"the end of the road for Falcon 9"
Well, actually it's the end of the road for Falcon 9 Block 4...
SpaceX successfully launched 10 satellites into space Friday, completing its sixth launch this year. The launch from pad 4E at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California came on the same day as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the company's plan to set up its own broadband network in space, making it a …
There are five block 4s left that could fly again. One new one launching TESS and landing on the 16th, three of the other four have missions planned (first is CRS-12 on the 2nd). Boosters for TESS and CRS-12 are expected to land. I do not know about the others.
There are two and a bit block 5s. First block 5 launch is no earlier than the 24th. There are no Falcon heavy centre cores, but one is scheduled to launch no earlier than 13th of June.
SpaceX probably run out of block 4s some time in June.
We have plenty of time to think of an insane payload for BFR's demo mission. My first thought was a fully fuelled Exploration Upper Stage (crew vehicle for SLS) but SpaceX are not set up to load liquid hydrogen and EUS probably won't be ready.
> Nose cone 'impacted water at high speed'
> SpaceX aced its launch, but the $6 million nose cone crashed, Elon Musk says
So Fox News is the Daily Mail equivalent, but CNN is getting worse. Neither of them have any journalists.
That's the garbage we have to put up with over here in America. I have to go to El Reg or the BBC to get any actual news.
Somewhat the same here although BBC is just one on the list. At the very least, I know the bias for the Beeb. Ditto the Grauniad, The Economist, anything out of Asia. Even Sky New, RT and al Jazheera are useful as a bounds check.
Way back when I wore the uniform, I preferred to have a clue who might be shooting at me and, possibly, why. You can pretty much forget warning of what's going to go up the pole relying on the US media.
"...CBC Radio 1 is quite good."
No it isn't.
They thought the annoying Barbara Frum was a reasonable journalist.
They'd have Stalin and Hitler debating, and believe that it was thus "balanced".
Their Science reporting is often horrific, falling for the latest tabloid nonsense.
They're preoccupied with trivialities, and are innumerate.
That even surprised the NOAA: https://twitter.com/NOAAComms/status/979738481231650817.
Apparently, theres a law about remote sensing that means every rocket with a camera launched from the US needs a permit to transmit pictures once its reached an altitude/speed
The permit is issued by NOAA, and SpaceX did'nt manage to get one for Good Friday because NOAA were shut for the holiday
Either that, or the rocket passed too close to that Go'ald mothership we hijacked a couple of years ago......
There's an argument to be made that the Space Shuttle actually set humanity back by about 10 or 15 years.
I don't quite believe it myself, but the point contains enough obvious grains of truth that I could probably argue it on behalf of those that do fully believe it.
SpaceX appears to be scaling back its original plan of an open ISP for everyone in order to focus on areas with poor internet access or slow speeds i.e. target less competitive markets.
...they'll start selling broadband access to us here in the U.S.? We could use some competition because $DEITY knows we've got bugger all with the current oligopoly.