I think Jared might be the best pick for the job, but until SLS is killed, NASA is going to remain a mess because everything is wrapped around Artemis. I’d almost liken it to Schrodinger’s cat, with SLS being both alive and dead until Starship achieves routine operational status. Any decisions made during this period will get second guessed and endlessly criticized.
Why does anyone still care about NASA?
Don’t say that to Keith Cowing….he’ll have a fit.
Practically anything said to Keith Cowing will result in a fit. Throwing fits is kind of his SOP.
So I found out. Any disagreement is labeled “trolling” and gets you banned from commenting on his web page.
Keith seems to have trouble realizing that NASA is not the only source of inspiration to young people. Nor does he seem to notice that NASA is a sclerotic shell of it’s former self.
Those are certainly major items on the near-infinite list of things Mr. Cowing seems not to realize.
As for the profligate banning, I happen to be among those thus excluded. It was a bit of a distinction when it happened some years ago, but has since lost nearly all value given subsequent flooding of the market.
I quit reading the site after getting banned so its current condition, when I took a brief peek, is even worse than I imagined. Converting NASA Watch into a boutique echo chamber has rendered it nearly irrelevant as a platform. When I got banned, a typical post there would routinely attract a comment total well into double digits. Now, the average response seems to be about two comments with the distribution being bimodal – i.e., about half the posts attract three or four comments and the rest attract zippity-do-dah. Not even Cowing’s ideological confreres seem inclined to show him much love these days.
I got banned during covid for suggesting positive pressure helmets with filters.
Because it used to employ a lot of people and serve as a mechanism to get government funds delivered to key Congressional districts. Trump & Co. are busily doing something about the first of these things and making their best efforts to also do something about the second. Anyone with an iron rice bowl formerly filled by NASA can be expected to squawk when it starts showing signs of rust. Other than that, fewer and fewer people seem to care much about NASA and that is an entirely appropriate state of mind. The future of humanity in space is not going to be consequentially authored by any government agency.
To be fair I think that NASA was/is also a mechanism for having a trained cadre of scientists and engineers ready to go in case of national emergency. Not to work on space projects but any other Manhattan-like government project.
However even that use is being rapidly superseded by SpaceX and others who have a cadre of trained scientist and engineers who actually accomplish something at a reasonable cost.
Bingo. Government-funded science has long since gotten flabby and corrupt. It’s hard to see what the NASA science cadre might be useful for anent any plausible national emergency. The same is even more true of the engineering and operations cadres who considerably outnumber the boffins. SpaceX passed them by more than a decade ago and, unlike NASAns, has non-trivial relevant miltary-related experience and knowledge – something that is only going to increase. The career NASA “administrators,” of course, are worthless even now.
The Operations side should be turned over to Space Force.
Space Force has real work to do and the advent of Golden Dome will multiply that requirement many times even with AI in the picture. It’s hard to see how an aging cadre of people whose principal “jobs” seem to be justifying maximum headcount over which to spread less and less actual work would be useful to a real combatant service. Space Force has no need for an influx of Sgt. Bilko types. Fire them all now and don’t take them back when the current Democrat budget hi-jinks have run their course. Never reward bad behavior.
NASA is stuck carrying out the will of the government and the members thereof, attempting to take as much of the pork as possible.
Even the best possible leader (which Isaacman may well be) will have major constraints on what they can accomplish.
The Senate Space Program is like Kerbal, but you can only launch on rare occasions, usually small probes, and now and then, an absurdly expensive big rocket to do something cool. And if anything breaks, you’re not allowed to play again for years.
If Jared does get the top NASA job I think that will be the result of two things – Musk and Trump having kissed and made up at Charlie Kirk’s memorial and former Personnel Director Sergio Gor having moved on to become US Ambassador to India and special envoy for Central and South Asian affairs.
A beautiful kick upstairs, that.
And something for which Gor actually has some relevant background as he was born and spent his early childhood in Uzbekistan. In his new job, he might actually do some good. In his old job he seems to have been a standard-issue schemer and empire-builder of the sort that are three-a-ha’penny in DC.
I knew who Isaacman was prior to the nomination but hadn’t listened to many interviews. Post nomination, I have listened to about 10 hours of interviews and he is impressive. He has a temperament suited to dealing with powerful people with egos. Good for dealing with politicians and people who work at NASA.
Yes. Isaacman seems to be a born diplomat – a characteristic I have personally seen several times in self-confident and self-made individuals who have avoided the temptation of becoming dysfunctionally over-impressed with themselves as they have achieved success. There are certain people who generally are the smartest in any given room, but who can leave everyone else in said rooms with the impression that they are actually the smartest ones there.
Would be nice if somebody in the Trump administration read this blog. They would get quite an education.
It says Sergio Gor was behind the sabotage of Isaacman’s nomination.
Yeah, that was pretty generally known at the time. Gor seems to be one of those types who got into politics at an early age and set his sights on scaling the heights in service of his own ego. Such people are normative on the left, but the right also has more than a few of them as well. The CA Republican establishment is full of them – which explains much about the cluelessness and incompetence of Republican politics in this state during this century.
Now Duffy wants to quit DOT and be NASA Administrator, and he’s fighting for it. Eric Berger reported this within the last couple of days.
This is crazy IMHO!
Apparently somebody wants to occupy the Captain’s chair on the Enterprise Titanic…
Why not let Marco Rubio run NASA?
