New Glenn Second Launch
Bald, rich guy Jeffery ‘Dick Pic’ Bezos confirmed his status in the Ultra-Rich Guy Rocket Club this past week, launching the New Glenn rocket for the second time. I was impressed by the really loud roar the rocket produced on the crystal-clear lunch day. More like what I remember with the Saturn V and its huge engines.
Very impressive compared to his smaller Big Dildo Rocket, he uses to launch his harem and other interesting people like a 90-year-old Captain Kirk into space. This new one is serious fucking business.
Getting in the Way Back Machine, we go back to the early 1960s when Dad, working for General Dynamics, is involved in launching the first major rocket, the Atlas, into space. I would eagerly watch every launch.
At Cocoa Beach Elementary School (more commonly known as Freedom 7 after a name change), my class would regularly walk the half-dozen blocks from the school on Fourth Street South (less than a block from where I live now) to the beach. Right out at the end of Cape Canaveral stood Launch Complex 46.
We would watch the rockets launch, knowing that many of our fathers (and perhaps mothers) were responsible for what we saw. Sometimes they would blow up! That was cool. But it was very satisfying to see them disappear into the blue sky, which was more often the case.
As a young boy growing up in this setting, I was enthralled with everything space. I especially enjoyed reading about the adventures of Buck Rodgers in the 25th century!
I was very curious why Buck could land his spaceship and we had not. I guess we had not figured that part out yet.
That turned out to be true. But who would have thought that it would be done by a billionaire rather than my dad and his buddies!
When I first moved back to the area, SpaceX finally succeeded in landing their booster after six tries. Ten years later Blue Origin does it with their second launch. Still not sure what took them so long but I look forward to seeing more of them.
