…just got a hell of a lot bigger.
So much for “peak oil.”
Category Archives: Business
Sierra Nevada
An article in the Denver Post on how Shelby’s antics may affect it. First, a brief rant:
Louisville-based Sierra Nevada Corp.’s Space Systems, California-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, and Chicago-based Boeing Co. are the remaining businesses vying for a chance to be the next U.S. shuttle service, a contract expected to be awarded in August.
Gaaahhh! Stop calling space ships “shuttles.” There was only one Space Shuttle. It’s not a generic term, as “kleenex” seems to have become. There will never be another one. I hope, anyway.
This is wrong, too:
Cost-plus estimation allows contractors to account in advance for ballooning costs.
No, it doesn’t. It allows the contractor to be reimbursed for their costs, if the contract is a cost-plus contract, which this one isn’t, which is why this is so stupid.
Monbiotism
Environmentalists fail because they think that people are stupid, and treat them that way. As noted, their problem isn’t just their communications style, but the substance.
[Update a few minutes later]
Yes, this really is a form of neo-colonialism.
Lake Meade
This seems like a hell of an engineering project.
[Update a while later]
As I said, it seems like a hell of an engineering project. I didn’t link it to vouch for the climate “science.”
High-Speed Rail
Unlike Jerry Brown’s crazy train, this private Texas project might actually make sense.
SpaceX and OrbComm
Launch delays are no problem.
The Kindle Edition Of The Book
The prophecies were true! It is out
Bill Nelson
He’s pushing back against Shelby’s attempt to sabotage commercial crew.
I don’t think this is right, though:
NASA insists that waiving certain parts of the Federal Acquisition Regulations, which the agency may legally do in certain situations, is vital to getting a commercially designed system safely up and running.
NASA isn’t “waiving certain parts of the FAR.” It is following the FAR, which doesn’t require cost-plus-like accounting for fixed-price contracts. In fact it is Shelby who is trying to change the FAR by demanding that it be used anyway.
XCOR
A brief history and current status, from Alex Knapp.
J. P. Aerospace
Does anyone know what their status is? Their last blog entry is early May.