I got an email from Jon Goff about this yesterday, but didn’t want to post until there was a public announcement.
Ok, now that it's on Facebook, I feel it's ok to mention the horrible news here on Twitter. I found out this morning that my good friend Bernard Kutter of ULA passed away last night from a heart attack.
This is a huge loss to the industry. He had a great deal of vision, that was squandered by the child abuse of ULA’s parent companies. Not sure he’s replaceable. My deepest condolences to all his friends and family.
[Update a few minutes later]
Well, that was fast. This post is already number two on a DuckDuckGo search for “Bernard Kutter.” Funny thing is that Google has nothing on the death.
This virus has been like a wildfire, sweeping through education, academia, and blue cities. It took technological and social trends that were already happening, and rapidly accelerated them, and now they’re smoldering ashes. I don’t think any of them will ever be the same again. And that’s not a bad thing.
The statistic of how many construction workers are killed each year makes NASA’s insistence on absolute astronaut safety at all costs seem even more insane. Once we get serious about space, people are going to die up there, but NASA will never be allowed to get serious about space.