Update no.1157

 Update from the Sunland

No.1157

11.3.24 – 17.3.24

Blog version:  http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/

 

To all,

 

On Thursday morning, at 06:25 [T] MST, Thursday, 14.March.2024, SpaceX launched its IFT-3 mission. Starship 28 was stacked on top of Booster 10 for IFT-3. They got farther through the mission profile than on any previous mission but not far enough. All 33 booster engines fired off and performed nominally during ascent to staging. The hot staging appeared to go off without a hitch, unlike IFT-1 & IFT-2. The booster center engines successfully relit in sequence and maneuvered the massive booster to its return to base attitude, including return burn and descent attitude. The booster seemed to be nominal until the engines started to relight for the landing burn while penetrating a cloud deck. The grid fins worked very hard and fast but ultimately failed to align the booster, and the necessary maneuvering engines failed to light and remain lit during the final flight phase of flight. The booster was lost at the very end. Starship 28 successfully completed the risky hot staging with all six motors, three standard (sea level) Raptors, and three vacuum nozzle Raptors, lighting on command during staging. The spacecraft achieved suborbital velocity and apparently successfully accomplished its space tasks up to but not including the space relight of the engines. I suspect they were beginning to lose control of the vehicle and could not properly orient the craft for the engine relight test. Starship 28 was on a trajectory to reenter without the engine relight test, so it reentered the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean. SpaceX provided a remarkable streaming video from the forward port stabilizer fin looking aft to the rear port stabilizer fin throughout the flight including a goodly portion of the reentry. The vehicle appeared to have lost quite a few insulation tiles prior to and during reentry. The video also suggests they failed to maintain proper attitude control prior to and during reentry, exposing unshielded portions of the spacecraft to reentry heating. We saw the atmospheric plasma field around the aft portion of the vehicle during reentry down to 75 kilometers of altitude. The super-heated plasma field was magnificent to watch, and I look forward to additional opportunities. The starship appeared to reenter sideways rather than level, nose high, and suffered what SpaceX prefers to call a “rapid unscheduled disassembly,” AKA an inflight breakup. One fact is certainly noted, SpaceX got farther along the mission profile than on the first two test flights. I suspect SpaceX will quickly correct whatever it was that went wrong on IFT-3 to make the next mission successful from start to finish. SpaceX stated they expect to fly the stack four to six times this year. I wish them the best of luck and success.

 

The follow-up news items:

-- Boeing’s travails [889, 896, 1149] continue to deteriorate at an increasingly rapid rate. The company failed to produce the requested documentation for the Alaska Airlines 737 door plug blowout event, and the U.S. government filed criminal charges against the company. Boeing clearly and emphatically has a quality control problem that has now become pervasive. Profit will come by being the best, not the least expensive. They definitely need to take a step, or five, back to when the quality and safety of their products were paramount . . . rather than cost.

-- James Crumbley, husband of Jennifer Crumbley [1152] and Father of Nathan Crumbley, the convicted mass killer, was found guilty on four counts of manslaughter by a jury like his wife. Sentencing is expected next month. The courts and two juries have sent a very clear message. Parents can and should be held criminally responsible for the criminal actions of their children. We are long overdue for such findings. I trust the sentences for mother and father will be appropriate for their failures to society.

-- On Saturday, at a campaign rally in Dayton, Ohio, for senatorial candidate Bernie Moreno and wearing his red MAGA hat, [the person who shall no longer be named] [768, 991] declared, "Now, if I don't get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath for the whole . . . that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country, that’ll be the least of it." He went on to state, “If this election isn't won, I'm not sure that you'll ever have another election in this country.” What sort of man, especially a person running for the office of president of the United States, says such things. In the wake of his inflammatory words, his sycophant minions have tried to “explain” and deflect from ihr Anführer words. They say lame things like he was only kidding, it was campaign rhetoric, he meant the auto industry not the people, et cetera ad infinitum ad nauseum. At best, his chosen words were seriously imprecise, i.e., he said ‘country’ when he meant ‘auto industry.’ At worst, his words were imbedded coded signals like the BBC did during World War II, sending messages to the resistance in the occupied territories. He is doing exactly what he did in 2020, preparing the ground and his believers to contest the election when he loses. The evidence of his criminal, unconstitutional conduct multiplies and still his believers do not waver. The only question remaining is, will saner, more democratic, protectors of the Constitution vote in November? If we do vote, [the person who shall no longer be named] will be rendered to the rubbish heap of history where he belongs. There are more of us than there are of the MAGA bunch including Lieber Anführer. Let us do our duty in November.

