Bob Zimmerman has the latest. Space policy will continue to be a mess until someone with vision for it is put into place (and probably even then). It’s not at all clear that Duffy knows which end the fire comes out of.
Category Archives: Space
A Dyspeptic Futurist
Jeff Foust read what appears to be a dumb book so you don’t have to.
Science Fiction
What if it’s our best window to the future? A discussion with David Brin.
He’s more down on lunar resources than I am, but I agree with his critique of Artemis.
The New Interim Administrator
Thoughts from Eric Berger on Sean Duffy’s additional job.
Unlike many on this platform, speaking as a space-policy expert, I have no idea whether it will hurt NASA to lose those 2000+ GS13-GS15 "senior executives," or if Duffy will be able to provide any more "leadership" than Janet Petro. I simply know too little about who they are.
— Rand Simberg (@Simberg_Space) July 10, 2025
[Afternoon update]
Speaking of interim administrators, here’s an interesting interview with Jared Isaacman.
The Global Baby Bust
Three long-shot ways of solving it. One of them is space.
Terry Savage
I don’t know how many of my regular readers knew him, but he was a founder of the Los Angeles L-5 Society (aka OASIS) back in the late 70s, and he passed yesterday. I’ll have more anon, but if anyone did know him, feel free to comment. I’m in good health, but one contemplates mortality more and more as one’s cohorts pass on.
On The Road Again
I’m heading off to Orlando for the International Space Development Conference. I’ll check in from there.
El Segundo
Ignoring the dumb headline, Joel Kotkin has an interesting story on the new tech hub in the South Bay. I helped set up some of the plant visits for it.
Los Angeles
I generally avoid the city. The South Bay, with the resurgence of the space industry and many start ups, remains in better shape.
[Update late morning]
LA 2025: Welcome to America’s future.
I hope not.
On The Trump-Musk Feud
Beyond the Trump-Musk fallout?
— Victor Davis Hanson (@VDHanson) June 6, 2025
At first impression, it makes no sense that Musk would start firing away at the (admittedly imperfect) budget bill, or escalate to DefCon 1, by tweeting nonsense about impeachment, the Epstein files, or disengaging his space efforts from the U.S.…
Assuming that Trump is serious, wait until he hears that there's no Golden Dome or Mars without SpaceX.
— Not-So-OK Boomer (@Rand_Simberg) June 5, 2025
[Saturday-evening update]
Sorry about the formatting issues. I’m trying to get used to the WordPress update, which munged everything up in terms of how I post. Among other things, it made it a lot more effort to insert HTML.