Althouse: Splashdown.

March 18, 2025

Splashdown.

In the Gulf of America.

Astronauts unstranded.

78 comments:

tcrosse said...: I hope the rescued astronauts appreciate the gravity of the situation.; 3/18/25, 5:06 PM
FormerLawClerk said...: Two astronauts left to die in space by Joe Biden and NASA have been saved by a private citizen, an African-American immigrant.

Just tightening up that headline.; 3/18/25, 5:07 PM
David53 said...: Space stuff never gets old. Probably, in part, because I saw the space race in real time. Sputnik, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, the shuttle, I remember all that stuff.; 3/18/25, 5:12 PM
Bob Boyd said...: A judge should order them taken back to the space station.; 3/18/25, 5:13 PM
Big Mike said...: The two astronauts were stranded, but I understand that instead of staring out the windows and pining away for earth, they immersed themselves into the station’s activities and made themselves useful members of the crew. I admire that.

We — the US of A — figured out how to make working, reliable thrusters back in the late 1950s, for the Mercury Program. How in Hell did Boeing manage to screw that up in the first darned place?; 3/18/25, 5:13 PM
David53 said...: If I could go back in time to the 60s those space guys would probably say, “Why the hell aren’t you guys at least visiting Jupiter by now?”; 3/18/25, 5:15 PM
Aggie said...: Well..... Many Happy Returns !; 3/18/25, 5:18 PM
rhhardin said...: Gravity took care of it.; 3/18/25, 5:18 PM
rhhardin said...: Sputnik broadcast on 20.005 MHz for three weeks before the batteries ran down. That was something you could participate in.; 3/18/25, 5:20 PM
Original Mike said...: "A judge should order them taken back to the space station."

Specifically, Judge Boasberg. Equitable justice, and all that.; 3/18/25, 5:20 PM
Original Mike said...: "The two astronauts were stranded, but I understand that instead of staring out the windows and pining away for earth, they immersed themselves into the station’s activities and made themselves useful members of the crew. I admire that."

I don't know how they viewed it, but I would have appreciated the extended stay.; 3/18/25, 5:22 PM
Original Mike said...: "How in Hell did Boeing manage to screw that up in the first darned place?"

The Suits took over Boeing. They can't even make a safe airplane anymore.; 3/18/25, 5:23 PM
Rabel said...: They're setting Teslas on fire while Musk is saving the space program.; 3/18/25, 5:37 PM
Dave Begley said...: Is this result okay with the federal judiciary? We all know that Trump can't have any sort of victory.; 3/18/25, 5:39 PM
Narayanan said...: After splashdown if they swim ashore they will be "stranded" again!!!; 3/18/25, 5:41 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: In fact they were welcomed home by dolphins zippin around. Mariner's best friends.; 3/18/25, 5:44 PM
traditionalguy said...: Hurray. They’re all alive.

Making America proud again.; 3/18/25, 5:46 PM
FormerLawClerk said...: To Begley's question (to Begley The Question) ... the Babylon Bee has already reported that a traffic judge in Chicago has ordered the astronauts put back in the International Space Station to die, as Joe Biden intended.

Chief Justice John Roberts has backed up the traffic judge and says we can't impeach him.; 3/18/25, 5:47 PM
Meade said...: “ Is this result okay with the federal judiciary?”

Dave Begleying the question.; 3/18/25, 5:47 PM
Meade said...: FormerLawClerk owes me a Coke.; 3/18/25, 5:48 PM
Anne in Rockwall, TX said...: Elon Musk made rescuing those astronauts seems so easy. It certainly wasn’t and could only be done by him and his team.; 3/18/25, 5:49 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: I recall watching sputnik through field glasses as a kid.
I recall they shot monkeys into space in the 50s. There was a big write up in Life Magazine. The monkeys in their space suits were cute. As a teen I was amazed when a friend's father said the moon walk was going to be televised.; 3/18/25, 5:49 PM
Aggie said...: They should have named the capsule the 'SS Minnow II'; 3/18/25, 5:49 PM
rhhardin said...: Remember Laika, the first stray dog in orbit.; 3/18/25, 5:50 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Damn! Called it right on the minute! That is almost as cool as catching the booster; 3/18/25, 5:51 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Tang anyone?; 3/18/25, 5:52 PM
n.n said...: Biden and NASA have been saved by a private citizen, an African-American immigrant

Musk, a Person of Color (i.e. not albino, integrated Rainbow), no less. A male sex, masculine gender, too. A father of diverse, unPlanned children. Speaking of feminine gender, female sex, thanks, mom.; 3/18/25, 5:52 PM
Meade said...: Astronauts home safe. Hunter self-deports. Trump is President…So very much winning!; 3/18/25, 5:55 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: Big Mike said...

