They were a policy disaster.
Category Archives: Economics
SLS “Affordability”
This new “study” may be the beginning of the end for the program. This graf stuck out, though: “McConnaughey is leading the study for Kathy Lueders, NASA’s chief of human spaceflight. Even before the study’s initiation, McConnaughey had been pushing for the SLS program to become more cost-effective. One goal of this analysis is to find ways for the large NASA rocket to compete effectively with privately developed rockets as part of the agency’s Artemis Moon program.”
No one seems to ask the question: Why should NASA even be attempting to compete with private industry? This is not a proper role of a government agency, but we’ve been stuck in this mode since Shuttle.
NASA And The Rise Of Commercial space
This looks like an interesting symposium this week. Hard to believe that it’s been eight years since my book was published.
The “Covid Relief” Bill
…is (among many other things) an IRS assault on low-income people.
Meritocracy Versus Idiocracy
Why China is winning.
Not very encouraging.
Typical Space Reporting
This story on SLS is pretty lazy. They don’t question Singer’s statement, or point out that, with her talking about how many people SLS employs in how many states, she is simply reinforcing Garver’s point. And the cost of an SLS flight will never be as low as $800M.
Climate Change
Boondoggle upon boondoggle.
The Low Spark Of High-Speed Rail
The latest on the ongoing California debacle. Some of us predicted this a dozen years ago. It never made economic sense.
Propellant Depots
An interesting discussion at Selenian Boondocks.
Fry’s
RIP.
I’ve seen this coming for a couple years, with the empty shelves, and going to a consignment business model. I don’t think it would have survived anyway, but the pandemic was the last nail in the coffin. It’s the end of an era.
[Thursday-afternoon update]
Bryan Preston remembers Fry’s. Our Fry’s was Tahitian themed. It was probably also the smallest store in the chain, perhaps because of real-estate prices in Manhattan Beach. It never carried appliances. If I wanted to have more selection, I had to drive to the ones in Commerce, Canoga Park, or Fountain Valley.
[Bumped]