“Some may focus on the lows, but behind the efforts of Starship – and other programs like New Glenn, Neutron, Vulcan, Terran, Stoke, etc – is a massive space economy taking shape: tens of thousands of jobs, billions in private investment, all aimed at truly opening the last great frontier.
When these capabilities arrive, they will spearhead a new era of exploration and discovery – and the lows will become a chapter in a much longer story.”
– Jared Isaacman, Trump NASA Administrator Nominee,
05.28.2025
I saw the news of the latest SpaceX Starship explosion with a complete lack of surprise a few days ago, and it had me somehow flashing back to Musk’s performance at that post-Inaugural shindig, and his bluster about putting boots on Mars… and a joyful, iconic moment on the Moon, waaayyyy back when I was an awestruck kid of 15.
…and given Isaacman’s background in — what, some kind of Internet payment system or some shit — I’m also not surprised at the complete lack of any mention of science, exploration, the expansion of humanity into the solar system in his remarks… nahh, fuck that noise; there’s money to be made — once Elon can stop blowing those goddamn things up.
Speaking of blowing up giant rocket-powered dildos, apparently Elon was supposed to have delivered a company-sponsored TED-ish talk entitled “The Road To Making Life Interplanetary”, but his plans kinda… shall we say, “blew up in his face”:
“…Ahead of the Starship Flight 9 mission, Musk said he would host a company talk, which was dubbed “The Road to Making Life Multplanetary,” which he said would be live-streamed. However, that was originally scheduled before the launch, then shifted to after and now appears to be off the table for the time being…”
– Will Robinson-Smith, reporting at Spaceflight Now, 05.28.2025
…so, I guess Making Greed Interplanetary will just have to wait, for now.
10 x 10 inch high-res color jpg image, 1.6 mb
