Uncertain Launch Feelings
Sep. 16th, 2021 06:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerI’d known in a general sort of way a “civilians in space” flight was in preparation to launch in a Crew Dragon spacecraft (it had a reality show on Netflix and everything), but as it turned out I first realised the launch had happened via the old-fashioned method of reading my newspaper this morning. To be honest, though, the news still left me with a “shouldn’t I have more of a reaction?” feeling. This does seem to have something to do with looking in directions that turned up a good deal of distaste towards the two five-minute “moneybags up and down” launches earlier this year; one of the civilians just happens to have made a lot of money as well.
That SpaceX has worked through problems (rather than “getting it perfect to start with, because its designs are from private industry”) and kept its rockets flying has impressed me a bit, even if I do wonder if having avoided making a first grand claim of flight frequency and costs of the sort that kept getting thrown back at the space shuttle helped. At the same time, it’s easy enough to be suspicious of both its corporate controller and its “fans.” It’s one thing to say “airline travel started out as a high-end indulgence,” another to consider the energy alone required to climb and accelerate to orbital speed.
With all of that said, there’s at least an effort being made to talk up the flight. Complaints and accusations that “space flight wasn’t sold properly” do leave me wondering whether “nonstop TV coverage of real life” is necessarily exciting in itself. So far as finding inspiration goes, though, it could just be an impression the Martian mini-helicopter Ingenuity has eked out its battery power longer than first expected is as good as anything else to me.
That SpaceX has worked through problems (rather than “getting it perfect to start with, because its designs are from private industry”) and kept its rockets flying has impressed me a bit, even if I do wonder if having avoided making a first grand claim of flight frequency and costs of the sort that kept getting thrown back at the space shuttle helped. At the same time, it’s easy enough to be suspicious of both its corporate controller and its “fans.” It’s one thing to say “airline travel started out as a high-end indulgence,” another to consider the energy alone required to climb and accelerate to orbital speed.
With all of that said, there’s at least an effort being made to talk up the flight. Complaints and accusations that “space flight wasn’t sold properly” do leave me wondering whether “nonstop TV coverage of real life” is necessarily exciting in itself. So far as finding inspiration goes, though, it could just be an impression the Martian mini-helicopter Ingenuity has eked out its battery power longer than first expected is as good as anything else to me.