Space X Launch Today

Ambitious plan. He may just pull it off.

having enough hydraulic capacity this time should make the steering perform better for landing

SCRUBBED!!

Is the launch a success?

Kulas: Scrubbed, means they canceled the launch? If you need language assistance, there are these things called dictionaries. You might try one.

I cant help but wonder if the money and talent being used in the space industry could not be put to better use in solving some of the tech problems here on earth, energy consumption, nuclear waste, pollution. Not trying to put a damper on this significant event but how much money and talent will go into sending two(or 20)people to Mars? And has anyone figured how much the human race has spent so far, all countries included, in the quest for space? And what discoveries have been made for our benefit that would not have been discovered anyway with the brilliant minds working together as they are? Just thinking out loud, so to speak. And for the time and money spent on CERN I have these same questions.

if more people thought like you we would still live in caves

It's when people set their minds to difficult -or impossible- tasks that human race advances forward. Incentives may not always be noble, sometimes -possibly too many times- it's a war involved, or someone's effort to dominate over others but end result is what matters. About money involved now, don't want to elaborate too much, but the only possible waste here is the real resources, money at this level is rather... relativistic stuff. S.M.

Alright, I will bite. (1) How many spin-offs from CERN are now multi-billion dollar products? (2) Are there any spin-offs from CERN, other than gigantic contractor wages being paid?

I understand that fundamental, basic research in physics and chemistry are both important, and might someday pay us back in a big way, but we can gain immediate benefits from space exploration, and I am not going to sit here and spend all morning enumerating them for you.

The issue isn't WHAT is being done, it is WHY it is being done.

This about a persons motivation to do something that has never been done before, in or out of the government circles. This is free thinking and entrepreneurship at its best. Someone taking their own money and making something great happen.

The serendipity of this kind of work is that all kinds of research is going on that may have ripple effects to our quality of life here. There are always things that are impacted when research is done in a particular field. The applications may come later. There are many applications that came out of the original space program that now have day to day use in our lives.

to your point...on an infrequent enough basis America is the breeding ground that produces a George Westinghouse, Thomas Edison or Henry Ford.Elon Musk is our generation's example of this type of individual.some of his rockets have blown up in spectacular fashion. so far this has not detoured him from his strongly held beliefs.to quote an old movie, this guy has "the right stuff."I wouldn't bet against him today