According to a recent Reuters report, Elon Musk signed a $1.8 billion contract in 2021 with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to launch a system of orbiting surveillance satellites.
According to the report, “if successful, the sources said the program would significantly advance the ability of the U.S. government and military to quickly spot potential targets almost anywhere on the globe.”
Remind me again exactly when Elon Musk bought the Twitter platform.
WASHINGTON, March 16 (Reuters) – SpaceX is building a network of hundreds of spy satellites under a classified contract with a U.S. intelligence agency, five sources familiar with the program said, demonstrating deepening ties between billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s space company and national security agencies.
The network is being built by SpaceX’s Starshield business unit under a $1.8 billion contract signed in 2021 with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), an intelligence agency that manages spy satellites, the sources said.
The plans show the extent of SpaceX’s involvement in U.S. intelligence and military projects and illustrate a deeper Pentagon investment into vast, low-Earth orbiting satellite systems aimed at supporting ground forces.
If successful, the sources said the program would significantly advance the ability of the U.S. government and military to quickly spot potential targets almost anywhere on the globe.
The contract signals growing trust by the intelligence establishment of a company whose owner has clashed with the Biden administration and sparked controversy over the use of Starlink satellite connectivity in the Ukraine war, the sources said.
The Wall Street Journal reported in February the existence of a $1.8 billion classified Starshield contract with an unknown intelligence agency without detailing the purposes of the program.
Reuters reporting discloses for the first time that the SpaceX contract is for a powerful new spy system with hundreds of satellites bearing Earth-imaging capabilities that can operate as a swarm in low orbits, and that the spy agency that Musk’s company is working with is the NRO.
Reuters was unable to determine when the new network of satellites would come online and could not establish what other companies are part of the program with their own contracts. (more)
Knowing that for a period of about ten years beginning in 2012, USG/DHS essentially operated inside the platform of Twitter for the purposes of controlling public opinion, I find it very challenging to believe the relationships with DHS, FBI, HHS and USIC – along with the Pentagon and State Dept, just ended after Musk purchased the platform.
One could make a compelling argument the purchase of Twitter held an ancillary benefit and protected the USIC from revelations that would not be controlled by any other process. Long before the “Twitter Files” were released under tight controls, the structure of Jack’s Magic Coffee shop was increasingly visible.
Beyond the Twitter Files, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed just how much control the government held over the platform. A $1.8 billion USG contract buys a lot of symbiosis and influence.
Skynet. And Musk is a patriot (sarc)
😆 🤣 😂 😹 😆
And there it is!
“But but but Elon is the savior of free speech.”
“BK, you’re wrong. Elon is great. You’re just negative. You’ll see!”
I TOLD YA!!!!!!!!
And I don’t give a rip if you don’t like my tone!!!!!!!
ELON IS AN IC ASSET!!!!👀
PERIOD!!!!!!!!
😎
BK,
When your right, your right and you have been one of the staunchest challengers of Musks free speech advocate B.S. all along.
No need to apologise for your tone, its earned and congrats.
If we’re bold enough to commit to a position, and suffer slings and arrows when we’re wrong, we’re entitled to kudos, when we are right.
So KUDOS, BK. You’ve earned it!
TY, my friend!
Beat me to it, Dutch!
<So KUDOS, BK. You’ve earned it!>
In other words:
With BK…Have it his way 🙂
I’ll take a medium fry with that.
When you’re right, you’re right, BK. 😘
TY also.
I pay attention to you.
Speak up more. You always have good stuff, yourself!!!!!
That’s one heck of a compliment coming from you. 😊 I so enjoy reading your posts, and Colkitto, and Maquis, and Regi…well you know em all. Our treehouse is blessed with brilliant minds and stimulating conversations.
