There has been nothing more fun than watching Elon Musk's 2002 pie-in-the-sky, wonks-in-a-warehouse space dreams become a reality, and a working one at that.

By 2008, built on Musk's hand-picked initial crew of 160 employees, SpaceX had successfully launched its first Falcon 1 rocket and faced down the US government after protesting a NASA contract award to another firm. 

...Kistler was not among the companies selected for the so-called Alternate Access to Station contracts. But Kistler the year before made an unsolicited proposal to NASA offering to sell data from a series of K-1 demonstration flights. Such a contract would give Kistler credibility with the prospective financial backers while giving NASA an opportunity to leverage private-sector investment to resupply the space station.

NASA officially bought into the idea in early 2004, awarding Kistler a $227.4 million contract for flight data from the still unfinished K-1. The award was a boon for Kistler, giving the company what many saw as the inside track in NASA’s planned competition to buy space station resupply services from commercial providers.

But one of Kistler’s fiercest competitors, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), cried foul, protesting the award to the U.S. Government Accountability Office on the grounds that NASA should have given other companies a chance to bid to provide the flight data. NASA rescinded Kistler’s award in June 2004 after being informed that the congressional watchdog agency intended to rule in SpaceX’s favor.

NASA changed the way it awarded single contracts and then developed the COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportaion Services) program to encourage private sector development of resupply vehicles to the space station and satellite lift capabilities for the US.

...These partnerships had their origin in 2005, when NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin was appointed and, with the support of the presidential administration and Congress, allocated a fixed $500 million contribution from NASA’s budget for the instigation of commercial transportation capabilities to low-Earth orbit. The new Commercial Crew & Cargo Program Office (C3PO) at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas was charged with the task of “stimulating commercial enterprise in space by asking American entrepreneurs to provide innovative, cost-effective commercial cargo and crew transportation services to the [international] space station.”3 

From 2006 to 2013, under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program managed by C3PO, NASA acted as an investor and advisor with three different and distinct companies in the space transportation industry to promote the development of  U.S. space transportation capabilities on the frontier  of human exploration. 

...In addition to allowing NASA to focus on extending humanity’s presence in space, COTS would stimulate efforts within the private sector to develop and operate safe, reliable, and cost-effective commercial space transportation systems. Besides supporting ISS, these commercial capabilities could ultimately benefit the U.S. economy by making domestic launch vehicles more competitive in global markets. In turn, lower launch costs could bolster opportunities for other space markets to grow. 

One of the first of NASA’s commercial partners selected in August 2006, SpaceX, represented the unequivocal success of the COTS model. Shortly after its successful ISS demonstration mission in May 2012, the company quickly provided two critical resupply service missions to the orbiting laboratory under NASA’s follow-on Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract.

SpaceX was always pushing for bigger, better, safer, and more versatile multi-use platforms, staying true to Musk's initial vision of decreasing the cost while improving the reliability of access to space. It wasn't meant to be a billionaire's vanity project, although it was heavily scoffed at initially as such. Musk and his company went at it with a vengeance - learning from every mistake, every rocket that blew, every muffed landing, and never rested on the ones that went flawlessly, although the explosive control room celebrations are epic every time.

Super Heavy has splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico pic.twitter.com/hIY3Gkq57k

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 6, 2024

Chokes me up.

The employees at SpaceX are invested in success, safety, and innovation. They seem to have a corporate pride in their work and their collective accomplishments that is hard to find these days.

Pensacola is fond of SpaceX, too, having played our little part in mission completions.

Now, we did get a little over-enthusiastic about the first local splash-down in 2020. I mean, you combine a beautiful day, a smooth Gulf of Mexico, our penchant for fishing boats (small or Ark size), and a rocket capsule careening toward Earth just offshore?

Hell, yeah, the rednecks are coming out. Whud they expect?

'No one meant any harm': Boater shares up-close experience with SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule

One of the many private boaters to make a beeline for SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule in the Gulf of Mexico Sunday said there was no clear instruction given from any party on what boaters should and should not have done during the estimated 90-minute window that the NASA spacecraft spent bobbing in the sea before recovery. 

Boater Chris Tipton said he and others on the estimated 30 boats in the vicinity that afternoon were excited to witness history and just wanted to get close enough to capture the moment via video and photo. 

As recovery teams went to retrieve the capsule, which contained astronauts Bob Behnke and Doug Hurley, and safely load it onto SpaceX's Go Navigator recovery ship, private boats swarmed the area.

"There's probably 200 people out there altogether, personnel and everything, and we're some of the only people getting to see this in 40 or 50 years," Tipton said Tuesday. "We were just excited. Maybe a little overexcited about it, but no one meant any harm."

It got all straightened out - they just had to be specific, that's all - and now they splash down here regularly. Just had another one this past March.

In the early hours of this morning at about 4:42am, the Gulf Coast region witnessed the return of NASA's SpaceX Crew-7 mission, with a splashdown off the coast of Pensacola, Florida at 4:47am. The Crew-7 mission, part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, marked another successful collaboration between NASA and SpaceX.

The mission's return was particularly notable for residents along the northern Gulf Coast, as the spacecraft's trajectory brought it over Orange Beach, providing a unique spectacle for those early risers lucky enough to witness it (see video below). The Dragon had a fire-tail as it approached the shoreline, but the tail disappeared as the capsule moved over the Gulf of Mexico. The video was shot from the Orange Beach Public Beach this morning.

ZOOM ZOOM

SpaceX sent a Falcon Heavy up yesterday...

Falcon Heavy’s 10th mission launches @NOAA’s GOES-U weather satellite to a geostationary orbit pic.twitter.com/6c8hcF1gSC

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 26, 2024

...and then neatly parked the returning boosters side-by-side.

pic.twitter.com/MnvArHwJRm

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 26, 2024

SpaceX did miss their goal of 100 launches in 2023...by 2. Elon's shooting for 144 this year.

