In reading this article about whether or not there’s money to be made on the moon, I came across this link, with an estimate from about three years ago of the cost of a lunar base.
The numbers seem way high to me, but of course, they’re based on Constellation. But I can never get over the cost estimate for Altair. Twelve billion dollars to develop a lander? How can that possibly be? The only way I can think that they came up with that is to look at the LEM costs in the sixties, and scale them up in both size and current-year dollars. Which is a completely useless way to do it.
On June 21st, 2004, SpaceShipOne made its first journey into space, a test run for the X-Prize-winning flights the following fall. I was there (the top five posts on this page are from Mojave). Jeff Foust has some thoughts on the slower-than-anticipated progress in the industry. Ed Wright and Doug Messier also remember.
So I’m watching the Senate Commerce Committee hearing on commercial space, and seeing Jim Muncy and Laura Montgomery (FAA-AST legal counsel) sitting behind Gerstenmaier as he testifies.
[Update a few minutes later]
Now I’m seeing Alex Saltman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation over Mike Gold’s left shoulder. And Patti Grace Smith is behind Alex’s left shoulder.
[Update a few minutes later]
Now I see Stu Witt of the Mojave Air and Spaceport off Gerst’s left shoulder.
[Update]
Hearing adjourned. We certainly heard a lot of the usual ignorance from the usual suspects. Nelson didn’t know that NASA science missions are FAA licensed.
It isn’t with NASA, or any government. It’s with SpaceX and U.S. private industry. Though it’s amusing that the author actually believes that the SLS will be sending anyone to the moon or asteroids.