Sam Dinkin runs the numbers. Looks about right to me. People really don’t appreciate how little of the cost of a launch is propellant, and once we fix that, how much we can reduce it.
Category Archives: Media Criticism
The Risk Of Spaceflight
A few months ago I did a phone interview with Sarah Scoles. She finally wrote the piece based in part on it, over at The Atlantic. (Note, Apollo 1 astros died of asphyxiation, not from the fire itself, Columbia happened 17 years after Challenger, not 36, and it was the co-pilot who died on the VG test flight. I’ll blame her editor, since she clearly gets the last two right later in the piece. I assume they’ll fix it at least on line.)
The Collapse Of Cubism
This is from last week, but Lileks nicely filets, in his own inimitable fashion, some absurd social commentary on delivered unprepared meals.
Bump Stocks
They’re not worth banning, but no one really cares about them that much:
Bump stocks, says Mr. Valone, “are an amusement, because they don’t under normal circumstances turn an AR-15 or another rifle into a killing machine, because you can’t hit anything with it. Only when you are presented 400 yards away with a field of uninterrupted humanity would something like that even be effective.”
Hard cases make for bad law.
Must Pack Heat
A lot of idiots claim that the NRA wants everyone to be armed. They’ve never advocated that, as far as I know, but there is a case to be made for it.
[Update a while later]
It’s not new, but Glenn Reynolds co-wrote a paper on this a while ago.
Bonobos
Everything you know about them is wrong.
This reminds me of how the Samoans created a lot of cultural mythology by pulling Margaret Mead’s leg.
Gun Control
A message to the Left: Six reasons your “right-wing” friends aren’t coming around to your “arguments.”
The National Space Council
They had their first “meeting” today (scare quotes because it was basically a scripted dog and pony show). Bob Zimmerman has some thoughts. Mine: The tension between the old cost-plus dinosaurs and commercial space within the administration was on full display, but everyone recognizes that we’ve shifted back to the moon. “Civil” space remains focused on pork, “commercial” space is focused appropriately on cost reduction. Nothing new on the milspace side to anyone who’s been following it, but I’m sure it was news to several of the council members.
[Update a while later]
Here’s Pence’s statement, but it’s behind a paywall at the WSJ.
[Late-afternoon update]
Here’s Ken Chang’s report. Check out the kicker.
[Update Friday morning]
Eric Berger: The history of presidential pland to “go back to the moon.” Yes, you should be skeptical. SpaceX or Blue Origin will beat NASA back to the moon. And that’s not a bad thing.
Lies, Damned Lies, And “Tax Cuts”
This isn’t a new piece, but nothing has changed, and it seems appropriate to relink in light of the current discussion in DC.
Evergreen State
An update on the madness there, and thoughts about the Left’s true war on science.
[Update a while later]
“First they came for the biologists.” [Paywalled, unfortunately]