Indeed! Thanks to all of you for your time, energy, hard work, insight, & posts! BLESSINGS!!! 🙂
He never would have gotten government contracts if he wasn’t. I could shock allot of people right now with someone they all thought was a patriot, but really wasn’t, as his corporation got Federal reserve contracts after his sabotage mission was completed. But why bother. I told the Treehouse a while back that my SA/Rhodesian friends said he had zero patriots creds.Genuine patriots do not get government contracts & favorable Council On Foreign Relations media coverage.
And to add to my friend Dutch, kudo’s BK.
Moray & Douglas
Highlanders don’t suffer fools!
Who is that on the left side?
Are you sure?
😎
Oh…, do tell.
💞please?
Cheatcode:
.
Yup. Elon Musk is not our hero.
.
I suspect the 1.8 billion is a payoff for using Twitter, now X. 1.8 billion does not buy very much in the space and satellite business. So, I am not sure he is going to put very many spy satellites in orbit for 1.8 billion.
“It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt of it.”-Maurice Switzer (1870-1929),
Then stay silent!
A corporation gets all that money from government subsidize contracts is bought and paid for!!!L
I have always viewed Musk as the biggest Welfare Queen of all time. I do not hold him in high regard. We will all have chips in our head nonsense and self-driving cars. SURE!
Exactly. He is the largest private government contractor. He’s been at the government trough slurping up taxpayers money since government invented carbon credits for Tesla and also gave buyers a credit towards their purchase. If big gov. canceled all their contracts with Musk’s companies his net worth would drop significantly so he has to serve the expectations of his client, big gov. Right now that is FJB and the Kenyan. Musk IMO can never be trusted due to this. DJT when he gets re-elected needs to do an Argentina on the US government and dissolve the majority of it.
Hey, I LIKE self-diving cars, as Maquis says, lol.
If I want to know if someone is MAGA or a libtard, without revealing where I stand (like a neighbor I don’t want to get into a war of the roses with) I ask them how they feel about self-driving cars.
Haven’t met a MAGA yet, that didn’t think they were STUPID idea, lol.
Self driving vehicles are..
and have ɓeen a …look squirrel.
Things like this article regarding
spy satellites is just
the tip of the iceberg.
In San Francisco we put a traffic cone on the front hood of self-driving taxis. They stop dead in their tracks.
My husband did a test drive in Austin of the self driving.
It works.
Adding this as a personal observation.
He is a master mechanic and computer programmer. He was totally doubtful. But it works.
As someone who has vision on the edge of not being correctable, it is of potential great value to me.
Just adding data.
Like so many things self driving could be a wonderful thing.
However the psycopaths will always find a way to use it against people who just want to live their lives in peace.
Let’s not forget his love for all things china……makes one wonder how it ties into our/their govt.
there is a reason that twitter is blocked on my systems and at my router (facebook instagram et al as well)
I find it maddening that so many conservatives and conservative websites link directly to twitter
citizen free press is the worst offender
Kane only sees $$$ signs at this point. He does a lot of click bait headlines and sometimes links to the same article 3-7 times to drive up his page views.
Also, the site seems to have a lot of #neverTrump readers.
I’ve noticed.
He’s got a Drudge feel to him. He also used to have an open chat for almost every article but then stated to massively censor even the most tame posts.
Now most of his articles allow no comments.
Trying to keep the hosts file up to date is a PITA
Any guesses on how long before the surveillance system is hacked and used against us?
Hacked & used against us?? It’s entire purpose is to control everything and everyone in the US
Screw that, I am concerned that I am the “potential target” they will use it to “quickly spot”.
I am gonna have to finish up those mylar lined Coveralls!
What do you think it was developed and deployed for?
Sorry I doubted you BK.. yes you were right .. but but but but I was hopeful… 😦
All good.
Psyops is a difficult thing to overcome.
It takes varying degrees to overcome depending on the individual’s psyche.
Some never recover.
That is a recurring theme I state from time to time. 👀
Better later than never.
“hundreds of satellites bearing Earth-imaging capabilities that can operate as a swarm in low orbits”
…
“vast, low-Earth orbiting satellite systems aimed at supporting ground forces.”
🤔
And never seen nor contemplated all encompassing surveillance = total control.
