…and SpaceShipTwo still hasn’t had a second powered flight.
Just sayin.’
Category Archives: Space
The Irony-Challenged Senator From Florida
I just got an email from someone will remain anonymous, to protect the guilty:
This weekend the Washington Post had this marginally interesting article on the Congressional resistance/support for the asteroid mission.
But buried within is a prizewinning quote from the irony-challenged senior Senator from Florida.
Nelson, the Florida senator who is a key advocate for NASA and the administration’s strategy, criticized the Republicans in the House for overreaching.
“A committee of politicians doesn’t know better than the experts in aerospace and science,” Nelson said.
This from a Senator who personally sponsored legislation forcing NASA to build a shuttle-derived heavy-lift launch vehicle, and when they balked, bullied NASA’s senior management to build that “monster rocket” (his phrase) despite their showing him that it didn’t fit in the budget. And that was before sequestration.
I guess committees of politicians are only experts in designing rockets, not in choosing where to send them.
Apparently.
The Frightening Frontier
Linda Billings (whom I’ve known for thirty years or so) seems to have a problem with space development and settlement. I’d argue with her, if I could figure out just what her objection is. Perhaps there’s a clue in that she thinks that Howard Zinn’s tracts are just great.
Destination Moon
On the set, in 1950.
Evoloterra
Clark Lindsey and his wife performed the ceremony with some friends, and has a review. Our experience has been that people who are not generally into space enjoy it quite a bit, if you can get them to do it.
Reforming NASA
It’s not going to happen this year.
Sadly, he’s probably right. We’re going to waste at least another two to four billion dollars on SLS before it’s canceled.
Forty-Four Years Ago Today
…men first walked on the moon. And this past Tuesday (when we did The Space Show on our ceremony, that I hope everyone performs tonight), was the forty-fourth anniversary of the launch, when the Saturn dropped it first stage into the Atlantic. And they’ve confirmed the find of one of the engines.
The Senate Launch System
The latest analysis of the programmatic disaster to come. With bonus Orion problems.
This is simply insane.
Ilan Ramon
A tragedy, and a miracle.
I hadn’t heard about his son’s death.
Superman
Could he punch someone into space?
My answer is no, without even reading the link. I think that he could throw someone there (though they’d get cooked from the air friction on the way up), and they’d come back down unless they had escape velocity when they got to the top of the atmosphere, because there wouldn’t be an orbital insertion impulse. But if he punched them hard enough to do so, his fist would probably just take their head off. If he did it through their solar plexus, it would probably just go right through. People don’t consider the structural issues associated with superheroes and normal-human interactions with them.
Now Ralph Kramden, on the other hand… But then, he never carried out the threat.