SpaceX Has Made One Mistake

I read:

Under the deal, SpaceX will lease 631 acres -- the equivalent of almost 500 football fields -- for its test facility. The new lease will more than double the size of the current 256 acre site on the Western edge of the City of McGregor, and will last roughly 10 years, from February 2011 to January 31, 2021.

“Our Texas rocket development facility is critical to our operations,” said Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and Chief Technology Officer. “This lease will allow us to move forward on the growth we have planned for Texas. SpaceX already has more than $2.5 billion in launch contracts for us to carry out over the next few years -- McGregor is going to be a very busy place.”

The McGregor city council voted unanimously to support the proposal on Friday, February 25, 2011. The final contract was signed today.

Problem.  McGregor is close to Waco.  This is a bad omen.

However, this may be an undercover plot to "misfire" and blow Waco off the map.  In this scenario, prior to "misfire", all Waco residents, cats, dogs (all two and four footed creatures) will be shuttled to other cities aboard a huge blimp called "The Arc".

I do feel somewhat like the rug has been pulled out from under me at JSC as if it hadn't already felt that way.  What is it that I do these days???

I'm serious when I say I grew up thinking NASA was like *it*.  I feel so ignorant and country stupid.

One thing I think may be good, the company I subcontract under has it's fingers in all sorts of stuff including SpaceX.

I read also:

The Falcon Heavy’s payload is more than a fully-loaded Boeing 737 jet, said Musk, who is also the company’s chief rocket designer. The rocket will meet human flight standards and may be used for missions to the moon or Mars, he said.

 Honestly, if a commercial vehicle, the power of privatization, American business ingenuity combined with technical savvy can get us out there... hey... To the Stars!

Kim just said, "You know what, you'd enjoy that Keith if you could be a part of that."  I was just thinking the same thing.  I bet my arms might even stop hurting :-)

I have to say though, I do like living here.  I wish we could sort things out here.  What I really want is to be a part of something that people really want to do or see - in the sense of discovery/science/knowledge, not just business for money's sake or defending territory or growing a company to grow or stuck in this and that or climbing up to G19 for a parking spot.  I've always wanted to be a part of discovery or discover something myself.  In fact, today, I went along the other side of the shore... where nobody that I know of has gone.  Saw a 4-5 foot gar while standing in the marsh surrounded in lily pads.  What the gee-golly in me wants is for NASA and the companies, especially the small ones, to just... oh... i don't know

I don't want to be overworked.  That might be what keeps me from something like SpaceX.  I'd rather stretch the trip out and enjoy it.  I'm no Elon Musk.  I think sometimes I'm so idealistic that I believe I can launch a rocket to Mars just by painting it right or having some metaphysical awareness of what being on Mars is like. It's more that I imagine things sometimes so strongly. But maybe those are just coping mechanisms because I don't think it's possible.  Anyhow I always stank at foozball.  I was too hyper and just spun them randomly all over the place.

All that said, tomorrow I'm hitting it again.  Looking forward to another day of programming.  Been doing much better lately.  My code count is high of late.  Let's keep it going!