It’s time for NASA to get out of the launch business.
I’ve only been saying this for over two decades.
Don’t read the comments, though.
[Tuesday-morning update]
Bob Zimmerman is very encouraged about the future of America in space.
Light posting today if at all, because I’ll be at the Space Tech Expo in Long Beach all day.
[Thursday-morning update]
Bob has a follow up post. I do think the proposal to reduce crew size on the ISS is penny-wise pound-foolish.
Don’t read the comments, though.
It’s Ars Technica. They worked hard for that echo chamber and now… it’s echoing.
Ha ha! Same advice I give my friends when I forward articles by Berger or Clark.
The fact that Limp’s boss is on record as wanting to move all extractive and heavy industry off-planet but Limp maintains that there is no commercial case for the Moon and Mars would seem to pretty much guarantee that Blue is not going to be much of a factor in actual space settlement going forward – at least until Bezos dumps Limp like he did the last underperforming CEO at Blue. Bezos’s and Limp’s views are simply fundamentally incompatible at a very basic level.
How does Blue Origin have a platform to demand NASA exit the space-launch business when from I can tell, Blue Origin isn’t even in the space-launch business?
Zing! That’s gotta smart.
:*(
Ouchie.
June 3, 2025 at 9:15 am
Mark Whittington. Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time. You and people like Rand Simberg, Robert Oler, Mark Ruckman used to fascinate me with your knowledgeable comments on the CompuServe space forum back in the 1990s.
The guy who wrote this needs to get out more. Maybe ditch the dial-up line for a cable-modem?
Of course I could be making the mistake of assuming he’s terrestrial in nature…
Bob has a follow up post. I do think the proposal to reduce crew size on the ISS is penny-wise pound-foolish.
Same for some of the existing missions already on-station.
A cost savings in single-digit millions is not even a blip on the deficit figure, not even at 100x that figure.
Holy cow, Musk is speaking now. My guess: not only is he pissed at the disinterest of Trump and Republicans in cutting spending; but also pissed with the loss of Jared Isaacman at NASA. If Trump uses, as he has now threatened, his power to slow down Musk’s SpaceX efforts, it could be catastrophe to Musk’s and reality all of our’s timeline to get to Mars is this current generation.
Musk better watch his step. Trump has been known to play hardball.
Is it all 4-D chess to save Tesla? lol…
We were told months ago that Musk wanted the subsidies for EV’s to be cut. Now he’s fighting mad because they’re gone? Doubtful. Maybe he’s had enough of the sausage-making that underlies politics.
I don’t know what the h-e-double toothpicks is going on anymore.
Hard Mountain Dew exists in this timeline. Anything could happen.
https://www.hardmountaindew.com/