Personal note: My wife humored me, and we spent the week in Cape Canaveral. Put my human Mark I eyeballs on both Starlink 6-70 (gorgeous night launch) and the SiriusXM launch. Watched from Canaveral’s Jetty Park boat ramps and fishing jetty, respectively.
A bit too far away for my phone’s optical zoom to capture great video, but definitely close enough for the rumble and crackle of nine Merlin engines. (About a minute delayed.)
Earlier, we spent two days leisurely touring Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Complex. I couldn’t help noting how egregiously NASA downplays SpaceX’s contribution to the commercial cargo, commercial crew, and Artemis programs. In fact, no mention at all of SpaceX’s HLS role in Artemis. Lots of glowing coverage of Butch and Suni going to the ISS aboard Boeing’s Starliner, but no mention at all of their extended stay, nor the Starliner’s empty return. No mention at all of the Orion capsule’s difficulties, either.
The “Gateway” display, all about going back to the moon and on to Mars, has a flight tested Cargo Dragon capsule and a flight tested Falcon 9 booster on display. No informational displays for either, even though they were the only “real” components present. Lots of hagiographic material for all of the other Artemis components.
Cleaning out that bureaucratic nest of vipers at NASA cannot come too soon.
Its been a few years since I had time to go through the parallel NASA exhibit area in Houston. It was rather like going through some European museum, where their much more able ancestors had done truly great things many, many, many years in the past. An exhibit on Skylab, for goodness sake! Even back then, there was a real feeling that NASA’s great years were fading behind them into the sunset.
