One is planned for November, and the other for January. I don’t know why NASA keeps talking about 2017, except to try to get more money out of Congress. Of course, that only gives them one provider, and they’d still have to accelerate Boeing and/or Sierra Nevada.
Category Archives: Political Commentary
It’s Not Just An IRS Cover Up
It’s all of a web with the Department of Justice, and the Democrats.
[Update a while later]
From the declaration by the FBI months ago that no one would be charged, to the president’s statement that there wasn’t a “smidgeon of corruption,” to this, it’s pretty clear now that rather than investigating this for the past year and a half, the Justice Department has been colluding with congressional Democrats to obstruct the congressional investigation.
Atlas Shrugged III
The story has become a torrid romance.
The Post-Constitutional Presidency
Ebola
What we’re afraid to say about it.
Very sobering. If it does become airborne, it’s a nightmare.
Firefly Rockets
Another California rocket company is pulling up stakes and heading to Texas:
King said Firefly was attracted to Texas partly because of its business and regulatory climate.
You don’t say.
“This Is A Religious War”
Thoughts from Andrew Sullivan. Almost thirteen years ago.
My views have changed very little since. Have his?
The SLS Frenzy
So apparently, the SLF fanbois (and fangirls) going crazy over a giant welder on Twitter.
Malone: @NASA_SLS is going to be the most powerful rocket humans have ever built–which is pretty cool. #NASASocial #weldingwonder
— Rebecca Freeman (@freemre) September 11, 2014
As long as you only want to do it every year or two. MT @freemre rocket that could do anything you ever wanted and then some @davidhitt
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) September 11, 2014
Can't believe all the tweets in my TL marveling at the "six largest welding tools" building SLS core. These people are obsessed with size.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) September 11, 2014
You people obsessed with how "powerful" rockets are, are like Tim the ToolMan Taylor. #Binford5000SLS @davidhitt @freemre
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) September 11, 2014
Never believed that loon Helen Caldicott's phallic-compensation theory of rocketry until I ran into the SLS crowd. Even the women have it.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) September 11, 2014
Anyway, I was rereading this essay I wrote half a decade ago. It was depressing. Here’s how little of some of it I’d have to change to keep it relevant to today.
KSC Versus MSFC
I had an interesting Twitter discussion this morning, that gave me an insight that had been floating around in the back of my mind, but that I’d never articulated, either to myself or others. It sort of crystallized when someone said that Bob Cabana, head of KSC, was an SLS supporter.
One of the tenets of the Apollo Cargo Cult is that we can’t go beyond earth orbit without a really big rocket. The conventional wisdom has been that the biggest constituency for SLS is Marshall, because that’s were it is being developed. But if you think about it, there are a lot of things Marshall could be applied to — it doesn’t have to be developing big rockets (something it hasn’t successfully done in almost four decades). For instance, it could be developing technology and demonstrators for orbital fuel storage and transfer. That would be at least as much in its wheelhouse as SLS.
KSC, on the other hand, has little justification for existence if NASA doesn’t have its own (big) rocket to launch. Without a big rocket, it doesn’t need the VAB, and the VAB and the crawler are really the only unique capability it has, in terms of physical infrastructure. If everything is going up on commercial rockers, even from Pads 39, KSC doesn’t have much to do, other than integrating NASA’s payloads onto them. That’s not a trivial task, but it’s not one that justifies the center’s budget or workforce. So, while Marshall could in theory be redirected to something useful, KSC can’t really. That’s why Nelson supports it so strongly.
It struck me in fact that the VAB is the high cathedral for the cargo cult. What would happen to the religion if it was taken out by a hurricane?
The American Dunkirk
Remembering the Manhattan boat lift.
@dancingpilot And amazingly, it happened without government bureaucrats directing it. #America
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) September 11, 2014
I should note, though, that it’s not really fair to compare the time taken for the two events. You can make a lot more trips across the Hudson in a given time than across the Channel.
[Afternoon update]
As Paul notes in comments, it’s also a lot easier to evacuate when you don’t have the Luftwaffe attacking you.