For those interested, Bob Zimmerman seems to have this beat covered.
Category Archives: Space
The Latest Idiocy At NASA
Loren Grush has the story on the cancellation of the lunar Resource Prospector:
Metzger can only speculate as to why the mission was moved. “I don’t really know what the motive was, but I’m guessing it was probably budget related,” he says. NASA’s human exploration program is currently working on a giant new rocket, the Space Launch System, which takes up a sizable portion of the annual human exploration budget. It’s also behind schedule, so it’s possible Resource Prospector was moved to the science directorate to free up funds to prevent further delays.
If this was done to provide more money to pour down the SLS rathole, is there a better example of how SLS is a roadblock to actually going back to the moon, rather than an enabler?
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) April 27, 2018
[Update late morning]
Does Bridenstine know this is happening?
[Noon update]
FWIW, here’s what Mary Lynne Dittmar has to say:
Hi – your assumption is incorrect; this has nothing to do with SLS. The issue is different mission concepts internal to NASA that need to be resolved before instrumentation and budget are reallocated. What that looks like going forward is not clear, unfortunately.
— Mary Lynne Dittmar, Ph.D. (@DittmarML) April 27, 2018
[Afternoon update]
We’re committed to lunar exploration @NASA. Resource Prospector instruments will go forward in an expanded lunar surface campaign. More landers. More science. More exploration. More prospectors. More commercial partners. Ad astra! https://t.co/FaxO6WUDow
— Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) April 27, 2018
This is good news.
SpaceX Starlink
Their satellite Internet system will cost $10B. And expect a couple more FH launches this year.
A NASA Research Announcement
I may respond to this.
Rocket Billionaires And Space Barons
Walter Isaacson reviews both Chris Davenport’s
I’ve read both, and while there’s a lot of commonality, they’re complementary.
The Bridenstine Era Begins
A report on yesterday’s swearing-in ceremony from Marcia Smith. And another from Eric Berger. He seems to be off to a good start. I think he’ll be one of the best administrators NASA has had. He’ll certainly be refreshing after Charlie “Muslim Outreach” Bolden (Note: That was never actually a thing, but his idiotic interview with Al Jazeera made it hard to defend otherwise good space policy from the Obama administration).
[Update a while later]
Thoughts from Newt Gingrich, including some mild SLS bashing.
“Super” Planets
Would aliens on more massive bodies be trapped there by gravity?
I don’t know, isn’t that why God gave us stages?
Earth is an intelligence test: Small enough that leaving the planet with chemical rockets is possible, but big enough that it’s very very difficult. https://t.co/ofpo0k26xA pic.twitter.com/44w1AzVsFX
— Stephen Fleming (@StephenFleming) April 23, 2018
BFR
It’s not really news; I thought that Gwynne said they’d be doing this last fall, but it’s official. It will be built at the Port of Los Angeles.
[Update a while later]
A TED talk from Gwynne. About twenty minutes, but worth a listen.
The New Commercial Space Bill
Brian Weedon analyzes it, on Twitter.
It looks like a significant improvement over the current situation. It’s worth noting that in moving regulation to the Commerce Department, it could set the groundwork for a U.S. Space Guard. There have been times in history in which the Coast Guard was under Commerce.
[Late-morning update]
The Bridenstine era at NASA (finally) begins.
I think he’ll be one of the best administrators in recent history. I should add that Rubio’s (and others’, like Bill Nelson’s) statement that NASA should be run by a “space professional” are historically ignorant. Jim Webb was not a “space professional.”
The Latest Space-Industry Disruption
Speaking of Russia, they appear to have thrown in the towel in their competition with SpaceX. As I told some people in the UK this week, people who think that they need to be in the launch business to be serious players in space are thinking in 20th-century terms. The future lies in figuring out what to do on orbit with cheap launch, orbital assembly, and affordable satellite technology.