I don’t see any details, but apparently he died late last week. I hadn’t seen him in a couple decades, but I know that he’d been ill for quite some time. I imagine many younger people in the space movement haven’t heard of him, but he was one of the luminaries back in the seventies, creating the potential economic driver for O’Neill colonies. Anyway, John Mankins seems to have taken up the baton from him for space solar power.
Category Archives: Space
The Dragon Unveiling
I was there. I’ve had a cold for a few days, so it got a little grueling toward the end (not much in the way of seating for four hours) but it was pretty impressive, as you’ve probable seen from pictures and video. Alan Boyle was there, and has already posted the story.
[Friday-morning update]
Megan Geuss was there last night too. Here‘s her report.
Suspended Animation
Thoughts from Clark Lindsey on the latest developments.
Safety Is Not The Highest Priority In Human Spaceflight
I’ve started an on-line petition. I hope that the astronaut office will weigh in.
[Update a while later]
Due to some unhappiness about having to deal with Facebook (and a politically problematic petition site), I’ve set up a new one at the web site for the book. So please sign over there, and pass the word.
The Dragon 2 Unveil
It’s happening at 6 PM PDT in Hawthorne on Thursday. I (along no doubt with a lot of other media) just got an invite.
Virgin Galactic’s Public Relations
Doug Messier has an open letter to them.
I have a bad feeling about this. But I don’t think that the fate of the industry rides on either their success, or failure.
A Space Cherry Tree
Of course, as they note, this is interesting, but not really a scientific result, since there is no control. It could be something big, or a fluke.
Ending Our Dependence On Moscow
Defense News has a hit and a miss. First, the hit:
…And after SpaceX unveils the manned version of its previously unmanned Dragon spacecraft this week, NASA should accelerate development of the project
Yes, though unlike me, they don’t actually propose how to do that.
Here’s the miss, and it’s a big one:
and revive the Space Launch System to put super heavy payloads into orbit.
What does “revive” the SLS mean? I thought it was ahead of schedule? That’s what its proponents keep telling me.
And what “super heavy payloads” are there that need to be put into orbit? What does this have to do with dependence on the Russians? This recommendation seems to be a complete non sequitur.
Isolated In Space
Who is? The Russians, or NASA?
Buzz
I gave him a copy of the book last weekend at ISDC. I just got an email telling me that at his own book signing in Colorado yesterday, he mentioned it, and that he was reading it.
So I’ve got that going for me.