Oh! So close!

SpaceX missed it by that much!

Twelve months ago (if you recall), SpaceX entered 2023 with a list of ambitious goals, the most quotable of which was its promise to launch 100 rockets in a single year and beat its 2022 launch record by a whopping 60%. Now that 2023 is in the history books, we know SpaceX missed that target. But even so, the 98 launches SpaceX did accomplish in the year -- including 91 launches of Falcon 9 rockets, five Falcon Heavy launches, and two (explosive) test flights of its new Starship-Super Heavy combination rocket -- came really close to delivering on SpaceX's promise.

Space race competitor Blue Origin, founded by Amazon whiz-bang and WaPo owner Jeff Bezos, hasn't been quite as focused nor nearly as successful. They've had 25 successful flights, which includes seven carrying people. While they like to call their paying passengers "astronauts," it's more of a vanity thing for the excessive amount of cash these passengers fork over for the seat unless they're famous enough for Bezos to comp the ride.

Every last manned "space" flight Blue Origin has put in the air has been a suborbital ride. This is a problem in a competitive climate, especially when your competitor is docking and delivering goods and real astronauts to an orbiting space station.

Last year, Bezos' "space tourism" outfit was shut down for nine months after the FAA grounded the company. 

Blue Origin is finally ready to resume its space tourism program after a nine-month pause. The rocket company owned by Jeff Bezos was grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) after a cargo-only mission failed in September 2022. New Shepard, the rocket used for the mission, is also the vehicle used to fly paying customers to suborbital space.

It took until mid-May of this year before Blue Origin could manage to pump some more bodies skyward "to the edge of space" for the 10-minute ride of a lifetime.

Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin launched a six-person crew - including the first U.S. Black astronaut candidate from the 1960s - from West Texas to the edge of space on Sunday, resuming its centerpiece space tourism business for the first time since its suborbital New Shepard rocket was grounded in 2022.

"I am ecstatic," Ed Dwight, who at age 90 years and eight months became the oldest person in space, said upon landing.

Dwight and the other passengers, seated in a gumdrop-shaped capsule atop the rocket, were launched from Blue Origin facilities near the remote desert town of Van Horn. The rocket separated from the capsule, which then ascended further beyond the boundary of Earth's atmosphere to 65.7 miles (105.7 km), while the booster returned to land as planned.

The capsule then returned to Earth under parachutes, capping a mission lasting roughly 10 minutes. One of the capsule's three parachutes did not fully inflate, a hitch that may draw scrutiny before the rocket's next flight.

Carnival rides do not pay the freight, however. Blue Origin is supposed to compete against SpaceX and a firm called United Launch Alliance (ULA) for a services contract with the US Space Force.

SpaceX, Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance (ULA) have been chosen to provide launch services for the U.S. Space Force. 

The three companies will compete for National Security Space Launch (NSSL) contracts worth up to $5.6 billion across fiscal years 2025 through 2029, the U.S. Department of Defense announced on June 13.

The contracts are part of the NSSL Phase 3 launch services program. At least 30 NSSL Lane 1 missions, which head for low Earth orbit, will be launched over the five-year span.

National security missions include launches of classified satellites for U.S. agencies such as the Missile Defense Agency, Space Development Agency and National Reconnaissance Office.

What does a billionaire entrepreneur do when his product is substandard, and he knows he can't match the other guy's record of proven performance?

Well, instead of nose-to-the-grindstone, he petitions the government to shut the competition down. 

If he's got really big ones, he'll try to claim - in the middle of a battle for rocket services - that too many SpaceX rockets are bad for the environment.

Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos filed this with the FAA requesting caps on Space X Starship launch & fueling.

Bezos sites environmental impact.

That’s rich coming from him since Amazon has 24 flights in FL & 57 warehouse locations.

Blue Origin is just mad that Space X is better. pic.twitter.com/GsagJx3Se1

— Southern FFA Family (@FFAFamily) June 25, 2024

There have been 25 total flights now that they have this last batch of "astronauts" up, but still. With such a breathtaking track record against SpaceX's constant launches, who would have the nerve to...well?

I Schlitz you not.

The Jeff Bezos-owned space exploration company Blue Origin has filed its latest legal action against Elon Musk’s SpaceX, this time requesting that an airspace regulator limit the number of launches the Musk-led company can perform in Florida.

Blue Origin filed a public comment last week recommending that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) put a limit on how many launches SpaceX can perform with its Starship Super Heavy (Ss-SH) booster and rockets at Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The filing comes as a part of the ongoing preparations of a Proposed Action Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) from the regulator.

...Along with requesting a max number of Starship launches at the site, Blue Origin argues that the government increase launch infrastructure that opens other launchpads to nearby lessees when roads are forced to be closed for SpaceX launches. The filing also notes that SpaceX has already received environmental testing at its Starbase site in Boca Chica, Texas.

The filing follows similar moves in past years, including in 2021, when Blue Origin sued NASA for awarding a lunar contract to SpaceX and not considering other alternatives. The suit was shot down by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, leaving the Human Landing System (HLS) and Artemis contract to SpaceX for the time being.

It really seems as if Blue Origin spends more time in court filing lawsuits against the government and SpaceX than it does actually in space. 

Elon cheekily renamed the firm that lives on the edge of space while others pointed out the obvious.

Since they never get into orbit, they should change the name of the company to Bezos' Balloon Ride

— Jordan Schachtel @ dossier.today (@JordanSchachtel) June 25, 2024

I guess this should be an object lesson after a fashion—Bezos might seem like a weasel to us peasants down here, but at least he's a consistent, equal-opportunity weasel.

Small people do small things.