25 Comments
Oct 15Liked by Glenn Harlan Reynolds

Nothing pisses leftists off more than people who actually get things done, eg Musk, Trump, DeSantis, John Galt, etc. Or, as I have been saying for years (especially about the Palestinians): Nothing hates success more than failure…

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Oct 15Liked by Glenn Harlan Reynolds

A great capsule history of the first volume of our space history with.a great bank shot to add Columbus as well. I am inspired by the accomplishments of both the early NASA triumphs and the recent successes of Mr.Musk and his crew, but still skeptical of the long term prospects of sustained human extraterrestrial presence - but I will watch with interest as it unfolds.

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Oct 15·edited Oct 15

In the early 1500's, it would have been difficult to recruit a few hundred hardy adventurers to settle the New World - but 100 years later, that was exactly what happened. Elon Musk proposes to go to Mars, and SOMEBODY will need to be first, but 200 years from now, we're very likely to have cities on the Moon and on Mars - and settlements throughout the Asteroid Belt.

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After watching the successful docking of the Starship, I've been happily thinking all day.... We're going to Mars!

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Yes! As much as I respect Musk, I’ve always sort of derated the “colonize Mars” stuff as hype or (more charitably) irrational optimism. But after watching that monster take off and pinpoint return to be captured *in the air* by the chopsticks, I cranked up my probability a fair bit. Awesome.

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I've never had any doubt that we would go to Mars and beyond, but now it looks like it could happen in our lifetime.

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A dozen touchés, professor. This is one of your best. This is a pivotal moment. This achievement will be long remembered, while so many of today’s other top stories will be utterly forgotten.

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founding

I haven't been awed by anything in a long time the way that landing awed me. Musk is ... well, I'm not really sure how to explain someone capable not just of dreaming that up but bringing it to fruition. I'll grab on to any reason to be optimistic these days.

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Oct 15Liked by Glenn Harlan Reynolds

After watching that awesome achievement of engineering and technology I'm going to binge watch the "The Expanse" epic just to honor the occasion!

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and it worked the first time

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I wonder if Columbus had haters back then? I assume yes.

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Yes. Recent research indicates that Columbus was a Jew, and Spain had just kicked all the Jews out of Spain. So taking Isabella's money and leaving with it definitely had to have angered a lot of people.

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Musk is an American hero. But it's not just his vision, it's that he assembles the right people and puts them to work on the right tasks and then lets them do the work. It's the expectation that the work will get done, and get done right. All his companies share this. Early NASA shared this. The current version of Boeing and other American industries do not. When you look at video of the Tesla assembly line you begin to understand the depth of what's being created.

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founding

At the top of your game today, Glenn!

Likely inspired by the truly amazing catch of Musk’s Starship Booster by the Mechazilla. That took me back to my younger days watching Mercury and Gemini flights.

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Wonderful piece! Watching the Mechazilla catch that booster was just incredible.

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Bravo Zulu.

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The left of the day also was mad because it was all a bunch of white guys that did space. Hence the revisionist history about how it wasn't possible without three black women doing math etc. I wonder if NASA is inept today because of the DEI, or the diversity, or is it something else?

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Nice literary flamethrower professor!

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There was a 1964 film, 'With Their Eyes on the Stars', celebrating the space program and placing it in the context of American history and exploration. Music, traditional and new, by John Stewart. Most people over the last 2 or 3 decades would have considered it laughably corny, but maybe that level of hope and idealism can come again soon. Whole thing at YouTube:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=T1NqLcUDULE

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it's fake video, but I get chills watching the Apollo 13 movie liftoff

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A wonderfully lapidary statement of the disease of progressivism, reminiscent of Nietzsche's observation that "making men smaller and more governable is desired as 'progress'."

"Don't let that happen." Just so. There is nothing more important than this.

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I shared this on FB and they removed it in less than 2 hours. They said "It looks like you tried to get likes, follows, shares or video views in a misleading way. This goes against our Community Standards on spam."

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