Category Archives: Political Commentary

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

“A Smaller Tomorrow”

33 Comments

Robert Costa has a piece over at National Review Online, with the usual conventional “conservative” wisdom on the new space policy, complete with the Kennedy mythology. I may ask Kathryn (or Rich, who I guess is the editor there now) for space for a rebuttal.

[Update late afternoon]

The Corner has the transcript from the panel on Bret Baier’s show yesterday, with Krauthammer’s comments. It leads with the usual ridiculous hyperbole:

We are seeing the abolition of the manned space program.

That’s right, the extension of ISS, the development of a viable commercial human spaceflight industry, the development of needed technologies (neglected in the past administration) to affordably get beyond low earth orbit is the “abolition of the manned space program.” What is in the water that DC conservatives have been drinking?

And what it does is it ends our human dominance in space, which we had for 50 years. We have no way to get into earth orbit. We’re going to have to hitch a ride on the Russians who are charging us extraordinary rates and are only going to increase that.…

And that was the plan laid out by the Bush administration. But now that Obama is president, it’s terrible. As I told Rich Lowry and KLo via email, this is an important debate, and it has to be debated, but not in such a logic-free and fact-free environment. I’m very disappointed in Dr. K., who is usually quite perceptive on other issues.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

“Thank You, Mr. President”

10 Comments

Praise for the new space policy from Buzz Aldrin.

You know, everyone has been saying how noteworthy it is that Neil Armstrong has spoken out against it, because he’s been such a relative hermit for forty years. I have a different take. Buzz has spent the past four decades fighting to get better space policy, and one that opens up space for all of us, and has earned his space-policy chops, while Neil has been a reclusive professor in Ohio, and not engaged at all. While he’s an admirable man for his life accomplishments, I’m not really interested in the opinions of a Neil-come-lately on this issue. Either way, I don’t find argument from astronaut authority particularly persuasive when the arguments themselves aren’t.

[Update a few minutes later]

Here is Scott Pace’s response on C-Span. I haven’t listened to it but I’m assuming that he’s just expanding on what he said on To The Point yesterday.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Actually, I shouldn’t necessarily assume that. His discussion on To The Point was occurring as, or right after, the president was speaking. He may have revised his thoughts after he saw the speech.

Political Commentary, Space

Speech Reacs

54 Comments

Clark Lindsey has a roundup, and some thought of his own. I agree with them. No surprises there, and it the dissing of the moon was disappointing (probably even more so to Paul Spudis), but as Clark notes, destinations aren’t important right now. There’s plenty of time to figure that out and argue about it while we (finally) get the other pieces straightened out.

[Friday morning update]

Alan Boyle has more on the story, with a lot of links.

[Update a few minutes later]

Here are some comments on the plan over at PBS, from Jeff Greason, Keith Cowing, Tom Young, and a clueless state senator from the Space Coast:

[With the new plan] we’d have to rely on the Russians to get to the station. And you know, I’m a historian, I teach history — and needless to say they have not always been our most reliable allies. I fear once we lose the ability to get ourselves into space, it puts us in vulnerable position.

New flash, professor. That was the case under the old plan. And it was going to be for a lot longer. The opposition to this continues to live in a logic-free and fact-free zone.

[Update about 9 AM PDT]

Justin Kugler muses on the impact for JSC. I agree with him on pretty much all counts. I’m considering my personal war on heavy lift won for now, given that policy is no longer being driven by it, and there’s now plenty of time to educate the community on the lack of need for it. My next target is the notion of a “lifeboat” that has to bring the entire Titanic’s complement back to Southampton.

Political Commentary, Space

That “To The Point” Show

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I listened to it at noon (instead of listening to the Obama speech — I recorded that on DVR). It was a pretty good discussion. Warren had Jeff Greason (at my suggestion, otherwise it would have been me), Bobby Block from the Orlando Sentinel, Scott Pace, head of the Space Policy Institute at GWU (and a good friend and former colleague from Rockwell in the eighties), and Jonathan McDowell, of Jonathan’s Space Report fame (I hadn’t realized he was a Brit, and I really should blogroll the site).

Scott was the only defender of Constellation, on the ground that we have to stick with something and finish it, and not change policies each time we change administrations. I don’t think he really understands just what a financial programmatic disaster it was. Or maybe there’s something in the water at GWU. He’s starting to sound like his predecessor (and thesis advisor), John Logsdon. Of course, he was Associate Administrator for PA&E during the Griffin era, so he (like Mike) may take the cancellation a little personally. Next time I get back to DC, I’ll argue with him over a beer.

Economics, Political Commentary, Space

Elon’s Position

25 Comments

He’s all in favor, natch:

By the time President Obama cancelled Ares I/Orion earlier this year, the schedule had already slipped five years to 2017 and completing development would have required another $50 billion. Moreover, the cost per flight, inclusive of overhead, was estimated to be at least $1.5 billion compared to the $1 billion of Shuttle, despite carrying only four people to Shuttle’s seven and almost no cargo.

The President quite reasonably concluded that spending $50 billion to develop a vehicle that would cost 50% more to operate, but carry 50% less payload was perhaps not the best possible use of funds.

I fail to see how anyone can come to any other conclusion. Instead, the Ares huggers just ignore the cost issue, and pretend it doesn’t exist.

Political Commentary, Space

Me Versus Neil

24 Comments

In which I express my disappointment with Neil Armstrong and other Apollo-era NASA heroes, over at AOL News..

[Update a few minutes later]

Representative David Wu attempts to defend the status quo:

In testimony before the House Science and Technology Committee on Feb. 25, NASA administrator Charles Bolden admitted that his agency had not conducted a single market survey on the potential costs of privatizing space exploration. Instead, the administration relied solely on information provided by the aerospace industry when formulating its plans for privatizing the human spaceflight program. While these estimates may indeed be accurate, we cannot know for sure what the potential costs associated with this dramatic move will be without independent, unbiased estimates.

Simply put, the president’s vision lacks clearly defined objectives and metrics for measuring success. The administration cannot adequately explain where the space program’s shifted focus will lead. And the president’s justification for privatizing human space exploration relies on the proverbial fox guarding the hen house. The American people deserve better.

You don’t get costs from a “market survey.” If you want to get independent cost estimates, that’s the kind of thing that Aerospace does. And, hey, what do you know? They did that.

And as for foxes and chicken coops, yeah, let’s let NASA, that has wasted untold tens of billions in failed attempts to make serious progress in human spaceflight, and seems to be getting worse by the decade, have fifty billion more, with no oversight.

The American people do deserve better. Finally, there’s a chance that they will get better, rather than a certainty of continued expensive stagnation.

Meanwhile, over at Popular Mechanics, I set the stage for the president’s speech today.

[Update a few minutes later]

Over at Public Radio International, Warren Olney’s To The Point is talking about the new space policy today. They were going to have me on (I’ve been on Warren’s shows before, but only “Which Way LA“), but I suggested that Jeff Greason might be even better (not that I would have been bad) so I think he’ll be on. Check your local NPR listings. It’s on at noon, PDT in LA (the same time as the speech, unfortunately). But you can stream it from KCRW’s site. And they’ll archive it.