When can we check in to one? An interview with Bigelow Aerospace.
Category Archives: Space
A Declaration Off Space Independence From The Russians
I have an op-ed up at USA Today, blasting Congress on its absurd policies and attitudes toward human spaceflight.
A Space-Socialist Republican
Greg Autry is sort of singing my tune:
If NASA were compelled to “downselect” Commercial Crew to a single vendor, Washington power politics would clearly favor Boeing’s CST-100 capsule, a luxurious spacecraft, that while it has never flown, is on track for some unmanned flights to the ISS in about three years. This leisurely development schedule puts no pressure on SLS. While it is surely coincidently that both the SLS and CST-100 programs are headquartered in Houston, we are lucky to have Messrs. La Branche and Culberson standing between us and the utter chaos of free market competition.
…Frankly, DragonRider could fly to the ISS next month if it were subject to the same expectations of safety as NASA’s Space Shuttle. A truly conservative response to Mr. Rogozin would be to announce that the United States is ready to move a DragonRider launch forward without further testing, send eight Navy Seals to the ISS and “liberate” our space station from Russia’s state capitalist squatters.
Well, I wouldn’t go quite that far. But that’s Greg.
The Speed Of Light
I’d missed this, but apparently Louise Riofrio’s book project met its funding goal. I’ll look forward to seeing it.
Space Access
There’s an update at the Space Access Society, per current events.
Merde Just Got Real
Rogozin is cutting off sales of RD-180s, and threatening to end ISS participation in 2020.
The former is much more concerning than the latter. 2020 is a long way off, and we have time to resolve that one way or the other. But Atlas V is out of business in a couple years if they don’t come up with a solution. Which is bad news for Boeing and Sierra Nevada in terms of commercial crew.
Armadillo
Looks like the little critter’s hibernation is coming to an end on Wednesday. At least that’s what I’m inferring, based on the fact that I just got a request for a Facebook like from Phil Eaton. Here’s the event announcement.
A New Space-Settlement Initiative
…will be announced on FridaySaturday. I’ll probably be there, since I’m speaking the day before.
Death At Sea
…is never very far.
I discuss this in the book. It’s even closer in space.
They’re Not Transporters
They’re replacers.
It’s not a new idea, but it’s an amusing take on it.