Wednesday, May 11, 2016

McCain and Musk for Massive Fail!!

Seems that Senator McCain has a love affair with Elon Musk.  That may create a problem.

...“Two Republican powerhouses (Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain [Ariz.] and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy [Calif.]) teamed up Wednesday to introduce a bill that would stop U.S. military reliance on Russian-made rocket engines (RD-180) for its national security space launches.”...

OK.  Screw the dirty Russkis!!  Dethrone Putin, The Enemy!!  Right??

Umhhhnnnmmm.....

...you can’t actually end our reliance on Russian rockets – unless you have a viable alternative ready to go. The United States does not....

Enter Elon Musk, the father of the self-immolating Tesla; the Tesla whose gull-wing doors don't work well, if at all; the Tesla whose battery-power is great, except in the frozen North during winter....and who thinks that by sleeping on his factory floor, he can solve all the problems. 

The Musk whose solar electric empire derives almost all of its revenues from sucking the life out of taxpayers....

Yah, that Musk.  He also owns a private space-rocket business!

...“Sen. McCain pushed these restrictions in close coordination with SpaceX, which stands much to gain by eliminating competition. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was recently certified for some of these launches by the Air Force, albeit under intense political pressure from the Obama administration….SpaceX has…suffered numerous delays and anomalies....

"Delays and anomalies"--just like the Tesla!!

...Shortly after the Air Force’s certification of the Falcon 9, a catastrophic failure in June led to the complete loss of both the vehicle and all of its taxpayer-funded cargo, thus grounding the vehicle. The company was already over two years late developing the Falcon 9 and now has a substantial backlog of its current launch schedule, which raises the question of what the launch priorities will be if it does resume flights.”...

We're all for private enterprise.  But we're not all for failures. 

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