We — the US of A — figured out how to make working, reliable thrusters back in the late 1950s, for the Mercury Program. How in Hell did Boeing manage to screw that up in the first darned place?

To answer Mike's question;

CEO Jim McNerney, who joined Boeing in 2005, had last helmed 3M, where management as he saw it had “overvalued experience and undervalued leadership” before he purged the veterans into early retirement.

“Prince Jim”—as some long-timers used to call him—repeatedly invoked a slur for longtime engineers and skilled machinists in the obligatory vanity “leadership” book he co-wrote. Those who cared too much about the integrity of the planes and not enough about the stock price were “phenomenally talented assholes,” and he encouraged his deputies to ostracize them into leaving the company.

https://prospect.org/infrastructure/transportation/2024-03-28-suicide-mission-boeing/; 3/18/25, 6:08 PM
Joe Bar said...: Why isn't the press absolutely blasting the Biden administration for delaying this?; 3/18/25, 6:11 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: Anne in Rockwall, TX said...

Elon Musk made rescuing those astronauts seems so easy. It certainly wasn’t and could only be done by him and his team.

And CNN is crapping all over it last I checked.; 3/18/25, 6:11 PM
Leland said...: they immersed themselves into the station’s activities and made themselves useful members of the crew. I admire that.

Technically, they are government employees working a remote assignment. They get weekends and holidays off and more importantly; they are paid to be there.

That said, the assignment the astronauts agreed to changed because of events not in their control. I suspect they didn't mind more time on orbit, but they should have been brought home months ago. I can come up with legitimate reasons why NASA would wait this long (budget at the top of the list), but I can also come up with a lot of reasons it was unreasonable and wrong. When they didn't come home with the last crew change in October, it was said they would come home in February. It is now mid-March. I doubt that delay was due to SpaceX. For putting up with this nonsense, they do deserve admiration.; 3/18/25, 6:15 PM
victoria said...: Isn't that the Gulf of Mexico? Why, yes it is.; 3/18/25, 6:16 PM
Aggie said...: "Isn't that the Gulf of Mexico? Why, yes it was

I think your geography is a little mixed up ! Denial flows into the Mediterranean - FIFY.; 3/18/25, 6:23 PM
Diamond said...: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17WmWSGOd9g

Beep Beep Here Comes the Satellite; 3/18/25, 6:24 PM
Mason G said...: "Why isn't the press absolutely blasting the Biden administration for delaying this?"

They're despondent over the lack of anything negative about the return that could be blamed on Trump.; 3/18/25, 6:28 PM
Original Mike said...: Have there been previous splashdowns in the Gulf of Mexico? Back in the early days, they used bigger oceans (in case they missed, I presume).; 3/18/25, 6:29 PM
Mason G said...: "I can come up with legitimate reasons why NASA would wait this long (budget at the top of the list)"

I guess it's too bad their funding didn't come through USAID. Those folks always seemed to have money to spend.; 3/18/25, 6:30 PM
Jim at said...: The number of leftists wishing failure on this mission is beyond my comprehension. Just a quick browsing of the comments on other sites.

It's not enough to run around vandalizing Teslas, torching - and in some cases, shooting up - dealerships. They wish ill on two, innocent astronauts because of their insane hatred of one person.

