Phil and Stephen reflect on the launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, and Starman's drive to the asteroid belt. What is Elon Musk up to? Is this all just a publicity stunt? Or was that just a publicity stunt that NASA pulled back in July of 1969?

Interesting times lie ahead for both NASA and SpaceX. Is it time NASA got out of the rocket business? Let’s discuss!

Hat-tip to Brian Wang at Next Big Future for his outstanding coverage of this story.

Third Burn successful going Past Mars to Asteroid Belt

SpaceX Heavy Success will now publicly test US Government Spending Corruption

[ Blistering analysis. But it’s possible that incompetence and an archaic approach, rather than corruption per se, are behind the massive spending. Also, we’re not convinced that the US government is trying to steal SpaceX IP. ]

Falcon Heavy proved computer software for designing Big Falcon Rocket

SpaceX Heavy is game changer for defense and NASA

 

NOTE: Phil repeatedly uses the term “Orion”  to refer to the NASA Space Launch System (SLS). The World Transformed regrets the error.

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Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/