On SpaceX

 A good article at the American Spectator on last week's SN15 flight summarising the program so far and next steps: SpaceX Starship Ushers in New Era of Space Travel.

I caught the end of the live stream of the flight, was a lot smoother than previous ones. Am looking forward to seeing the first orbital attempt. 

Related, the UK Spectator reviews Eric Berger's (of Ars Technica) new book chronicling the early history of SpaceX: Life on Earth is too tame for eccentric American billionaires.

I do find it odd how many on the right (particularly the more libertarian elements) dislike Musk and moan about his being a subsidy junkie, especially as he is the closest thing to a real-life Tony Stark (who was a defence contactor...) or Randian superman. Maybe the fact that he took government contracts makes him a traitor in their eyes and shows the flaws in their pure capitalist worldview. It also seems the more they know about SpaceX compared to his other activities the less hostility there is.

This passage in the review struck me:

'But was it really OK that staffer after staffer burned themselves out for modest reward as Musk became the world’s richest man?'

As few points in the review, you encounter this leftist view of exploitation on workers, showing how the long march has reached the lower levels of the Speccie. What this point fails to realise though is that Musk's aim isn't to be rich for the sake of it, but to fund going to Mars. This is the goal SpaceX exists for, and the people who work there do so to pursue this dream. It also seems to be ignorant of the startup culture of Silicon valley which SpaceX taps into. 

Finally, the review end with:

'Liftoff never questions whether the future of the species should be left to eccentric billionaires'

Given the failure of NASA and the legacy aerospace companies, it is due to the likes of Musk that there is the possibility of a spacefaring future. For this alone SpaceX and Musk get a pass from me.