What is wrong with you?; 3/18/25, 6:43 PM
Clyde said...: It was quite entertaining to watch the splashdown on television. The camera work was superb to capture the falling spacecraft as the parachutes deployed and then the splashdown occurred. The pod of playful dolphins swimming around the Dragon was just icing on the cake.; 3/18/25, 6:58 PM
Peachy said...: The media are quick to dismiss Biden /NASA and Boeing failures... and note there was a delay my Space X.
Media = a-holes.; 3/18/25, 7:15 PM
Peachy said...: Gulf of America! South, Central and North America - make up The Americas. Of course it should be named the gulf of America.; 3/18/25, 7:16 PM
boatbuilder said...: Hey Vicki--As Inspector Clouseau said it: "Not...anymore."; 3/18/25, 7:24 PM
Critter said...: OOPS! Splashdown was in the Atlantic Ocean off the cost at Tellahassee; 3/18/25, 7:34 PM
Big Mike said...: @NorthOfTheOneOhOne, I know all that. None of these genius-in-their-own-minds management types stop to think about the stock price when — and if you chase out your “phenomenally talented asshole” engineers it’s always “when” — the engineering fails.; 3/18/25, 7:35 PM
Leland said...: Original Mike said...
Have there been previous splashdowns in the Gulf of Mexico?

Dragon capsules routinely land off the western side of Florida.; 3/18/25, 8:22 PM
Mark said...: Splash down into a name that will exist for one term only.; 3/18/25, 8:42 PM
Political Junkie said...: Mark - I bet you a quarter that if Wes Moore is the next President in 2028 that he will support keeping the name Gulf of America. The D party has to be less like Mark and more like normal Americans.; 3/18/25, 9:04 PM
Rit said...: Nine unplanned months in space has almost certainly resulted in significant bone loss for both astronauts, especially for Suni Williams. But what's a little bone loss compared to hamstringing Elon Musk, demonizing him and making him a scapegoat? Stranded for another year or so under a Harris administration the resultant bone damage would have been tremendous. But Musk would have been kept in his place rather than being recognized as an amazing entrepreneur and a let's get-it-solved genius.; 3/18/25, 9:09 PM
Peachy said...: If the Democrat Party stays on with the idiots of "The View" - as it looks like - the democrat party is over.; 3/18/25, 9:14 PM
Mason G said...: "Mark - I bet you a quarter that if Wes Moore is the next President in 2028 that he will support keeping the name Gulf of America."

I'm in for "Gulfy McGulfface". Who's with me?; 3/18/25, 9:17 PM
Original Mike said...: Works for me, Mason.; 3/18/25, 9:26 PM
Original Mike said...: "Dragon capsules routinely land off the western side of Florida."

Thanks, Leland. I do suspect their willingness to do so represents an increase in confidence over trajectories compared to the Gemini/Apollo era.; 3/18/25, 9:30 PM
Drago said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/18/25, 10:02 PM
Drago said...: Dumb Lefty Mark: "Splash down into a name that will exist for one term only."

Good time to recall how LLR-democratical Rich, Dumb Lefty Mark and the Hopeless Soy Boy Cat Lady gadfly all declared Musk's businesses to be fake businesses, frauds and destined for failure.

Good times, good times.

Can you imagine how hard those 3 gaslighting liars and pro-groomer policy losers must have been praying to allah for a disaster to befall this mission to return the stranded astronauts back to Earth?; 3/18/25, 10:03 PM
wendybar said...: Jim at said...
The number of leftists wishing failure on this mission is beyond my comprehension. Just a quick browsing of the comments on other sites.

It was disgusting. They were more upset that it was successful, than they would have been if it wasn't. They were hoping they would have something to say "Elon is evil. He crashes rockets!!!"
They are ghouls who hate America...Just look down on them as the scum they really are.; 3/19/25, 3:04 AM
Kate said...: This post has no category tags. How often does that happen?; 3/19/25, 4:20 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Re Kate: some events are unique and so not easily categorized.; 3/19/25, 5:23 AM
Leland said...: Mark said...
Splash down into a name that will exist for one term only.

Mark seems anti-America.; 3/19/25, 5:43 AM
Mark said...: Drago, tell me about how wonderfully Tesla is doing and how much sales are booming.

I encourage you to put your money where your mouth is and to move your entire portfolio to Telsa stock.; 3/19/25, 5:50 AM
Amexpat said...: Sorry, it's the Gulf of Mexico for all us common sense, non paritsan people who are neither woke nor follow the call of tin horn nationalism. For me, it was always Mt. McKinley, "they" shall always be used in the plural and anything other then the Gulf of Mexico is wrong.; 3/19/25, 6:07 AM
Amexpat said...: I think your geography is a little mixed up ! Denial flows into the Mediterranean - FIFY.