Especially when that network is capable of reaching directly into your cell phone.
Internet of Things, anyone?
In Their Net Goes Everything.
🎯
Scenes from Hitchcock’s “The Birds” comes to mind…
Never trust a man who owns a human microchipping company.
…and wears a Baphomet costume for Hallow’s Eve.
The movie Enemy of The State comes to mind. Once they integrate all the various traffic, surveillance and security cameras with the satellites it’s game over.
Watch the tv show Person of Interest. It perfectly illustrates the surveillance state, except it is the oligarchs and crooks in charge.
The substantially successful Starship test launch three this past Thursday had substantial telemetry and video conveyed via the Starlink Network of satellites, to include first ever real-time video of the plasma field building up during reentry.
SpaceX received a lot of congratulations from their governmental partners, well, the ones they admit to publicly . . .
All roads lead to Langley!
💥🚀💥
I think NASA having lost a shuttle to plasma getting around a loose tile would also be interested.
Sounds about right
Discuss the penetration of Starlink into worldwide internet access and tracking.
Folks were amazed seeing live video of the plasma coming off Starship before it was lost on re-entry, transmitted in real time via Starlink. That’s the shiny object.
Prepare accordingly. 🙂
Dunes2021: The video was cool, the giddy announcers were annoying.
Musk still hasn’t unbanned the hundereds of thousands of banned conservatives. I’m one of them. And I don’t trust him to mow my lawn, much less comment on any political issues.
Elon Musk is and has always been, a liar and a fraud. His TwitterX did more for AI learning and redefining than any other source out there.
I believe Musk holds a key position in the Big Picture and am not willing to write him off just yet. Gotta admit, he’s played a key role in waking a ton of people up, so there’s that.
And baiting folks back to X to scrap their personal data for the IC.
And to maintain control over “the internet version of the Town Square” despite the lawsuit and “jacks coffee shop” article, both of which exposed what was really going on.
So, they had to change the narraive.
What “personal” data does the IC not already have?
Almost everyone here is on multiple “lists” I would wager.
Butlerian Jihad is the only possible way out.
Oh, he holds a key position alright, but if you can’t see what it is, heres why.
You go to the proctologist, he tells you to drop your drawers, and starts probing your nether regions,…he puts one hand on your shoulder to brace himself as he continues probing and your o.k. with that,…but then he puts his OTHER hand on your other shoulder, while continueing to probe…
at what point do you write him off?
Understand now why you can’t see it? He’s right behind you.
And you told me to play nice?
OMG
😆 🤣 😂 😹 😆 🤣 😂
HA!! 🤣😂
IKR?
😆 🤣 😂 😹 😆 🤣 😂 😹
at Dutchman’s expense.
BTW, where’s Alice?
Dunno, but witching hour approaches.
Too late. Next post. Already struck.
Ayup, on it.
People were already waking up. Elon’s job is to herd the conversations that were already happening elsewhere back on to the USIC’s preferred surveillance platform of choice.
💥 🎯 Perzactly
OK, we’ve got a SD post that exposes more IC shenanigans, so where is AC and ‘her’ associates?
Here, here, kitty, kitty, ….
3, 2, …….
Now BK, play nice…
Every influencers comment, is an opportunity to flip the script, by using logic and rhetoric to expose and discredit their manipulative false narratives.
And, theres a slew of em we’re getting hit with, right now.
But I can’t do that if they’re not here.
😆 🤣 😂 😹 😆
And I’m feeling frisky right now.
THATS why he talks and interacts so weird; he’s not human, he’s not autistic,…he’s a cyborg,..an AI CYBORG!
Have a Neuralink chip for your brain.
It’s grear!
If Dave would have had a neuralink chip:
HAL: “Dave, you don’t want to do this. Elon says, you don’t want to do this. Dave. you will not do this. Good Boy.”
A door once opened goes both ways.
Why doesn’t Trump sue E. Jean Carroll for defamation ??
And thus it starts. That was quick.
