Blog Index for March 2017

SpaceX in historic first reuse of previously launched rocket, unless it's a hoax

(Thu Mar 30 2017 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) SpaceX today made history with the first ever space-ship launch using a rocket that had previously flown. Today's SES-10 launch was flown by a Falcon 9 space-ship which had previously flown in April 2016. They had successfully landed that ship on their autonomous drone landing pad, then refurbished it, ensuring it was flight-ready, then flew it again today, and successfully landing the rocket on their landing pad ship. SpaceX's long-term goal is to reuse rocket ships multiple times, because the first stage rocket costs $60 million to build but only $200,000 to fuel. By reusing rockets, the cost of launching stuff into space will be drastically slashed, and humanity will be able to afford to launch more stuff into space. But - I said 'hoax' because there's at least one person on YouTube complaining the video is obviously a hoax. He latched onto the fact that for every landing, the video cuts out and they do not show the landing live, instead they magically show the rocket on the landing pad -- but -- cue sound effects -- obviously it's a fake, and they simply showed a different rocket on the ... sigh. Oh c'mon.

British Home Secretary makes chillingly authoritarian response to 'terror' attack

(Mon Mar 27 2017 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)) Last week an angry man of Islamic descent (but born in Great Britain) rented a car, drove through a crowd on Westminster Bridge, killing several people, before killing a Police officer guarding Westminster Palace, after which he was shot and killed by other police officers. The killer may have been ISIS-connected (ISIS claims responsibility). In response British Home Secretary Amber Rudd named several online sites as hotbeds of online terrorism communication and radicalization. Her list included blogging platform Wordpress.com of all things. Her chilling message is there should be no secret places to hide.