I stayed up late into the night to watch the Crew Dragon launch, and I admit I got a little choked up to see private enterprise finally succeed in an endeavor previously reserved for the exclusive use of government operators and political entities.
The Dragon's gleaming interior and ultramodern design mark a stark break from the bleak, utilitarian cockpits of the defunct space shuttle, or the cramped confines of Soyuz. Sleek couches, spacious interior, a couple of touch screens, and a handful of buttons were all that didn't clutter the sci-fi environment of SpaceX's minimalist design.
Though I was moved by the launch and fascinated by the engineering and design work, I couldn't help thinking that I've been watching this exact scene play over and over for the past 60 years - since the days of Yuri Gagarin (or was it Vladimir Ilyushin?) and Alan Shepherd. Even more, chemical rocketry is a century old - almost as old as the automobile, rockets in general have been around for 2,000 years celebrating Lunar New Year. Let's no forget that a number of dogs and monkeys preceded humans into space, as well.
The first iron tube rockets were invented Mysoreans in India in the 1700s. A British officer named Congreve stole the idea for his rockets in the 1800s. American Robert Goddard is generally credited with inventing modern chemical rockets, though he was standing on the shoulders of many a giant.
In other words, SpaceX is just one in a long line of rocketeers who have refined the physics and abilities of rocketry, but the craft is almost as old as written history.
Sure, I applaude the milestone set by SpaceX, of commercial human spaceflight. It is a significant achievement, even in the long, storied history of rocketry, especially getting one of the (ahem) pioneering nations back into orbit after a decade of bureaucratic bumbling.
The question I have, though, is where are all the real toys? Are we really to believe that the 100 years of intense rocket development, the trillions of dollars in research, the many nations involved have only achieved something slightly more advanced than Chinese fireworks?
With all the decades of development on ion, microwave, nuclear, and electro-gravitic propulsion, the best humans can do is fart flaming gas out of a tube? Why aren't we using aerospikes and EM Drives and spin-stabilized LASER launchers? How is it, with the vast sums of money and millions of hours of research, we still can't do better than bottle rockets? Why is it that spaceflight hasn't changed much since the Nazi innovations of the 1940s? And why are their REAL advances listed as hoaxes?
Given all the possible reasons to riot, one might think that having a century of our savings stolen for projects and technology that we're not allowed to see, much less use, would be chief among them. We the people are owed a huge debt and we are being deprived of collecting on it by a group of people who are hording our property from us.
Instead, we are told to be proud and joyful at yet another rocket launch, a feat nearly as old as civilization and one which the Russians and Chinese have been happily doing for the past decade while the US was grounded and begging rides.
I want the real toys. I want to see the man behind the curtain. I want all the things that were promised decades ago in the blush of human spaceflight adolescence. We paid for it, we deserve it. It is our heritage and achievements that are being robbed from us under our noses.
Way to go Elon and SpaceX! Great job! Nice design work! Outstanding attention to detail. But it's time your partner NASA gave us the goods that we've paid so dearly for - and farting tubes ain't it.
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