#71

More American astronauts make it to the International Space Station on American hardware

April 11, 2022

Last Friday, SpaceX’s Dragon crew capsule was launched on a Falcon 9 to the international space station. Dragon is a big deal because it’s the part of the rocket carrying people. Working with NASA to prove its safety and reliability has been a progression from un-crewed launches, to test blow up and parachute missions, to real missions to the ISS for NASA and the United States. Last week, Netflix put out a documentary about SpaceX, Dragon, reusability, and followed the crews taking the ship to the ISS for the first time.

SpaceX @SpaceX

Docking confirmed!

SpaceX has continued to prove the reusability of their launch vehicles like Falcon 9. Now that they’ve also began the process with the crewed part of launch vehicles, the whole loop of the US having a reliable (safe), and more cost effective path into space is complete. It’s a really big deal for the United States. For one, it’s in the interest of national security to be able to build your own rockets and launch your own astronauts without depending on other countries. More-so, having consistent, rapid, safe, and large payload rockets makes exploring the cosmos a real possibility. It opens the gates to the new frontier of science and human exploration.

Eric Berger @SciGuySpace

Some perspective on Crew Dragon's rapid rise: It has now flown 22 astronauts into orbit. China, widely regarded as having the second-most capable space program in the world, has launched 20 astronauts since 2003.

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Immigration

The Alex Nowrasteh @AlexNowrasteh

Do immigrants use more welfare than native-born Americans? No, they use 28% less on a per capita basis.

Amazon satellite program

Eric Berger @SciGuySpace

Amazon just announced the biggest commercial launch purchase ever. Basically, they bought every available Western rocket for the next five years that didn't have a Falcon stenciled on it.

arstechnica.comJeff Bezos and Amazon just hired everybody but SpaceX for Project KuiperHuge contracts for United Launch Alliance, Arianespace, and Blue Origin.

Bitcoin + solar in Texas

CNBC @CNBC

Tesla, Block and Blockstream are teaming up to mine bitcoin off solar power in Texas.

cnb.cxTesla, Block and Blockstream team up to mine bitcoin off solar power in TexasBlockstream and Jack Dorsey’s Block are breaking ground on a solar- and battery-powered bitcoin mine in Texas using solar and storage technology from Tesla.

Tesla Gigafactory in Texas begins production

Tesla @Tesla

Giga Texas y’all

-LUCAS