Some Europeans say that’s the only place that Apollo visited.
@Lee_Ars It's hard for people to appreciate the degree to which Apollo copulated things up, in terms of space.
— Apostle To Morons (@Rand_Simberg) July 14, 2016
Category Archives: Space
XCOR
I don’t know what to make of this announcement. Chuck Lauer has been promoting Prestwick for the last couple years, but does this mean that they’ve found the money to restart Lynx development? If so, will they do it in Midland? Or Scotland? How will they reassemble the team?
The Economic Development Of LEO
Yesterday, Deputy NASA Administrator Dava Newman announced with a blog post a new publication by NASA. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but given that one of the authors is Alex McDonald, I expect that it will be very good.
Speaking of which, I’m heading down to San Diego in a few minutes to attend at least the first day of the annual ISS R&D conference. So blogging may be light.
[Update Thursday morning]
I’m back from the conference. Meanwhile, I still haven’t looked at the publication, but Leonard David has.
Skywalker On Trial
He finally faces the Galactic Code of Military Justice.
Molly Macauley
This is terrible; I’m in shock. She was murdered last night, walking her dogs in her upscale Baltimore neighborhood.
I’ve known her for decades. I just saw her in March, at a NASA-sponsored workshop on space safety that she had put together at RFF. The report is due out any day.
In addition to being a wonderful woman, this is a huge loss to the space community; she was one of the few economists really focusing on the economics of space development. My condolences to her other friends, and family.
Back To The Moon
I agree with Eliot Pulham, it shouldn’t be about destinations (though SLS/Orion aren’t much more useful for going back than they are for Mars).
[Update a while later]
Sort of related: John Holdren rewrites history, and Eric Berger sets him straight.
[Update mid-morning]
Here’s a nice editorial from the Orlando Sentinel about the hopeful future in space due to competition between billionaires.
Gingrich
As I just noted on Twitter, if Trump picks him, I’d seriously consider voting for him, not least because he would be a vice president more visionary about space than any in history. More anon.
[Update a while later]
Related non-space thoughts on a Gingrich pick from Jonah Goldberg.
The Apollo Cargo Cult Incarnate
Reading comments on Donald Robertson’s excellent disquisition on SLS in Space News, I don’t think anyone so encapsulates the insanity as Gary Church.
I should note that I found this link via the space-policy section of Reddit, which I’ve added to the blog roll.
Oh, and speaking of insanity on human spaceflight policy, I’d like to fisk this nonsense, but it’s long, and I just don’t have the gumption for it right now. I doubt if many have even read the stupid thing.
Space And Time
Louise Riofrio has a new Kickstarter project to highlight her cosmological theory.
SLS/Orion
Donald Robertson has an op-ed at Space News that reflects many of the themes of my monograph (which, by the way, I have updated with feedback from the past couple days).