Trump is going to order a government-wide review of it.
If Trump really wants to review wasteful government spending, at NASA he can start with SLS/Orion: https://t.co/eR8yiprfgO
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) March 13, 2017
[Update a while later]
Congratulations to Altius Space Machines for their NASA SBIR Phase II win for cryo propellant transfer technology development. If we canceled SLS/Orion, we could found several thousand efforts like this.
Its screwed-up history. Yes, it’s long past time to end the differential tax treatment for corporations and individuals.
Ted Cruz may have found a way.
I think we have to face the fact that, thanks to “progressives,” first with the 17th amendment, then ending the need for actual filibusters, and more recently the eviscerating of the filibuster for lower courts, the Senate has lost its original role of being (supposedly in George Washington’s words) the saucer into which the hot tea of the House was poured to cool. It’s a shame, because the Republicans are likely to pick up a number of Senate seats in 2018, due to the disparity between the two parties in how many are up for re-election.
How Scott Pruitt could gut them:
s Pruitt and President Trump look to unwind Obama’s major climate policies, the endangerment finding might be imperiled.
“You know what’s interesting about the situation with CO2, Joe, is we’ve had a Supreme Court decision in 2007 and then the endangerment finding that you’re making reference to in 2009,” Pruitt told CNBC host Joe Kernan, referring to the Supreme Court’s Massachusetts v. EPA decision — the court ruled that greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act and the EPA has to determine whether they should be regulated.
“Nowhere in the continuum, nowhere in the equation, has Congress spoken. The legislative branch has not addressed this issue at all,” Pruitt said.
“The decision in 2007 was not that the EPA had to regulate. The decision in 2007 was they needed to make a decision.”
And what was decided can be undecided. Live by the pen and the phone, die by the pen and the phone. Though I’d like to see Massachusetts v. EPA reversed as well, given that we now know, since the release of the emails from CRU, that it was based on junk science. The notion that plant food as a trace gas is a “pollutant” is nonsensical.
[Update a few minutes later]
Speaking of Massachusetts, it could get up to two feet of snow tomorrow, a week before the vernal equinox. Because, you know, the earth is overheating.
[Update early afternoon]
Yes, Scott Pruitt is right on CO2. But he’s a religious heretic, so he must be condemned.
[Tuesday-morning update]
Let’s talk about Scott Pruitt’s “denial” of global warming.
The CIA has been exploiting security holes in it for years. I’ve got an older phone, so I’m probably vulnerable. On the other hand, I don’t do much with it, so I don’t really care. If I did, I’d upgrade to one with the latest OS that gets regular updates.
Ace has a timeline of the current insanity in Sacramento which, as he notes, is the swamp of the West Coast that badly needs draining.
I agree with Professor Curry that the media has distorted his statement beyond recognition (and I basically agree with his position, as does she). I also agree that this statement is nonsense:
The right’s refusal to accept the authority of climate science is of a piece with its rejection of mainstream media, academia, and government, the shared institutions and norms that bind us together and contain our political disputes.
The “authority of climate science.” Sorry, but “climate science” has no “authority” (no science does). It and its ignorant defenders have beclowned themselves.
[Update a few minutes later]
Related: A new paper says that only five out of thirty climate models can capture the Asia Pacific Oscillation. But sure, let’s use them as a basis to pauperize much of the world.
[Update a while later]
Oh, look, here’s some insanity from NBC News:
Pruitt’s view is at odds with 99.99 percent of climate scientists, according to peer-reviewed studies.
At least it’s precise, if not accurate.
I think that Kodiak will be hardest hit by this.
Bob Zimmerman has published an interesting and timely paper. I haven’t read it yet, but it can be downloaded from the Center For a New American Security, or from his site.
It’s not enough that they have to screw up human spaceflight; now they want to cripple ULA and military launch as well:
“The United States Government (USG) must have a hands-on, decision-making role… in any decision made by United Launch Alliance to down-select engines on its proposed Vulcan space launch system, especially where one of the technologies is unproven at the required size and power,” the letter states. “If ULA plans on requesting hundreds of millions of dollars from the USG for development of its launch vehicle and associated infrastructure, then it is not only appropriate but required that the USG have a significant role in the decision-making concerning the vehicle.” The letter then goes on to say the Air Force should not give any additional funding to ULA, other than for current launch vehicles, until the company provides “full access, oversight of, and approval rights over decision-making” in its choice of contractors for the engines on Vulcan
Vulcan, by definition, cannot use the AR1. It’s a methane vehicle. AR1 means continuing to use the Atlas V, which can’t compete with SpaceX (or Blue Origin’s reusable New Glenn). This doesn’t hurt Blue Origin that much, because its main use for the BE-4 is for its own vehicle, but it would be devastating for ULA if they’re forced by politics to stick with an uncompetitive launch system to please the Alabama delegation.
Although both Rogers and Thornberry are members of the House Armed Services Committee, it is difficult to avoid ascribing at least some political motives to the letter. In January, Aerojet Rocketdyne said it would produce the AR1 rocket engine in Huntsville, Alabama, creating 100 new jobs near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Already, another Huntsville company, Dynetics, has become a subcontractor for the engine’s main propulsion system. (A spokesman for Rogers didn’t not reply to a request for comment).
Politics in space hardware procurement? Say it ain’t so!