One of the saddest things about the atrocity (not “tragedy” — does no one know the meaning of that word any more?) in Colorado (for me personally, of course, obviously not for the friends and families of those involved) is that it completely derailed any commemoration of what we accomplished forty-three years ago today. But while we have done a segment on The Space Show on the subject this time of year every year for the past half dozen, today was the first time that we did one a) with Margaret Jordan, one of the other authors and b) actually performed the ceremony live on air (or rather, on line). It got a good response, with several callers calling in to say that they were moved in listening to it, and were going to perform it themselves. If so, that’s great, because that’s why we wrote it. Perhaps we should have done it years ago. Anyway, here is the link, and the podcast is available now. You might also want to check out The Space Show blog.
Category Archives: Space
Tom Brosz
…has written a book
Good News For Those Worried About China In Space
If this is true, they’re wasting their money on a heavy lifter.
The Apollo Anniverary
Bill Simon and I will be on The Space Show tomorrow morning/afternoon (depending on your time zone — it’s at 0930 PDT until 1100 PDT) to discuss our ceremony to commemorate the first landing on the moon (tomorrow will be the 43rd anniversary). As a special feature, Margaret Jordan, a friend of three decades and one of the authors, will also be on for the first time. This will be a special event, as she, Bill and I haven’t talked together in many years, not because we don’t like each other, but because that’s just how life works.
Listen in. Among other things, we’ll perform the ceremony on Internet radio.
To Fly!
The IMAX movie is still going strong after thirty-six years. I first saw it at the Air and Space Museum thirty-four years ago.
A Preview Of The New Space Age
A report on commercial progress with the Lunar X-Prize, over at Popular Mechanics.
Humans Versus Robots
The pointless debate continues. And of course, it continues to carry its implicit and unshared assumption with it (e.g., that the purpose of this is “science.”).
Brian’s Latest Lunacy
Does anyone think that this insanely bigoted spew is worth responding to?
[Afternoon update]
By the way, for those wondering, this is a perfect example of how he got himself banned from the comments section here (one of the very few people that’s happened to). It must be terrible to go around filled with that much rage and hate.
Space Mining Legal Issues
Leonard David has a report on the recent discussion in Golden.
“Why Doesn’t The Press Report On This?”
Gene Cernan admits that when he testified before Congress, he didn’t know what he didn’t know:
Some, like Charlie Duke and Al Bean, were effusive in their praise of SpaceX and the next generation of space explorers. Al Bean spent 20 minutes writing rough drafts and crafting each word of his message with the SpaceX team in mind.
Then I approached Gene Cernan, and held my breath. I figured it would be a bit more difficult to break from the social proof of his esteemed colleagues. And so he listened. As with every Apollo astronaut who signed this photo, I was able to talk about SpaceX and answer his questions. Gene was interested in who financed SpaceX — what big money interests got it going. I told him that Elon Musk personally financed the company for all of its first $100 million, when no one else would bet on the venture, and he saw it through thick and thin, including the first three launches of the Falcon 1, all of which failed spectacularly. As I told him these stories of heroic entrepreneurship, I could see his mind turning. He found a reconciliation: “I never read any of this in the news. Why doesn’t the press report on this?”
Good question.
[Update early afternoon]
Clark Lindsey mirrors my thoughts:
…it was always clear that Cernan and Armstrong had not done their homework on SpaceX or on NASA’s commercial crew program in general. They didn’t know a lot of rudimentary facts about the CCP, such as the involvement of Boeing and ULA, and had not visited the entrants in the program. It should not have required a perfect mission to the ISS to get them to take the time to learn about SpaceX. Their criticisms of the CCP in the hearings got tremendous press attention and played a role in the underfunding of the CCP and the partial restoration of the Constellation hardware.
It was truly a disservice to the nation. I hope that at least they’ll try to make up for it in the future.