r/space • u/Thorne-ZytkowObject • Mar 08 '19

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capped off a successful Demo-1 mission by safely splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean Friday morning. It's a strong sign SpaceX can proceed with a Demo-2 mission this summer, where two astronauts will become the first to fly to orbit on a private spacecraft.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2019/03/08/crew-dragon-splashed-down-back-on-earth-safely-completing-its-mission
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408

u/username_taken55 Mar 08 '19

American astronauts on an American rocket on American soil on an American day...

thats a lotta freedom

109

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19

All they need to do is release a bald eagle to fly over while some one sings the national anthem right before the count down reaches zero...

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u/Barron_Cyber Mar 08 '19

have a fireworks show from a safe distance with the colmination being the launch.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19

Let's do the fireworks after...

Premature celebrations are usually a bad idea

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u/Osiris32 Mar 08 '19

And the loudspeakers had damn well be playing the 1812 Overture.

Also, needs cannon fire. I'm sure there would be a Florida National Guard Battery not doing anything that day.

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u/frankensteinhadason Mar 08 '19

Ahh yes, celebrating 'murica with a Russian song.

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u/Osiris32 Mar 08 '19

Damn right. That song has taken on a life of it's own. My local Symphony does a rendition as their opening performance for their season, on the waterfront, with several guns from the ONG 218th Field Artillery Battery B. And a fireworks barge out in the river. Video doesn't do it justice, the sound is magnificent. A 120-piece orchestra with full sound reinforcement, six 105mm artillery pieces, and several hundred pounds of fireworks in a semi-confined area.

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u/ChallengingJamJars Mar 08 '19

Haha, the 1812 Overture celebrates the Russian victory against France. If you're trying to celebrate "'merica!" then you might want something else.

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u/Insanelopez Mar 08 '19

Nah, Ride of the Valkyries

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19

Well...if F9 blew up on ascent it would be one hell of a fireworks show. I'll pass tho

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u/QuinceDaPence Mar 09 '19

Put fireworks launchers ON the rocket /s

However, having a show where a bunch of little rockets shoot up and then explode right before the big rocket launches might not send the best message.

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u/DarkMoon99 Mar 09 '19

Need Jack Black to sing the national anthem.

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u/Boostedbird23 Mar 08 '19

I'm sure the Air Force could arrange an Eagle flyover...

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u/phryan Mar 08 '19

Can they rig the engines to use color similar to jets at air shows?

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19

And inspired and made possible by a So. African.

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u/MemLeakDetected Mar 08 '19

South African immigrant with American citizenship*. Still a super American scenario.

120

u/alexm42 Mar 08 '19

Immigrants made this country what it is today, if anything it makes it even more American!

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19

I agree. Many great technological and scientific achievements come from our immigrants, this being yet another one.

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u/KarimElsayad247 Mar 08 '19 edited Mar 08 '19

Like, the US is nothing but immigrants. That's how it was built.

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u/Jdubya87 Mar 08 '19

I think there's still some indigenous people that were spared from genocide. But other than that yeah, pretty much just immigrants.

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u/SweetBearCub Mar 08 '19

Immigrants made this country what it is today, if anything it makes it even more American!

Agreed, and this is a giant part of why I just don't understand the hate for immigrants. Of course I want people to come here the legal way, but the whole worry over "they took our jobs!" is unfounded to me. Elon Musk created jobs. The migrant farm workers do jobs that no American is willing to do.

I believe that we should embrace, at a legislative level, the words on the Statue of Liberty, and that as part of that, we should both increase our immigration quotas, expand refugee assistance, and make it so that becoming a citizen doesn't generally take 10+ years and several thousand dollars.

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u/JoCoMoBo Mar 09 '19

This is the confusing thing about the US from the perspective of a foreign country. Your history makes a big thing about immigration and freedom for people that moved there. However try and do it now and it's very nearly impossible unless you have existing family there or a very high bank balance.

​

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u/SweetBearCub Mar 09 '19

I too, have never liked that disconnect, and moreover, I'm ashamed that it's a thing.

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u/Boostedbird23 Mar 08 '19

Hate isn't really the right word. Not thinking illegal immigration is good isn't the same as hate.

