History, Political Commentary, Space, Space History

Fifty-Three Years Of Space

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Today is the Sputnik anniversary. Here are my thoughts from the fiftieth, written three years ago, in Orlando, not far from Disneyworld’s Tomorrowland (the California version was built a couple years before Sputnik) with some tomorrows that remain tomorrows over half a century later.

Over at The Space Review, Jeff Foust has his own anniversary thoughts, in the context of last week’s historic House vote. Also, He alsoFrank Stratford discusses the role of Mars in future human exploration.

[Update a while later]

I didn’t read that Mars piece before I linked to it — I just assumed that because the home page said it was by Jeff Foust, that it was worth reading. Actually, it’s by someone down under named Frank Stratford, and it’s got some nonsense in it, with no very clear point.

3 thoughts on “Fifty-Three Years Of Space”

  2. it’s got some nonsense in it, with no very clear point.

    As I was reading it I started to wonder if I was actually at Space Review.

  3. Rand, I have trouble believing you read the “Milestones and transitions” article either. I’ve never seen Jeff Foust so candid before.. with those “the VSE is dead” comments I thought you’d be all over it.

    I don’t know if people think I’m just blowing smoke up their ass, but I’ll repeat it again: the current NASA policy is not about “skipping” the Moon, it’s about acknowledging that NASA is incapable of building a lander in parallel with a booster, and a capsule – so it makes little sense to talk about doing landings.

    Booster, capsule, lander, choose two to do at the same time (and that’s probably one too many).

    I, personally, think building a capsule and a lander that can go on an existing booster (which just needs to be human rated) is doable, because you can combine the two.

    Those who are calling for a new booster, in particular a super heavy lift booster, have a very fixed concept in mind (Apollo) and should be supporting anything that can be done with the booster and a capsule while the lander is being developed.. but like petulant children they want it now, now, now and can’t even conceive of the actual development time required.

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