Category Archives: Political Commentary

Political Commentary, Space

They’ve Thrown A Bone

144 Comments

You’ve probably heard that Orion lives. But not as the CEV — as a crew rescue vehicle (itself a nonsensical requirement). I can live with this. It will give JSC (and to a lesser extent KSC) something to do, and keep them out of commercial’s hair to a degree. And it will buy off some of the whiners about the new policy. The good thing is that Ares remains dead. But it would be nice to get a wooden stake for the Stick.

[Wednesday morning update]

OSTP has released a fact sheet on the new plans. The bad news — they’re still talking heavy lift, but that’s probably politically necessary right now, because so many of the cargo cultists will believe that it’s necessary for BEO trips. The good news — the decision on what it will look like is five years off, which is plenty of time to educate the public (and politicians) on the lack of need for it. And even if we go forward with it, as the fact sheet notes, 2015 is at least two years earlier than work would have started on Ares V.

What it looks to me like is that they want to develop a home-grown version of the RD-80 so that we’re not dependent on the Russians for them. The problem with that is the vast increase in cost, not just for development, but for production. We’re buying them from the Russians now for about ten million each, and a domestic version is likely to cost several times that.

There’s no discussion of propellant depots per se, but they’re implied by this:

The new rocket also will benefit from the budget’s proposed R&D on other breakthrough technologies in our new strategy for human exploration (such as in- space refueling), which should make possible a more cost-effective and optimized heavy lift capability as part of future exploration architectures.

You don’t do “in-space refueling” without a depot, and if they’re looking into this, it implies tech demos much sooner. There’s no reason that we can’t elevate the technology readiness of this to an eight or nine in the next five years with an intelligent development program.

[Update a few minutes later]

Jeff Foust has more on the fact sheet.

[Bumped]

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

The Wisdom Of Astronauts

7 Comments

MSNBC actually has a pretty well-balanced story on the new policy, and some (but not all) of the old-guard astronauts’ opposition to it (more here — I’m disappointed to see my old boss Glynn Lunney on the list — I need to call him and straighten him out). That’s probably because Alan Boyle was involved. Unfortunately, so was Jay Barbree, who still thinks that SpaceX is the only potential commercial provider for human spaceflight.

Clark Lindsey is appropriately unimpressed with the opponents’ arguments (such as they are). I agree with him that they denote a lack of seriousness, and attention to what’s been going on. I’m working on an op-ed for AOL News along the same lines to coincide with tomorrow’s festivities at KSC.

Business, Political Commentary, Space

John Tierney

8 Comments

…on the new space policy. And he graciously cites my piece in The New Atlantis from last summer. He also has a report from the Cape today. It’s interesting that no one has mentioned yesterday’s Gagarin and Shuttle anniversaries. I actually worked them into my Popular Mechanics piece, but they were edited out, presumably because they seemed a little tangential. I imagine that next April 12th, on the fiftieth and thirtieth anniversaries, respectively, people will make a much bigger deal of them. And I hope by then we’re seeing some real progress in the new direction.

[Both Tierney links via Clark Lindsey]

Political Commentary

We Had To Pass The Bill

41 Comments

…so we would know what was in it:

In other words, theoretically the law kicks them out of the federal health plan now in order to force them to join insurance exchanges … that don’t exist yet. Looking forward to tomorrow, when we’re inevitably told that they meant to do that. Exit question for lawyers: Who would have standing to sue to force the federal health plan to drop Congress now? Any citizen, or is it more refined than that?

I can’t wait until they try to pass a bill to fix that one. If it’s not filibusterable, nothing is.

[Tuesday morning update]

Legislate in haste, repent in leisure.

It’s an incumbent protection plan! All those Evil Republicans who thought they would sweep into power next fall will think twice, now that they know the job comes with no health benefits.

I can’t stop laughing at these morons, and the imbeciles who voted for them and defend them, and told us how these wise solons knew exactly what was in the bill and that we were fools for not understanding it.

[Lte morning update]

Maybe they should complain to the White House. After all, the president told us all that “if you like your current plan, you can keep it.”

Hilarious.

Political Commentary

Repeal Looks Like A Winning Issue

3 Comments

Even without “replace”:

Forty-seven percent (47%) of voters believe repeal of the health care bill will be good for the economy. Thirty-three percent (33%) disagree.

Eighty-eight percent (88%) of Republicans and 54% of voters not affiliated with either major party favor repeal. Sixty-one percent (61%) of Democrats are opposed. Republican support for repeal is up eight points from a week ago, while Democratic opposition is down seven.

Not a good trend for the Donkeys. But as is general with such trends, it’s good for the country.