Category Archives: Space

Business, Economics, Space, Technology and Society, Weird

Stratolaunch

20 Comments

A history, as it approaches first air under the gear. As I noted in an email to the person who sent me the link:

“Stratolaunch has never made any sense to me as a business. Gary [Hudson]’s theory is that it’s the Glomar Explorer of space: a civilian cover for a black operation (in this case, perhaps as an X-37 launcher capable of single-orbit rendezvous). But it seems nutty to me to make your business dependent on a single carrier aircraft. Orbital got away with it with the Tri-Star but at least there they could have gone to the boneyard for another one if they’d lost it. Look how much time it’s taken to even do taxi tests with a single vehicle. And they only this week announced (again) their plans for the orbital launcher, now not to fly until 2022, over a decade after that press conference.”

I also think that Allen placed entirely too much faith in Burt, who is an aviation genius, but not necessarily a space guy.

Business, Economics, Space, Technology and Society, Weird

Rogozin

7 Comments

He’s whining about SpaceX’s prices. Maybe he should get a trampoline.

And this is amusing:

Due to its geography, Russia is largely unable to make Falcon-style reusable boosters that would make vertical powered descent to a movable platform at sea, and so it has to follow an alternate path sticking to horizontal landings or relying on parachutes, he said.

Yes, because they couldn’t possibly land vertically down range, where they currently dump their expended first stages.

Business, Economics, History, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Space, Technology and Society

The Fate Of The ISS

18 Comments

Matt Fitzgibbons says it’s like the ancient Roman roads. I’m not sure the analogy works very well, but I do think that it would be wasteful to deorbit it. When he says it’s “only” three or four billion a year, I don’t think he appreciates how much more we’ll be able to do for much less in the near future, But I also think in the next decade we’ll have the ability to move it higher, and preserve it as a museum.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society, War Commentary

Space Force

36 Comments

Yes, we need one, or at least some entity dedicated to space. I don’t understand why they keep saying a “sixth branch of the armed services,” though. Are they calling the Coast Guard an “armed service”? I don’t think that’s right.

[Update a while later]

Only Nixon could go to China, and only Trump could go to space.

Not sure he’s being entirely serious.

[Update late Sunday evening]

OK, one more: How we can own the libs on space.

By the way, Jim Bennett’s analogy in comments is useful, and I did a Twitter thread on it.

BTW, for those who corrected me legally in comments on whether or not the USCG is an armed service, my concern is that by lumping it in, it fails to make crucial distinctions. It’s certainly a uniformed service with an academy, but it is more intrinsically civilian.

General, General Science, Space, Space Science, Technology and Society

In For A Penny, In For A Pound

5 Comments

It’s about 0230 EDT, and I’m still up, planning home renovations for tomorrow. But I’m in south Florida, about fifteen minutes from the swamp to the west, and the sky is clear for both the Perseids and the Parker Solar Probe Delta IV launch in an hour, 150 miles north-northwest of me. So I might as well stay up a little longer. Hoping I’ll see the Milky Way for the first time in a long time.

[Sunday-morning update]

Well, saw half a dozen meteors, one of them right next to the ascending rocket. No Milky Way, though.

[Update Sunday night]

Given my recent failed attempts to see it, I’m wondering (slightly depressed) if it’s an age-related vision decline. It was very distinct in my youth, but it seems like there are a lot fewer stars than there used to be.