SpaceX: StarHopper

I despair at the times we live in.......

While people implode, MSM reports purely and incessantly anything and everything that is bad (whatever happened to and here's the good news), it fails to even mention a monumental achievement yesterday. It makes me wonder, if this were July 1969, in the current crazy climate, whether they would even bother to mention a side story such as Apollo. You can bet if there was some scandalous kiss on "Strictly" or something similar on "Love Island", it would be considered news worthy.

Why this rant?

Well SpaceX yesterday evening completed yet another successful first on the road to Mars. The bottom section of "StarShip" (all 60ft of it) known as "Starhopper", along with their super new "Raptor" engine, successfully launched, hovered, manoeuvred to another pad and landed. Have the BBC or other "news" outlets reported this significant event, other than Brexit and Epstein? (no political rants regarding these please) Not when I looked for this last night or this morning. The only breaking news I saw and which took up the splash screen, was Bury F.C.  Where is my slap head emoji when I need it.

If you missed it or were even unaware, then watch it here. I was following it live on Monday when it was scheduled to launch. It got right down to T-minus 0.08s when they went to hold because the Raptor engine failed to ignite. They then decided to scrub until the following day (yesterday). It got to T-minus 2.00 and held, again I though Noooooo. But after 5 mins the countdown continued and it launched. It was a "hairs on the back of the neck" moment to follow. I wasn't old enough to appreciate the build up to Apollo, let alone Mercury and Gemini  (only six when they landed on the moon) so this is all wonderful to witness. I don't think you get the idea of just how big the hopper is but a man can easily walk under it, look at the diagram below.

SpaceX will now move onto actually finishing (yes they've already started) building StarShip proto type MKI (see below) and then onto the full version of Starship. The ambitious plans are back to the Moon by 2023, A Mars cargo only delivery by 2024 followed by the manned Mars landing by 2026. Starship will sit atop their BFR which will not only be larger  but also develop five times the thrust of the Saturn rocket that got man up to the moon.

This, is this generations Apollo and one mans determined mission to get humanity back on track, thank heavens for people like Mr Musk. Our species nature is programmed to be explorers and when we stop trying to climb that mountain, cross that ocean to see over the horizon or try to reach a perceived unreachable goal, we start to implode, turn inwards and stagnate which is all too evident these days.

When folk ask why bother, I say imagine the following; what if our ancestors on the plains of Africa decided that leaving their comfy continent was a bad idea. Spreading across the globe gave our species the best chance of survival and spread our civilisation.  Years later what if Christopher Columbus agreed it was far too dangerous a mission to sail over the edge and instead went down the boozer. Then after Charles lindbergh upon crossing the Atlantic, folk saying "well done Chas but what was the point" or to Edmund Hillary, "Its only a big hill mate!! what's all the fuss!!" The list can go on and on and on, history is littered with our "Dare to dream" antics. Space is the next frontier, the next step to spread and preserve our civilisation. We must explore, just as our African ancestors once did, failure to do so wastes and disrespects their efforts and sacrifices. Of course we must address the injustices and imbalances of the world but in tandem with reaching for larger goals.

Lets hope with private enterprise they don't make the same mistake as NASA and give up due to lack of funds or giving in to the naysayers. Only my thoughts folks, no doubt others hold differing views which we are all entitled to hold though these days it might seem not. This is just my opinion, thankfully I'm not alone and for me that gives a glimmer of hope.

"We choose to go to Mars in the next decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard............."