Dragon entering the atmosphere, splashdown in 15 minutes

[bananas]

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Corporate Misson complete.

I don't think this is what JFK was talking about.

[bigtree]

3. he certainly wasn't talking about spending public money

. . . to support and defend 'commercial space' as PNAC's military industrial warriors in the Bush administration envisioned and hijacked space program money to perpetuate.

I'm glad to see that corporations are being made responsible for paying for their own commercial ventures into space and the American taxpayer not on the hook for their for-profit space endeavors.

Hey, you're still going to Mars. Now, maybe the resources and focus of those missions won't be centered on some corporation's opportunistic concept of exploration and discovery. Well, maybe I'm speaking too soon on that.

[bananas]

2. Visible on infrared nt

[bananas]

4. Splashdown! nt

[Ian David]

5. Check out that woman texting on her phone.

And now the dude next to her.

Think they're texting each other?

[bananas]

6. Elon Musk is in the front center. nt

[malthaussen]

7. This is one area where I think Privatization may be a good idea

OTOH, maybe I'm just naive. But the big, nasty corporations are not going to piss money down a black hole in the hopes of a fat payoff later. Instant profits is what they are after. Any group of investors who are forward-looking enough, and willing enough to defer gratification for years if not decades, may also be more interested in producing something of value and even making a contribution to the human race. From what I know (and I'll admit my sample pool may be a bit shallow), the people who go to space are much more idealistic than the greedy scum who are more interested in plundering what's left of Earth.

So I see this as a win. May they make enough profit to keep the program viable.

-- Mal

[bananas]

8. News conference at 2pm Eastern, 11am Pacific nt