This is pretty forward thinking. It would be nice if Congress would get the memo.
Category Archives: Space
A Culture Of Optimism
Marina Koren has a deep dive into the mess at NASA. As I noted to her on Twitter, this goes all the way back to the 70s with Shuttle, when NASA should have told Congress it couldn’t be built to the USAF specs with the provided budget, but they instead moved forward and hoped for the best.
The Latest SLS Nonsense
Eric Berger reports on the long lead time for new (expendable) SSMEs.
Space Regulation
A new paper by Jim Vedda from the Aerospace Corporation.
[Via Doug Messier]
The Perseids
They’ll occur during a new moon this month. I’ll probably be in Florida, so I may drive into the swamp to watch. In California, it’s usually pretty chilly at night in the desert.
Blue Origin
Last week in San Francisco, at the ISS R&D conference, I asked Erika Wagner how many more test flights before one with test passengers, and she wouldn’t say. But this article says only a couple more. I wouldn’t think they’d need a lot more testing after that last abort test.
Office Of Commercial Space Transportation
Norm Bowles has built a web site with its history. I haven’t looked through it yet.
BFR
SpaceX is hiring.
BFR And Space Solar Power
Thoughts from Brian Wang. Keith Henson has been pushing Skylon for this for some time. As noted in comments, for a project of that scale, it would probably make more sense to use lunar materials than to launch it all from earth.
The Space Frontier Act
It’s nice to see bipartisan action on this useful bill, but I don’t see it as doing much about the frontier. And I’m glad that they’re finally taking OCST out of the FAA, something I’ve been advocating for a quarter of a century, ever since Gore buried it there.