COCOA BEACH HAD THE RIGHT STUFF back in the 60s—but we all had it back then, didn't we? Cocoa was a company town—and the company was NASA. It was famous for Astronauts, surfing, beach babes-in-bikinis and as the setting for I Dream of Jeanie. Barbara Eden also had the right stuff—in the right places, I might add.
Barbara "Jeanie" Eden and the Runners (Internet photo)
The astronauts have been relegated to “American History” status, NASA’s space launches are now carried out by SpaceX. They are still surfing, bikinis have gotten teeny-weenier and Jeanie, now 83, is still cute as a bug and they honor her with the “I Dream of Jeanie” half-marathon every year—complete with costumes, of course.
Waiting for the Countdown, Cocoa Beach
Billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX company is supplementing NASA’s interplanetary exploration programs by handling the launches for an eventual fleet of 12,000 Starlink broadband satellites. We joined hundreds of others on the beach yesterday morning to watch the 18th Falcon 9 launch which carried 60 small internet satellites into orbit 341 miles above the earth.
Up, Up and Away—SpaceX Falcon 9 reaches for the sky
The launch site is so far away that the wind and waves were all we could hear and the rocket’s flame would have been spectacular at night. Before we knew it, only the smoke trail was left.
Only a trace
When I retuned to the condo, Channel 13 was showing the booster stage returning to Earth and executing a perfect landing. It’s pretty amazing how far we’ve come in such a short time.
Booster landing (from Ch. 13)
Now that’s The Right Stuff!
UPDATE: On Sunday, the15th SpaceX successfully launched four astronauts to the International Space Station. "Crew Dragon" included Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi.