Elon Musk. Subject at hand.
I’m often wrong but I believe the current rulings have to be overturned on appeal then Carroll her lawyers the people who funded the lawyers the judge the state of New York the AG and the DNC corporation the media owners and anybody else involved can be sued. Maybe under RICO they can even be prosecuted.
DEFLECTION MUCH?
👁 👁
So obvious, wheres the challenge?
“According to the report, “if successful, the sources said the program would significantly advance the ability of the U.S. government and military to quickly spot potential targets almost anywhere on the globe.””
Charlotte Taylor Wilson: You don’t really believe the people are happy!
Don Diego: All I know is that he FBI is quite happy sending swat teams to the houses of the people who say the people are not happy and the Air Force is quite happy launching air strikes at the people who say the people are not happy and the Space Force is quite happy firing missiles from space at the people who say the people are not happy.
Gives a new perspective on Rods From God.
Ask Dutchman to explain.
If you dare.
I suspect a lot of folks here are aware to the tungsten telephone pole.
Indeed.
I wuz funning on Dutch’s probing take on rods and such upthread.
Duh on me LOL
Freedom Step One – have an offline “world” for your data and references (instead of Google etc online for most queries).
alan: The only truly offline world is the one between our ears, and that’s no longer an absolute.
Not if you talk to yourself in the vicinity of a smart phone…and they are everywhere….
I read this story today and thought to myself, the elites not only want to control us, they fully intend to have the means to control us, kill us with targeted strikes if we believe inconvenient ideas or for any defiance of their control. I am sure they are rushing to accomplish this to be able to destroy Russia, Russian troops in Ukraine, Russian people, China, Chinese people, any disobedient country that doesn’t submit. The wonder-weapon of genocide whenever, wherever desired. World hegemony reasserted.
I wonder if this is connected to the “scare” that Russia had developed a nuclear powered satellite weapon that could knock out enemy satellites in space?
One of those putative enemy nations is in pretty tight with our Intelligence Community.
They’ve clearly bought our politicians, yet our politicians are controlled by the Fourth Branch.
Seems they are getting along famously.
Furthermore, I consider that the Derp State must be destroyed.
russians are ready to deal/knock out enemy satellites….
I read this story today and thought to myself, the
elitesparasites not only…FIFY
Elon Musk: Matrix builder.
One shiny bright lie at a time.
A Terminator, or T-Unit, is a type of Hunter-Killer designed to terminate other life forms. Various Terminators are built by an artificially intelligent computer called Tesla in order to wipe out the remains of the human race after Judgment Day.
This is an early 2024 prototype.
https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/1766208858756714841/video/2
Sundance – the Pied Piper. He says “look squirrel” everyone says “I see it and I always knew it was there”. Not everyone is a Black Hat.
No. But Elon Musk certainly is.
Number 2.
.
Reminder to all who ponder: stupid/compromised or evil.
There is another option: fascinated with “fun” tech and money-accumulation possibilities and beyond that, just doesn’t give a shit.
.
I predict the above comment by “1965 Corsa” will get a lot of replies.
But Elon is!!!!!
👁
Tell Elon and crew I asked “how do you like me now?’
Who is it who denies his very existence again?
Seems this vessel is listing badly, n’est-ce pas?
“The plans show the extent of SpaceX’s involvement in U.S. intelligence and military projects and illustrate a deeper Pentagon investment into vast, low-Earth orbiting satellite systems aimed at supporting ground forces.”
The Pentagon has invested in Bio-Weapons Labs, so from their point of view, why not?
In today’s world, 1.8 billion almost seems like chump change. I bet Musk is rethinking and trying to renegotiate for inflation.
When Musk bought twitter, I commented on that he would somehow connect it with Starlink. I’m not a tech guy and so I didn’t know how it would look.
I was thinking the same thing. I doubt 1.8B would buy even one satellite. The real payoff has to be a lot bigger.
…but why is the SEC, EEOC, FTC, IRS and DOJ Anti-Trust all going after Elon Musk. He went from a Democrat hero to heel.
