My buddy Michelle Hanlon was on NPR yesterday, and the LA Times has an approving editorial.
Category Archives: Business
Anti-American Forces At NASA?
Bob Zimmerman is concerned.
If it’s not the intent of this to aid Russia, that’s certainly the effect.
And yes, this is concerning:
But the sources familiar with the matter said the companies must address “most” of those concerns before flying astronauts and, eventually, tourists to space. [emphasis mine]
NASA has no business dictating what standards will be met for private spaceflight participants. Someone needs to stomp on this right now.
[Update a few minutes later]
And just by coincidence, as NASA continues to want to purchase more rides from the Russians, another Fregat upper stage failed today.
The Soyuz 2-1b has apparently FAILED according to Russian media: ?https://t.co/l09jEEtPTG
— Chris B – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) February 21, 2019
[Late-morning update]
Looks like while there may have been an anomaly, the mission was ultimately a success.
I now have independent confirmation that #EgyptSat-A was released from Fregat into a planned orbit in today's #Soyuz launch!!! Stay tuned for updates: https://t.co/O5RqZRE7ed
— Anatoly Zak (@RussianSpaceWeb) February 21, 2019
[Friday afternoon update]
Well, that piece by Reuters didn’t age well. Seems kind of dumb to have run it when the flight readiness review was scheduled for the very next day.
[Bumped]
Throwing Shade At Branson From Bezos
I wonder how much the additional twenty kilometers will be worth in the market? Jonathan McDowell makes a pretty good case that the line actually should be eighty kilometers. Von Karman never declared it to be a hundred.
Socialism
The Millennials can’t remember very much – and they don’t learn very much either. It’s easy being hot for socialism or communism when you actually have a very little idea of what it is and what it did throughout the 20th century. And the Ys have that ignorance in spades; one third of them think that George W Bush killed more people than Stalin and 42 per cent have never heard of Mao – but over 70 per cent agree with Bernie Sanders. Some research suggests that only 15 per cent actually have a correct understanding of socialism. It’s not just politics; the Millennials are the most woefully undereducated and miseducated generation in a very long time. To be fair, that’s not strictly their fault; that attaches itself again to their Boomer grandparents who have been in charge of our failing education systems during this time. Combine the modern indoctrination-cum-dumbification taking place in schools and universities with the attention span-killing impact of information technology and social media, and you have a barely literate cohort, which is simply not equipped with the necessary mental tools to learn about the real world even if they wanted to.
Any surprises that socialism is now nearly synonymous with Gen Y?
This is a disaster.
[Late-morning update]
Socialists are parasites.
Yes.
SpaceShipTwo
Their launch window opened this morning at 7 AM. I’d thought about driving up, but it’s going to be pretty cold up there, and I didn’t think the weather would cooperate. It did turn out that they scrubbed. I think Friday’s the most likely day now, because another storm is coming through tonight and tomorrow.
Hey, Illinois
Want to lose even more residents (and revenue)? Start stealing from their private pensions to pay for public ones.
NASA’s “Space” Program
It will be a decade and a half, and $50B, with little spaceflight to show for it.
Europe And Its Space Race
Will SpaceX shut it out?
Probably. Not that he could really do anything about it, but I warned Clay Mowry years ago that Ariane 6 would be obsolete before it flew. Which is probably why he went to Blue Origin.
Protecting Human Heritage On The Moon
An interesting piece by Michelle Hanlon. This is a corollary with space property right. If some places are off limits, it implies that most others are not.