Rest in peace, and ad astra.
Rick was one of the earliest NASA astronauts to recognize the value and potential of commercial human spaceflight. RIP to a great and literally inspiring guy. https://t.co/lEFeR4JfMD
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) October 9, 2018
Unfortunately, I’m still stuck in FL, and won’t be able to attend the service on Friday in Tehachapi.
It’s about to make its last flight. Most of the media won’t realize how historical this event, or that rocket is. Somewhere, Max Hunter is smiling.
Jeff Foust writes about the unheralded 25th anniversary of the DC-X flights, and what has happened in the past half decade to see the promise that it offered a quarter of a century ago finally coming to fruition. I attended the 20th anniversary, but the only thing happening this year is a dinner in LA later this month.
I would note, per the criticism of the “purists,” that SSTO is highly overrated. Two-stage systems are much more flexible and efficient, particularly for off-nominal missions (e.g., high inclination or high altitude). SSTO would make sense only for a large traffic model to a single destination, probably equatorial.
Bob Zimmerman isn’t impressed with the Armstrong movie.
[Update late evening, before I drive up to West Palm Beach to pick up Patricia]
Some (sadly) hilarious thoughts and links from Jim Treacher.
[Sunday update]
OK, I see that Bob Zimmerman has had second thoughts.
I’m going to reserve judgment until I see the film. I think that the proximate cause of the uproar wasn’t the decision to leave out the flag planting, but the Canadian actor’s idiotic explanation of it. As I note in comments, the movie is a biopick of Neil Armstrong, not a history of Apollo, and his great achievement was not in planting a flag on the moon, but in simply being present on its surface.
Norm Bowles has built a web site with its history. I haven’t looked through it yet.
It’s sixty years old today.
I think it’s earned an early retirement.
[Via Gail Heriot, with the usual stupidity about “Muslim outreach” in the comments]
Eric Berger has the latest.
@SciGuySpace Part of that history was the idiotic policy in the early 90s of telling USAF to use expendables, and assigning reusables to NASA, which resulted in the disastrous X-33 and X-34 programs, which "proved" that reusables couldn't be done.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) July 27, 2018
It’s not just the 49th Apollo anniversary; it’s also the anniversary of the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler. Plus, it’s the 25th anniversary of the (likely) murder of Vince Foster.
I scored a ticket to the VIP gala at KSC Saturday night, to celebrate the 49th anniversary of the first moon landing. I just found out I’ll be seated at a front table with commercial-spaceflight basher Walt Cunningham.
Emilee Speck got the court documents. As someone who’s known them all for years, this is very sad.
[Afternoon update]
Here’s a statement from Christina:
Personal Statement by Christina Korp @Buzzs_xtina regarding article about @TheRealBuzz lawsuit in the @WSJ pic.twitter.com/okyW8aztvY
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) June 25, 2018
[Wednesday-morning update]
Here’s the latest, from Chris Davenport.
[Bumped]
[Late-morning update]
Marina Koren has more at The Atlantic.