I think you're as mixed up as those who think Denali is a mountain in Alaska.; 3/19/25, 6:11 AM
Drago said...: Dumber Than Ever Lefty Mark: "Drago, tell me about how wonderfully Tesla is doing and how much sales are booming."

LOL

New Model Y led to purchasers putting off purchases for a few months! Tragic....

Meanwhile, more, much more, on the way:
• $29K Compact
• RWD Cybertruck
• Unsupervised FSD
• Megapack Factories
• Lithium Refinery
• Cybercab
• Robotaxi Network
• Roadster
• Model S Refresh
• New Proper X SUV
• Semi
• Robovan
• Optimus

I'm good.

Dumber Than Ever Lefty Mark: "I encourage you to put your money where your mouth is and to move your entire portfolio to Telsa stock."

I encourage you to put your money where your mouth is and move your entire pirtfolio into an aggressive Tesla short position.

It should go about as well as your continuous serial predictions of "Threads" destroying X for years...yet here we are.

Back to the topic at hand: thoughts and prayers for you during this obviously very difficult time of demonstrable SpaceX success in rescuing stranded astronauts. You are clearly not handling it very well.

Maybe keying a Tesla or 2 or firebombing a Tesla charging station would make you feel a little better?; 3/19/25, 6:59 AM
mindnumbrobot said...: For the record, there's no such thing as "off the coast of Tallahassee." "Off the coast of Apalachicola" would be more accurate.; 3/19/25, 7:36 AM
TaeJohnDo said...: Mark, Teslas are booming because stupid fu@ks like you, full of hate and anger, set them on fire.; 3/19/25, 8:17 AM
mikee said...: I, for one, want to know their bonus/overtime payment for that unexpected time away from home. It should be in the 7 to 8 figure range, IMO.; 3/19/25, 8:49 AM
Rusty said...: I actually bought some Tesla stock, Mark. I have a standing order with my broker for SpaceX when it goes public.; 3/19/25, 8:54 AM
Drago said...: Rusty: "I actually bought some Tesla stock, Mark. I have a standing order with my broker for SpaceX when it goes public."

You arent the only one! And note: NONE of the X investors ever bailed on X....but what do they know? FYI, Jack Dorsey is one of them.; 3/19/25, 9:05 AM
Leland said...: the Gulf of Mexico is wrong

Why is it wrong?

Do you know what Mexico calls the waters off their eastern coastline? Bay of Campeche. Most of the Gulf (what American southerners call the body of water off the coast) borders the United States. “America” is a term that refers to all land from the Hudson Bay to the Magellan Straits. Calling the Gulf the “Gulf of Mexico” makes as much sense as calling Texas and California “Mexico”.; 3/19/25, 10:06 AM
Anthony said...: I vote for the Gulf of Margaritaville.; 3/19/25, 10:54 AM
Original Mike said...: "I encourage you to put your money where your mouth is and to move your entire portfolio to Telsa stock."

Your side is vandalizing them.
Proud of that?; 3/19/25, 1:47 PM
Narr said...: I didn't want a Tesla when Musk was still a Good Guy, and I don't want one now that he's a Bad Guy.

I'll take my pick of his other marvels if I live long enough to figure out which ones (if any) I might need.; 3/19/25, 2:54 PM
Narr said...: I caught my case of italics from Original Mike, apparently. Please turn them off before you go to bed.; 3/19/25, 2:55 PM
Original Mike said...: Bed? It's 9am here.; 3/19/25, 2:57 PM
Original Mike said...: Off.; 3/19/25, 2:57 PM
Original Mike said...: You may find this useful, Mark:

"The site is called Dogequest (I won't link to it) and features "a searchable map [of] what it claims to be the names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of Tesla owners across the United States," 404 Media reported Tuesday. "The map also includes the addresses of Tesla dealerships, the rough locations of Tesla superchargers, and the personal information of employees of the Elon Musk-headed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)."; 3/19/25, 3:11 PM
Narr said...: Thanks, Original Mike.

And good morning.; 3/19/25, 6:11 PM
Original Mike said...: Good evening to you, Narr.; 3/19/25, 7:55 PM