How Milton Friedman saved Chile.
Category Archives: Business
SpaceX’s Success
In which Drew Johnson doesn’t know WTF he’s talking about.
#ProTip, Drew. If you’re worried about taxpayer money being wasted on space progress, go dig into SLS/Orion.
California
The totalitarian state.
If it seceded, we’d be out of here ASAP, because the Constitution is the only thing holding these fascists back.
[Wednesday-morning update]
Is California at peak progressive? I hope so.
[Bumped]
[Thursday-morning update]
The slow, painful death of California.
[Late-morning update]
Mike Solana: Extract, or die.
When I first saw the title, I thought it would be about the need of the state to utilize its energy resources. But nope. It’s an excoriation of San Francisco’s government.
[Christmas-morning update]
Rural CA to Newsom: “Kiss our ass.”
All I want for Christmas is a citizens’ revolt against tyranny. As Mike Rowe says, safety third.
[Update a few minutes later]
In the state just to the north, patriots are starting to water the tree of liberty.
The “Relief” Bill
Why yes, our government is totally broken. Why do you ask?
We need a constitutional amendment to fix this sort of thing, but while you could probably get enough states on board, you’d never get two thirds of Congress to do it. It was a rare moment of agreement between AOC and Ted Cruz. I hope that Trump vetoes this abomination, and tells them to try again.
[Update Wednesday morning]
The “stimulus” bill stimulates Congress’s lust for power.
[Update a while later]
This bill is another demonstration that Congress is unfit to govern.
Biden And Climate
He’s not fixing a crisis; he’s creating one.
The notion that the Democrats are the “party of science” is ludicrous.
Space Resources
A new player, from China.
I wonder to what degree the CCP is involved?
SPD-6
Enabling space nuclear systems.
I think history will record that Trump had a much greater effect on space policy than any president since Reagan.
Space Transports
Clark Lindsey has the latest roundup, featuring SN8.
Orion
Six years after its maiden (and only) flight, Eric Berger has some thoughts.
[Update a few minutes later]
From a comment over there:
Probably the most salient points:
A mockup lacking many critical systems flew into space once, six years ago.
The next test flight is basically another mockup, lacking even life support systems.
The first full-up complete vehicle launch is supposed to be with crew trusting their lives to a vehicle which has never been flight tested with systems complete, and also a similarly never-flown service module. Because for all the expense and mass, Orion doesn’t have much duration without a service module.
NASA safety culture at work. Mountains of paperwork instead of actual testing on actual hardware.
Just getting this far on Orion has been 15 years and $24B.
Ridiculous pork capsule to match a ridiculous pork rocket in the SLS.
Yup. It’s a Potemkin space program.
Buttigieg
What does he know about transportation?
I wonder if he knows anything, or cares about space? He’ll be ultimately in charge of launch licensing.