I’m pretty sure this is a first.
I should note, I really don’t “worship” Branson. I have a lot of problems with him. My piece was more of a reaction to Kluger’s bashing than a defense of him per se.
Category Archives: Business
ObamaCare
…is going back to SCOTUS.
This makes the en bank ruling in DC pointless.
I’m guessing they’ll find that the subsidies aren’t legal. The question is whether or not they’ll strike down the whole law this time, because they’re a pretty fundamental part of it.
[Update a few minutes later]
Here’s an explainer from SCOTUSblog.
[Update a while later]
And here‘s Jonathan Adler’s take:
With this grant, the court has the opportunity to reaffirm the principle that the law is what Congress enacts, not what the administration or others wish Congress had enacted with the benefit of hindsight. Granting tax credits to those who need help purchasing health insurance may be a good idea, and may have bipartisan support, but the IRS lacks the authority to authorize such tax credits where Congress failed to do so. The PPACA only authorizes tax credits for the purchase of insurance on exchanges “established by the State.”
Yup. To grant an agency that kind of discretion would be a form of tyranny.
[Update a few minutes later]
Six potential effects of a ruling against HHS.
Why Space Tourism Matters
Thoughts from Holman Jenkins. I like the idea of naming errant asteroids after senators.
[Second link should get you through the paywall]
Jobs And The Economy
That’s what the GOP needs to focus on, not social issues.
Yes.
Sir Walter Raleigh And Sir Richard Branson
How well does the historical analogy work?
In Defense Of Daring
I respond to Jeffrey Kluger’s Branson bashing, over at The New Atlantis.
[Update a few minutes later]
Meghan McArdle says that of course space tourism will continue. The notion that a fatality in a flight test would destroy an industry is pretty stupid.
Also, nothing has changed in the past decade: Alex Tabarrok still doesn’t understand the difference between orbital and suborbital flight, or between flight test and operations.
Branson And Refunds
I’m sure that you’re as shocked as I am that Sir Richard’s statement on Saturday is at variance with reality. I think the technical business term for this is “fiasco.” And I’m angry that it has so tainted the industry, not to mention given the FAA an excuse to regulate, if they wish to.
[Update a couple minutes later]
The real problem is “bad business.”
Pilot Error?
That’s not a statement, but clearly is a legitimate question. If so, he paid with his life.
Also if so, it’s a pretty easy thing to fix. But it still doesn’t explain why they deployed without the command to do so. And we still don’t really know how well the engine performed, or what kind of vibration environment it will provide the vehicle and passengers. At least publicly.
[Update a few minutes later]
It strikes me as ironic, and a demonstration of one of the major points of my book, that the two main features of the vehicle implemented in the name of safety (hybrid motor, and feathering wings) may have actually made the vehicle more dangerous and less operable. Lynx will be a much simpler system.
In Which I’m Quoted In The Times Of London
This comment was made in the weekend context, when most reasonably assumed that the engine had caused the disaster:
The decision to change the fuel may have been behind the crash. Experts questioned whether pressure from investors might have been a factor in decisions by Sir Richard Branson and Scaled Composites, the spacecraft’s designers, to pursue what many considered to be a flawed design.
“If Sir Richard wants to move forward with his business, he needs to go back to the drawing board,” said Mr Simberg, the author of Safe is Not an Option. “Many in the industry, including me, have been concerned about Virgin’s propellant system for years.”
Obviously, I expect them to continue down the current path now, absent some new engine concern. But my warnings were never that much about safety (though as I wrote on Saturday, the safety of hybrids has been dramatically overhyped), but whether or not it was a good engine from a business standpoint, in terms of performance, operability, turnaround, cost, and getting the vehicle to market soon. Those concerns have not gone away.
[Update a while later]
A pretty comprehensive story, including history, over at Popular Mechanics. He’s not sanguine about the prospects for the vehicle, though (like me) doesn’t see it as a setback for the industry itself.
[Update a while later]
What does this mean for New Mexico? A long but useful backgrounder.
[Update early afternoon]
Someone over at Arocket found a video of a previous SS2 flight in which feathers were unlocked ten seconds into the burn (as opposed to nine seconds on Friday). So if it was early, it wasn’t very. Not obvious pilot error yet.
Saturday-Evening NTSB Brief
It’s about to start.