Category Archives: Business

“Change” and Marxism

Some thoughts:

In my other life, when I was national security adviser to Communist Romania’s President Nicolae Ceausescu, I wrote the lyrics of his ode to “change.” Ceausescu pretended that his predecessor had devastated the country, and he pledged to change that change. In those days I heard that ode to change a thousand times, and today I am stunned by its similarity with the Democratic Party’s “change.”

I’m not.

“Federal Versus Commercial”

Clark Lindsey responds to a clueless editorialop-ed over at Aero-News. I should note that this is why we have blogs.

[Update a while later]

Wow. I went back and read that piece, and it was so chock full of stupid I couldn’t even get through the whole thing. Plus, the guy needed an editor. Kudos to Clark.

[Update a few minutes later]

I love this typo: “Along the way other companies that have a spaceflight heritage, such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and especially ATK are vilified as being the spawn of satin.”

And their children will be velvet.

The Higher Education Bubble

When will it pop?

He makes a point that doesn’t get made enough — that what kind of degree you get matters, but a lot of these children (and particularly the ones who are shifting back and forth between occupying Wall Street and occupying their parents’ basements) don’t get that. Nor does the student loan program.

[Update a while later]

In defense of classical studies.

Propellant Depots

Over at Aviation Week, Frank Morring says the NASA studies continue:

Michael Gazarik, NASA’s space technology program director, says that CPST and the Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket currently under development are complementary technologies. “To explore deep space we need a heavy-lift vehicle — SLS — and we need this technology. We need to be able to demonstrate how to handle cryogenic fluids in space.”

He has to say that. It’s literally politically incorrect to say anything else, and will be until SLS dies. But the reality is that propellant storage on orbit is essential to spacefaring. Heavy lift is not.

[Update a while later]

And…the empire strikes back. A piece defending SLS/BMR by Mike Griffin and Scott Pace, over at Space News. Will I have a response? You bet. Stay tuned.

[Update a while later]

Here is one point (though there are others) that I will really pound on:

The challenge for fuel depots is simply that the marginal specific cost of payload to orbit is generally lower for larger launch vehicles. There may be exceptions, but the trend is clear.

There are at least two avenues of attack. What mine will be is left as an exercise to the students. Oh, and initial link fixed. Sorry.

[Late evening update]

Clark Lindsey has started to rebut, and it’s a good start. But there are a lot more fish in that barrel…