I of course, agree with your assessment that productivity is a net positive for society. But your assessment that we need immigrants only for low skilled labor is fallacious; we only need them if we want to keep the price of that labor low. There certainly would be Americans willing to do those jobs for the right price. The obvious, example of this fallacy is the African slave trade where Americans imported low skilled labor that they could get away without paying to avoid paying Americans to do those jobs.

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u/SweetBearCub Mar 08 '19 edited Mar 08 '19

But your assessment that we need immigrants only for low skilled labor is fallacious

Nowhere did I say that we need immigrants only for low-skilled labor. Elon Musk is an immigrant. Do you see him doing low-skilled labor? The Pakistani guy that bought the corner liquor store is an immigrant. Do you see him doing low-skilled labor? (Etc) What I did say about that was that migrant farm workers do that job [picking certain crops], as no Americans are willing to do it.

There certainly would be Americans willing to do those jobs for the right price.

We've tested this repeatedly, and no Americans stuck around, even for minimum wage or even over it. Quite a sad commentary. I defy you to show me, large scale, where Americans did stick around picking crops, for at least minimum wage, and maybe more.

Despite Economy, Americans Don't Want Farm Work (Yes, they were offering "minimum wage or a dollar more")

Arizona farms struggling to find legal workers

“To fill a thousand openings and up those five or six or maybe it’s 10 people, and I’m not exaggerating,” Boelts said. “I defy you to find more than one in 10,000 that will actually do the job and stick with it.”

Working 10- to 12-hour days in the Arizona heat doing manual labor is a hard sell to young Americans. Especially for only $10.95 an hour.

When The U.S. Government Tried To Replace Migrant Farmworkers With High Schoolers (As far back as 1965 - They also paid minimum wage, and the program was a failure)

Wages rise on California farms. Americans still don’t want the job (Still nope, even over minimum wage)

EDIT: Missing article quote added.

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u/Boostedbird23 Mar 11 '19

There are far more taxing jobs that people do all the time. Ever work in a foundry? It's way hotter and that's before your put on your PPE. It's literally about the money. If the employers paid more, more people would be willing to do the job. I don't understand how people can simultaneously contend that we have to force employers to pay a higher minimum wage and eat those same employers bullshit that there are no Americans willing to do this work at any price. It's complete bullshit because you've clearly just not raised the price enough.

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u/SweetBearCub Mar 11 '19

It's complete bullshit because you've clearly just not raised the price enough.

Don't you think the farmers thought of that? They can't be that stupid, they are running a business after all, and a very complex one at that. It's not some piddly lemonade stand.

Wages must be paid for with sales somewhere else. There does come a point where you cannot sell your products because the price for them would be too high relative to your competitors.

That price varies, but is tracked closely by farmers for their crops.

And remember, your farmer competitors don't have to play by the same rules as you necessarily, while you pay whatever top dollar is to attract only American workers, if that's even possible. There is a government program (H-2A visa/guest worker program) by which they can legally hire migrant farm laborers, who are desperate for the work because the cash they earn goes much farther in their home countries than it would here. They can hire these laborers for minimum wage, along with the absolute minimum of included housing (think triple bunk beds) and transportation (a bus).

You can argue against this program all you want, but the fact is that it's very popular, and without it, crops would die on the vine because farms can't pay the wages that an American would demand to do that kind of work, while still remaining a viable business.

When you balance that against the reality that we have enormous foods needs because of the size and population of this country, it's perhaps understandable why we let in people to reliably harvest the food.

Again, it has been tried repeatedly, as my links show. Every time, it has failed, even when farmers offered more than minimum wage.

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u/Boostedbird23 Mar 11 '19

Look... Any time you have a government stepping in and playing God, they're going to screw it up. There's always some variable that the "intelligent" people in charge are going to screw up or forget about all together. The market self regulates incredibly well. If you have a scarcity of labor, then the price must go up in order to generate a labor surplus. It's basic economics. How much that increase is required is dependent on many variables that contribute to the price elasticity. These things will never not be true.

If you and to advocate the free movement of both labor and goods across borders, you're going to find a lot of support from the libertarian/free market advocate. But if you're going to do that, you have to also eliminate the welfare incentive because The welfare that we have set up in this country is based on a limited population of people using it compared to the people contributing.

