Harry and Bubs – 1954

Happy 63rd anniversary, Bubs and Harry!

Anne has been busy scanning family photos, in-between making plans to head north again. In addition to her looking forward to returning to Michigan, to see family and to summer at her cabin, the weather here is providing plenty of additional incentive to get the heck out of Dodge. The last time that I checked it is 101 ˚F, but don’t worry, because it only feels like 115 ˚F. We should get a momentary cool down tomorrow, which will be much appreciated, because we would like to get outside some this weekend.

A good rule for rocket experimenters to follow is this: always assume that it will explode. — Astronautics Magazine, 1937

There was the odor of schadenfreude at Spacely Sprockets this morning. One of our competitors in the launch vehicle business, SpaceX had some misfortune. Their Falcon 9 rocket after successfully delivering two of Mister Spacely’s satellites into orbit had a problem. The Falcon 9 rocket features a reusable booster that lands vertically on the landing pad, as if it was a rocket out of some 1950s science fiction yarn. This rocket has successfully blasted-off and landed four times, but on this fifth landing attempt it experienced a Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly, as they say in the parlance. They even have an acronym version of this, RUD, in short it blew-up. We at Spacely’s have been watching the progress of Elon Musk and his team with a combination of admiration and apprehension. They are doing great stuff, but yesterday’s accident amply demonstrated that they’re not quite yet ready for prime time.

Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That’s not my department. — Tom Lehrer