station. I’m a SpaceX fan, but again, I’m a spaceflight maximalist: to me human space expansion is more important than flags or brands, and having more competing options is good.