 

Both President Biden and [the person who shall no longer be named] have clinched their respective party’s nominations after the Tuesday round of additional primaries, i.e., they have gained sufficient delegates for a first-round ballot nomination. The rest is gravy. Unless something major happens (like a conviction and imprisonment of Tiny) between now and November, it will be a repeat of the 2020 election with what appears to be the same malfeasance and criminal conduct by the MAGA bunch that plagued the 2020 election. Strap in, we are bound to experience another very rough road and test of our foundation democratic principles and ideals.

 

The Russian dictator Vladimir Putin claims to have won re-election to his fifth six-year term, winning 88% of the vote. Of course, he did. Was there ever any doubt. Putin is an old-world Soviet practitioner Stalin’s declared adage—it does not matter who votes, only who counts the votes. So, the saga continues.

 

Comments and contributions from Update no.1156:

Comment to the Blog:

“Of course, the Supreme Court has strayed from law and logic in its decisions. Mitch McConnell has manipulated the appointments for those positions throughout his reign over the Republican Party. Now we can't even get rid of Clarence Thomas. In any prior era, Thomas would have failed his hearing along with Kavanaugh and probably Barrett.

“If we don't get rid of the ‘debt ceiling,’ budget dysfunction will continue.

“Tiny's ‘empire’ wasn't ‘gold plated;’ it was merely gilded trumpery. 

“I'm seeing fact-checking and other criticism of Senator Britt's response to the State of the Union. It reads like Tiny's speeches, but she doesn't have his knack for demagoguery.

“Those shouting about the border must remember (a) the declining birth rate in the USA and (b) the labor supply in the cash economy.

“Nikki Haley has suspended her campaign. Marianne Williamson on the Democrat side has not. I imagine each of them wants to be the ‘fallback’ choice if their party's candidate reaches death or disability. I'm still voting Green Party.”

My response to the Blog:

I broadly agree with you. The Thomas concurring opinion in the Dobbs case was the most telling and damning in his efforts to set us back a century or more. For the first time in my life I say, if we can maintain our democratic governance, the system will eventually correct itself, to right the ship of state.

We are also agreed on the debt ceiling issue, the law has long outlived its usefulness and value.

That was exactly my impression as well. She made a huge mistake in delivering that speech. It seems she has swallowed his worthless snake-oil elixir, and now, she believes.

That would be nice, but I do not think they care. Saner minds will have to be elected to Congress for that to happen. We must wait for the November election.

Perhaps so. Both candidates are very near clinching their nominations. Once that occurs, it will be up to the party conventions to decide. I cannot imagine them going back to the voters.

You are a much better man than me. I am not so decisive. I will continue to wait for the November general election ballot to decide.

 . . . with follow-up comment:

“In time, the Supreme Court will be improved by the retirement of the master manipulator Mitch McConnell. I'd still like to see term limits for Justices, too.

“Also in national politics, the Five Thirty-Eight newsletter this morning analyses the effect of Senator Sinema's exit on Arizona. Along the way, it makes interesting points about independent voters and also mentions the likely end of the filibuster.

“At long last, I am again a formally registered Green Party member. If we can get ballot access in 50 states and enough money to publicize our policies, we can be a force.”

 . . . my follow-up response:

Ditto and agreed.

Yeah, I was quite sorry to hear that Kristen Sinema decided not to run for reelection. I suppose the handwriting was on the wall when she announced she was leaving the Democratic Party and running as an independent. Given the two “party” candidates [one of which is Tiny with breasts], I would have voted for Sinema, again. I did not always agree with her actions and positions, but in the main, I believe she did a good job trying to find solutions to intractable problems.

The filibuster as it has mutated in recent decades should go to the history books. The current employment of the procedure is just wrong, wrong in every possible way. The latest evidence to support abandonment was the obscene obstruction of Tuberville.

How is the Green Party candidate chosen? I would like to see the Green Party on every ballot. I do not understand why not?

 

My very best wishes to all.  Take care of yourselves and each other.

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)