Distraction

Amidst all the talk about the Shuttle launch this weekend (hopefully), the fact that we had a successful Delta 4 launch from Vandenberg seems to have gone largely unnoticed. A few more successes of this vehicle and the Atlas V could at least put a stake through the heart of the “stick,” given that the design of it still seems to be in flux, and it’s turning out not to be as “safe, simple or soon” as advertised.

[Update a few minutes later]

This is funny. I decided to link to http://www.safesimplesoon.com, but the site is down. Is it just a temporary problem, or did ATK decide it was an embarrassment?

On The Radio

I’ll be talking about my NRO piece, NASA, the Shuttle and the future of human spaceflight on the Ron Smith Show this afternoon, a little after 3:30 Eastern.

[Update a few minutes later]

Apparently, just before me, the guest host (Ron Smith is apparently on vacation) is going to be talking to a Matt Towery, who had this “Scuttle the Shuttle” piece at Townhall.com yesterday. It seems a little incoherent to me–it’s not clear what he’s proposing in its place, and the logic doesn’t necessarily hold together:

Experts still refer to the shuttle as an “experimental craft,” one in which the odds of a catastrophic failure — loss of the shuttle or the crew or both — are somewhere between one in 60 and one in 100 launches. Would you get on a conveyance of any kind that had one chance in 60 of killing you?

Well, in general, no. But if I thought that it were my one and only chance of getting into space, I might spin the cartridges on the revolver–it’s ten times better odds than classical Russian roulette, with a heck of a payoff. If not one in sixty, what is the right number?

The Shuttle safety debate often reminds me of the irrationality of the fifty-five-mph speed limit. Or the minimum wage. These people think that there’s some rational basis for their arbitrary numerology, but you can never get them to explain it.

Pumped

OK, I’m busy, but never too busy to post something like this:

Former Judge Donald D. Thompson, a veteran of 23 years on the bench, is on trial on charges he used a p3nis pump on himself in the courtroom while sitting in judgment of others.

Over the past few days, the jurors have watched a defense attorney and a prosecutor pantomime m@sturbation. A doctor has lectured on the lengths the defendant was willing to go to enhance his s3xual performance.

The white-handled s3xual device sits before the jury box for hours at a time. Occasionally an attorney picks it up and squeezes the handle, demonstrating the “sh-sh” sound of air rushing through the contraption’s plastic tubing.

This has to be one of the most pathetic trials in judicial history.

I know you’ll be shocked to hear this, but the Freepers are having fun with this story:

“Approach the bench” has never sounded so scary.

Is The Mission Worth It?

That was quick. My NRO piece is up. Almost as good as blogging.

[Update at 5:20 Eastern]

Clark Lindsey has more thoughts on the (futility of) the Scuttle the Shuttle campaign.

And as Bill White points out, for once, the Space Frontier Society and the LA Times are on the same page. Probably for entirely different reasons, though…

[Update a few minutes later]

The press should really give up on trying to get this right:

Each shuttle mission costs about $450 million for a few days in low-Earth orbit.

There is no single, always usable number for the cost of a single Shuttle mission. As I pointed out in my NRO piece, the last mission cost over ten billion, and this one will have cost about five.

Which is a good time to reiterate my point about costs of space access.

It’s the flight rate, stupid!

[Update at 9:40 PM Eastern]

Mark Whittington says:

…I take my guidence [sic] from Dr. Hawking in that ultimately the thing to be accomplished is the spreading of humankind across the Solar System and ultimately the stars, to ensure our survival at least until the death of the universe.

Believe me, no one in Washington, with control over the federal pursestrings, is talking about that as a national goal or purpose for the space program, and if they are, ESAS is one of the most cost-ineffective means to achieve that goal.

Fortunately, others, with more foresight, are, and are acting upon it.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!