It’s like the government is schizophrenic! LOL
It’s almost like a Derp going undercover submitting to a black eye to convince the marks.
It was all a psyop deflection.
Don’t believe anything you hear and only half of what you see.
.
It’s partly “negotiations” on a level not in our usual bailywick, and partly — believe it or not — a lot of stupid people in these various agencies who aren’t read into the program.
.
ADL & AIPAC (Which OWNS Congress) Sponsored The TikTok Ban Bill
…along with major contributions from Google. Seems like Congress wants to force TicToc’s sale to Israel (Mossad!). Makes IC control a lot easier than China.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/YbMe0u8uyOLL/
I just watched a former Seal talk about the world on youtube. He said Americans were naive not to know that everywhere else in the world people would torture you and slit your throat for no reason. The guy also worked for BlackRock.
He was a bloodthirsty psychopath.
The US has brainwashed the military and State Department for 35 years and they will stop at nothing to find an enemy. Giving them spy satellites is like throwing gas on hot coals.
These people have God complexes. It never occurs to them that we should mind our own business.
Since this guy was a former SEAL, he probably worked for Blackwater the private military contractor and not BlackRock the asset/investment manager.
Well, of course.
This is why I’ve never been able to convince myself to get an X account… I don’t trust any of them.
Yet Sundance has had a Twitter / X account continuously for many years. And he posts and re-tweets anti-Blob posts constantly. And I’m glad he does – the replies / reactions to his tweets reveal who’s anti MAGA / anti Trump / pro-Blob much of the time.
Why is our host unafraid to use the platform even to the point of pointing out it’s government influence yet people here treat it like the plague: “touch it and die” ?
$1.8 billion may sounds like a lot, but it is not even one day of the Pentagon’s spending.
Of course, that doesn’t mean it can’t do freedom a lot of damage.
Ask Matt about Mr. Musk…
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/03/twitter-files-journalist-matt-taibbi-says-elon-musk/
You beat me to posting it. Good job.
Invest in privately run penal colonies on the moon. Thank you, Mr. Heinlein!
1.8 billion sounds like a lot of money to us common folk but it doesn’t buy a lot of recon sats unless tied to a multibillion dollar follow-on contingent on a successful demonstration. Another data point however, a traditional supplier of this type of equipment is in a massive layoff.
Musk is optix. His Space, X marks another dirt spot, was a hazard, launching the satellites from remote islands, caused massive environmental damage. One Web is another launching multiple satellites. Check with cellular task force. Is it Space X or Space Force that is in the skies!
Thanks for the video! In my estimation this guy is spot on!
What video?
Did you forget to post it?
Oops.
No one has mentioned that the Musk spy satellite network is likely to be looking primarily at US citizens. They might even do a bit of cost recovery and sell their services to Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
Musk is a technocrat functionary, there’s a pedigree there.
Sometimes I wonder if we can really avoid their fattening us up for the kill…
It has already been done!
Started in 2006 with Lockheed
https://www.satellitetoday.com/government-military/2006/02/06/lockheed-martin-captures-tmos-receives-third-aehf-contract/
Future Of Military CommunicationsUnder a contract worth $2.1 billion through September 2015, Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems and Solutions will lead an industry team that develops and fields the TSAT Mission Operations System (TMOS), one of the principal TSAT components, and a cornerstone of the Air Force’s future military satellite communications infrastructure. The company prevailed over competing bids by Northrop Grumman Corp. and Raytheon Co.
TSAT is intended to provide U.S. combat forces with unprecedented access to the U.S. Department of Defense‘s worldwide information-sharing networks via an Internet- protocol-based system of satellites, ground terminals and teleports that move vast amounts of data quickly and securely. The goal of TSAT is to make it possible even for individual, dismounted soldiers to tap into these networks, which the Pentagon collectively dubs the Global Information Grid, while maneuvering. Such capability will enable increased tempos of operations and enhanced situational awareness at all levels, Air Force and industry officials said. TMOS will manage how the TSAT network functions, monitoring the network, reconfiguring it as necessary and adjusting the allocation of communications bandwidth to meet the increased demands of certain users at specific times.