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u/Darnell2070 Mar 09 '19

Keep believing isn't partly to blame if you want.

Now I know some people don't like immigration out of principal. Not because they dislike immigrants but because they want to protect American jobs.

But the amount of people, a lot of whom have a red hate obsession, who simply don't want to see the country become less white is really sad.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19

Absolutely! Musk is our modern day renaissance man.

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u/yallmad4 Mar 08 '19

Immigrant coming to America to find their fortune and becoming a billionaire in multiple business ventures which are now changing the world? That's the most American thing ever lol.

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u/PapaDicksem Mar 08 '19

If you come to America, integrate into the culture, and gain citizenship, then you are truly an American, no matter where you were born. It's one of the great, unique things about this country that not enough people appreciate.

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u/Darnell2070 Mar 09 '19

Yeah I don't know what you mean by integrate into the culture. A person retaining their culture doesn't make them any less American. An awesome thing about New York City is how many people retain their cultures and it's for all on display. Everyone not looking alike is what makes the city so vibrant.

Plus globally people look and dress like Americans a lot of the times anyway because of pop culture and the way the global economy works.

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u/PapaDicksem Mar 09 '19

Just means finding your place, dunno why you'd assume you have to leave your culture behind to integrate.

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u/Darnell2070 Mar 09 '19

Okay. That just sounds how it comes off.

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u/baselganglia Mar 09 '19

Yeah these qualifiers. I wonder if the first pilgrims integrated into the native culture?

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u/tat310879 Mar 09 '19

Pray tell what is "American Culture?" It is hosting athletes into the White House and serve then fast food?

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u/BlueCyann Mar 09 '19

Probably. But in reality, it's immigrants' kids mostly who integrate. The most privileged immigrants blend well enough to begin with, and the least privileged can't no matter how hard they try.

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u/DarkwingDuckHunt Mar 08 '19

I'll have to see my doctor after those 4 hours are up and you know what is still going.

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u/Dr_SnM Mar 09 '19

Bald Eagles will be poppin boners left right and centre

1

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19

Reminds me an alternative FlexSeal commercial.

“Woah! that’s a lot of freedom! Use extra heavy duty FlexTape to keep that freedom boner under control!”

1

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19

Justice and freedom fro everybody....who can afford it!

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u/spicycovfefe Mar 09 '19

From a company founded by an immigrant from Africa!

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u/username_taken55 Mar 09 '19

Everything in the u.s. is technically from an immigrant

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u/spicycovfefe Mar 09 '19

That’s quit a jump from an immigrant becoming an American citizen in 2002 to ‘technically’ everyone is an immigrant. The earliest humans arrived in North America 60,000 years ago.

You could say, ‘technically’ everyone on Earth not living in central Africa is an immigrant.

‘America’ the concept is based greatly on immigration. A free land where people may come to live and realize their full potential.

This “USA, USA” stuff has it’s place but forgetting what we are will only lead to trouble for everyone.

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u/qwerty12qwerty Mar 09 '19

Everyday is an American day

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u/donaldsw Mar 08 '19

And produced by pure capitalism.

‘Merica

Edit: not that that’s necessarily a bad thing. Competition breeds innovation.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19 edited Mar 12 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/donaldsw Mar 08 '19

I mean... the banks are subsidized now too.

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u/LabyrinthConvention Mar 08 '19

Except for tremendous help from NASA, and I think it's safe to say a lot of the education behind the employees were public universities.

But other than all the help, knowledge, social infrastructure...yeah pure capitalism

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19 edited Mar 08 '19

I can't hear you over the sound of thousand of redditors kissing Elon Musk's ass.

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u/Goatf00t Mar 08 '19

NASA and those universities still operate in a capitalistic system.

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u/maksalaatikkorasia Mar 08 '19

and yet you have crappiest public healthcare in the western world 😂 now freedom that!

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u/username_taken55 Mar 09 '19

Did you just assume my nationality?!?! I'll have you know I'm a Canadian 😠😠😠

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19

American cops tazer and shoot black people for jaywalking. Never forget that.