I think Jared might be the best pick for the job, but until SLS is killed, NASA is going to remain a mess because everything is wrapped around Artemis. I’d almost liken it to Schrodinger’s cat, with SLS being both alive and dead until Starship achieves routine operational status. Any decisions made during this period will get second guessed and endlessly criticized.
Why does anyone still care about NASA?
Don’t say that to Keith Cowing….he’ll have a fit.
Practically anything said to Keith Cowing will result in a fit. Throwing fits is kind of his SOP.
So I found out. Any disagreement is labeled “trolling” and gets you banned from commenting on his web page.
Keith seems to have trouble realizing that NASA is not the only source of inspiration to young people. Nor does he seem to notice that NASA is a sclerotic shell of it’s former self.
Those are certainly major items on the near-infinite list of things Mr. Cowing seems not to realize.
As for the profligate banning, I happen to be among those thus excluded. It was a bit of a distinction when it happened some years ago, but has since lost nearly all value given subsequent flooding of the market.
I quit reading the site after getting banned so its current condition, when I took a brief peek, is even worse than I imagined. Converting NASA Watch into a boutique echo chamber has rendered it nearly irrelevant as a platform. When I got banned, a typical post there would routinely attract a comment total well into double digits. Now, the average response seems to be about two comments with the distribution being bimodal – i.e., about half the posts attract three or four comments and the rest attract zippity-do-dah. Not even Cowing’s ideological confreres seem inclined to show him much love these days.
I got banned during covid for suggesting positive pressure helmets with filters.
Because it used to employ a lot of people and serve as a mechanism to get government funds delivered to key Congressional districts. Trump & Co. are busily doing something about the first of these things and making their best efforts to also do something about the second. Anyone with an iron rice bowl formerly filled by NASA can be expected to squawk when it starts showing signs of rust. Other than that, fewer and fewer people seem to care much about NASA and that is an entirely appropriate state of mind. The future of humanity in space is not going to be consequentially authored by any government agency.
To be fair I think that NASA was/is also a mechanism for having a trained cadre of scientists and engineers ready to go in case of national emergency. Not to work on space projects but any other Manhattan-like government project.
However even that use is being rapidly superseded by SpaceX and others who have a cadre of trained scientist and engineers who actually accomplish something at a reasonable cost.
Bingo. Government-funded science has long since gotten flabby and corrupt. It’s hard to see what the NASA science cadre might be useful for anent any plausible national emergency. The same is even more true of the engineering and operations cadres who considerably outnumber the boffins. SpaceX passed them by more than a decade ago and, unlike NASAns, has non-trivial relevant miltary-related experience and knowledge – something that is only going to increase. The career NASA “administrators,” of course, are worthless even now.
The Operations side should be turned over to Space Force.
Space Force has real work to do and the advent of Golden Dome will multiply that requirement many times even with AI in the picture. It’s hard to see how an aging cadre of people whose principal “jobs” seem to be justifying maximum headcount over which to spread less and less actual work would be useful to a real combatant service. Space Force has no need for an influx of Sgt. Bilko types. Fire them all now and don’t take them back when the current Democrat budget hi-jinks have run their course. Never reward bad behavior.
NASA is stuck carrying out the will of the government and the members thereof, attempting to take as much of the pork as possible.
Even the best possible leader (which Isaacman may well be) will have major constraints on what they can accomplish.
The Senate Space Program is like Kerbal, but you can only launch on rare occasions, usually small probes, and now and then, an absurdly expensive big rocket to do something cool. And if anything breaks, you’re not allowed to play again for years.
If Jared does get the top NASA job I think that will be the result of two things – Musk and Trump having kissed and made up at Charlie Kirk’s memorial and former Personnel Director Sergio Gor having moved on to become US Ambassador to India and special envoy for Central and South Asian affairs.
A beautiful kick upstairs, that.
And something for which Gor actually has some relevant background as he was born and spent his early childhood in Uzbekistan. In his new job, he might actually do some good. In his old job he seems to have been a standard-issue schemer and empire-builder of the sort that are three-a-ha’penny in DC.
I knew who Isaacman was prior to the nomination but hadn’t listened to many interviews. Post nomination, I have listened to about 10 hours of interviews and he is impressive. He has a temperament suited to dealing with powerful people with egos. Good for dealing with politicians and people who work at NASA.
Yes. Isaacman seems to be a born diplomat – a characteristic I have personally seen several times in self-confident and self-made individuals who have avoided the temptation of becoming dysfunctionally over-impressed with themselves as they have achieved success. There are certain people who generally are the smartest in any given room, but who can leave everyone else in said rooms with the impression that they are actually the smartest ones there.
Would be nice if somebody in the Trump administration read this blog. They would get quite an education.
We can always hope.
Probably related: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15185153/Trump-axes-chief-saboteur-Musk-relationship-White-House-shakeup.html
It says Sergio Gor was behind the sabotage of Isaacman’s nomination.
Yeah, that was pretty generally known at the time. Gor seems to be one of those types who got into politics at an early age and set his sights on scaling the heights in service of his own ego. Such people are normative on the left, but the right also has more than a few of them as well. The CA Republican establishment is full of them – which explains much about the cluelessness and incompetence of Republican politics in this state during this century.
Now Duffy wants to quit DOT and be NASA Administrator, and he’s fighting for it. Eric Berger reported this within the last couple of days.
This is crazy IMHO!
Apparently somebody wants to occupy the Captain’s chair on the
EnterpriseTitanic…