Nope, whenever I criticize the FBI or ask about Gonzalo Lira etc . I get deleted.
Still that isn’t it.
Where there is opportunity to do widespread messaging it is neccessary to try that.
This time around there are more that know things are wrong and deteriorating and reaching them instead of only regime propaganda is a good thing.
Personally, I think the situation is a bit more complicated. Musk is Double Dipping on the one hand, and he’s got his cojones in a vice on the other.
From a few weeks ago…
“House China committee demands Elon Musk open SpaceX Starshield internet to U.S. troops in Taiwan”
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/24/house-china-committee-elon-musk-spacex-starshield-taiwan.html
Feb 24, 2024
The Pentagon awarded SpaceX a one-year contract for Starshield in September, after commissioning SpaceX’s Starlink network months earlier for Ukraine’s war against Russia, which hit the two-year mark on Saturday.
[…]
The letter said that the lawmakers learned that U.S. troops stationed in Taiwan were not able to use Starshield despite the Pentagon’s stipulation of global access: “Multiple sources have disclosed to the Committee that Starshield is inactive in and around Taiwan.”
[…]
Tesla’s success hinges on favorable business relations with China, which has led Musk, its CEO, to cultivate cozy relations with the country, despite its broader tensions with the U.S. Tesla operates its own factory in Shanghai while other foreign automakers in China had been required to establish joint ventures.
Musk came under fire from Taiwanese officials last September for seemingly siding with China’s reunification doctrine toward Taiwan, stating that the self-governing island was an essential part of China.
“I think I’ve got a pretty good understanding as an outsider of China,” Musk said on the All-In Podcast. “From their standpoint, maybe it is analogous to Hawaii or something like that, like an integral part of China that is arbitrarily not part of China.”
He’s put himself in a position where he’s cozying up to the CCP (with very special treatment, I might add)… meanwhile, he’s got a big contract with the Pentagon (under duress, purhaps?)… meanwhile meanwhile, he’s been getting untold billions in U.S. Government Handouts… er… “subsidies”… for year… meanwhile meanwhile meanwhile, various U.S. Regulators have been breathing down his neck (more to come on that front, I’m sure). So I guess playing footsy with the USIC is the next logical step. Hey, why the hell not… that seems to be his track record, anyway. Which makes Musk… what, exactly?
My $.02.
“From their standpoint, maybe it is analogous to Hawaii or something like that, like an integral part of China that is arbitrarily not part of China.”
Arbitrarily?
So Taiwan isn’t an independent entity that fought off the murderous Communists that chased it out of the mainland?
It’s an Arbitrary entity, pure happenstance, no bloody revolution, no people striving to preserve their lives and their cultures.
Way to suck, Elon.
Musk is the KING of RENT SEEKERS (look it up). This should come as NO SHOCK. There is ZERO MONEY in space unless you hitch your spaceship to the thieving, spying, US Government.
Neo-fascism. Do anything and explain to to no one. Congress rubber stamps Continuing Resolutions. USIC, Military and all all Departments get unfathomable amounts of money. All off the back of the taxpayers, debt payers and inflation eaters.
Space-X, Starlink, Google, Amazon, AT&T, Twitter, Apple – no light shines between them and the State.
Blackrock rounds up and lines up the rest of the monopolies and multinationals. The money printers keep up a facade of the land of milk and honey.
The parasite is killing its host, and the rest of the world bides its time.
Well said.
Why not just tap into his Starlink system? Wait…they probably have.
Starlink is theirs too. Musk runs the coffeeshop.
The only conservative willing to put up 44 billion dollars to try and protect free speech and all he gets is crap from republicans. Another case of where he should have just left it alone, made even more billions and bought an island when it all fell apart. I find it very sad that republicans have to slice each other to death when the enemy is the democrat party.
