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.
Marina Koren has the story, with a quote from Yours Truly. It launches at 3:30 in the morning, not sure if I’ll have the gumption to get up to watch from Palm Beach (or worse, drive up to the Cape). On the other hand, if it’s clear, should be lots of Perseids visible then, since it’s a new moon.
Neither our proposal or the Space Studies Institute’s proposal for a gravity lab was awarded by NASA. It’s just the usual suspects, no newcomers allowed. As I noted on Twitter, they could have funded every proposal for less money than they pour down the SLS/Orion rat hole in a week. No one knows how much potential innovation they just avoided.
The latest on the differences between House and Senate bills. I agree with moving OCST out of the FAA, but I’d prefer to see Commerce get the responsibility for regulation of orbital activity.
Tim Fernholz has the story of today’s announcement, which was a big “Meh” for me. Wake me up when they’ve decided that putting Americans in space on American rockets is actually important enough to start doing that.