While I was away SpaceX reached a new milestone, launching their new Space Taxi version of the "Dragon" rocket module. This puts the US back in the business of transporting humans into space, reducing our reliance on Russia to get people to and from the Space Station. Good news! Nothing against using Russian rockets. I am sure the Russians love their astronauts too (thank you Sting). But when it comes to launching people into space, I have more confidence in using spaceships marked with "Made in the U.S.A." on them.
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| Space Taxi |
Space Taxi
Meanwhile, in China... Not to be outdone, the Chinese announced this week that they too have a "Dragon" rocket, ready to launch people and cargo into space. Did anyone think to Copyright or Trademark "Dragon Rocket?" Not that copyrights and trade marks mean anything over in China. But I digress.
America's Dragon has the Demo-2, China's has the Long March 5-B. America's has seating for four (up to seven) and China's has seating for six (up to seven). They both have two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions. But America's Dragon has a sesame seed bun, China's has sesame chicken.
At any rate, we are about to enter a new era in space travel. Competition breeds innovation so now with SpaceX, (and let's not forget Boeing), and China competing for passengers and cargo, the next few years should be the most exciting in space travel development since JFK announced we were going to the moon. Even Russia will have to step up its game and replace its Soviet-Era spaceships once everyone starts riding on the US and Chinese ships.
I do have to wonder, though, if China really has any edge on its competition. Every time something electronic fails in my house I flip it over and invariably it says, "Made in China." Even with China violating every international patent law and spying on our government to steal secrets, I do not have a lot of faith in Chinese-made anything. I do not think I would ever buy a Chinese car, let alone a plane ticket on a Chinese spaceship. Nothing against the Chinese people, just their cheapo products.
The biggest question I have, though, is who will be the first to provide definitive proof of alien life? The windows on those modules do not look very big. Do they have cameras outside? Why does it seem like all space missions are focused entirely on what is happening inside the transporters and the Space Station instead of what is going on outside? Hopefully the new competition will spur engineers to rethink things and become more outwardly focused.
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Thank you for reading and keep an eye on the sky.
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