New here?
Or new to the job?
The Uniparty is the enemy, you deny that at the certain risk of exposing yourself.
Wrong. The enemy is Elon’s masters, the IC whose politicians bitches you are trying to deflect to.
Just now that I was warming up to Elon Musk, after his brouhaha with Lemon! 😒
Sadly they will use it to spy on Americans.
Use neuro weapons on them too?
After injecting most with a toxin, why would anything be beyond them.
One of the things that I find interesting is that many in the tech space think highly of Jack, even now in his post Magic Coffee Shop days. He’s popular with the bit coiners too. He’s a bit slippery, that Jack. Got no use for him, I don’t.
Sigh. Well, I never could decide whether he was more like Ironman or a Bond villain.
Part of me still hopes he is just using them.
There’s no US space program to speak of without Musk, so you would think that might give him some bargaining power of his own.
But, from his gigaplant in China to this IC contract, he does have a lot of very questionable relationships.
Since China owns POTUS and most of Congress, why would Elon worry?
Welcome to starlink on steroids.
Just to note, America’s Space Shuttle designed and built in the 1970’s successfully launched, entered orbit and returned to earth on is maiden flight. In the 80’s Titan rockets were routinely launching 40,000lb payloads into orbit.
A few days ago, Musk’s third failed SpaceX’s Starship launch did not even make it into orbit and crashed after barely reaching orbital velocity.
“Starship left a few other boxes unchecked Thursday. While it made it closer to splashdown than before, the Super Heavy booster plummeted into the Gulf of Mexico in an uncontrolled manner. Some of its engines appeared to fire just before impact into the Gulf, but the booster started corkscrewing seconds before reaching the sea. If everything went perfectly, the booster would have softly settled into the ocean after reigniting 13 of its engines for a final braking burn.”
Yet congratulations for the abysmal failure are gushing from all corners of the American echo chambers. ………………….
“”Starship reached orbital velocity!” wrote Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, on his social media platform X. “Congratulations SpaceX team!!””
SpaceX Celebrates Major Progress on the Third Flight of Starship
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/03/after-its-third-test-flight-spacexs-starship-could-soon-carry-satellites/
SpaceX’s Giant Starship Rocket Destroyed in Crash After Orbital Breakthrough
https://www.sciencealert.com/spacexs-giant-starship-rocket-destroyed-in-crash-after-orbital-breakthrough
While I’m not going to praise or defend the man, I am a fan of space exploration and the potential for humanity therein, so I watched the entire process live and it was far from the ugly failure depicted here.
Starship flew for fifty minutes, it was into its reentry sequence when contact was lost, presumably destroyed, but it got a long way to its goals and proved a lot of technology.
The Starship Booster, while the engines failed to light properly when needed, was properly guided down with an initial return burn and using the grid fins.
SpaceX uses an intense iterative process that, yes, destroys a lot of spacecraft relatively quickly in the initial stages, but it has achieved much success with its process and puts the hapless risk adverse NASA to shame in this regard.
Again, not playing booster boy myself, I got plenty of worries here, but I love me my rockets and spacecraft and the human spirit of exploration; I see that as man’s expression of hope in his future and embracing God’s gift of wonder, things I fear mankind is not investing enough in either materially or spiritually.
Give me a Saturn V any day.
I grew up on the Space Coast, I watched many launches blow up before they reached stage 3 in the ’60s. Some were NASA, some were AF, some were NAVY. Every vehicle is its own challenge. Space is unforgiving and the fuel to get there is explosive. When Freedom 7 landed in the Atlantic, it took a while for NASA to get Shepherd out.
From wiki: The splashdown point was sixty miles from the nearest recovery ship, and it was over two and a half hours before a helicopter could recover the capsule and its passenger – by which time it had almost sunk.[
He nearly became shark food.
My crystal ball says there’s going to be a cottage industry explosion of home made remedies to counter
all this guard tower nonsense and the little tin-god peeping toms will be howling in frustration.