Is space more like seafaring or aviation? It started out like the latter, but the former is a better model once we actually get serious about it.
[Update a while later]
Meteor craters, dinosaurs and spacefaring.
Actually, while I do think it’s a federal responsibility to keep an eye out for impactors, it’s not clear that it’s NASA’s job. It’s one of the things we need a Space Guard for.
Jon Goff is encouraged at progress among the suborbitals.
I was remiss in not posting much from the conference, but Clark Lindsey has some thoughts in the aftermath, with a lot of links. My impression? It wasn’t as exciting as last year, when Gwynne Shotwell came and not only gave a speech but answered questions. I think that both SpaceX and XCOR weren’t there in force this year (the latter for the first time, though ably represented by Mark Street) because they’re busy building hardware that will reduce the cost of access to space.
I report on the latest Alan Boyle piece over at Open Market, with a bonus comment from Glenn Reynolds.
Tanja Masson-Zwaan says I don’t know what I’m talking about. No surprise there:
…as I said in the paper, any opinions expressed on this issue, whether Jim Dunstan’s, my own, or that of (for example) Tanja Masson-Zwaan, current president of the International Institute of Space Law, are simply that — opinions, and will remain nothing more than that until the matter is litigated and adjudicated.
We will agree to disagree until that happens.
[Update a few minutes later]
I did find this comment interesting:
Masson-Zwaan acknowledges that the current treaty is not perfect. “More rules are needed,” she said, “but I am also of the opinion that you do not need to create property rights.”
“More rules are needed.” We agree that the treaty is not “perfect” but I’m pretty sure that we’ll have a major disagreement on what we need to do to approach perfection.
Phil Chapman is giving a talk at Space Access on revitalizing the human spaceflight program, and in one of his charts, he just made a pitch for the U.S. Space Guard concept.
[Update a few minutes later]
Is there a Wikipedia editor in the house? The Space Guard article over there is woefully behind the times.
Interesting that they launched on the anniversary of the Gagarin and first Shuttle flight. The joke tweets have started already. “Man, North Korean rockets break up faster than a Kardashian marriage.” “It didn’t crash into the sea — it was a successful attack on Aquaman.”
I’ll bet Hilary Rosen is happy that Twitter has found a new distraction. Except for the combined tweets: “That rocket had the same trajectory as Hilary Rosen’s PR career.
We’re hitting the road in a few minutes. I may check in with my phone, but we should be arriving at the conference (Space Access) mid afternoon. I would note that today is the fifty-first anniversary of the first man in orbit (which will be celebrated at parties tonight, including one at the conference) and the thirty-first of the first Shuttle flight.
Over at Open Market, I write about the recent news that Virgin Galactic has gotten some limited ITAR relief, so now it won’t have to get an export license for every furriner it flies from California or New Mexico.
He checks in in comments:
Howdy everyone. Here’s my current status.
I have since been discharged from the hospital (John “JP” Powell, the founder of JP Aerospace was a great help there and setting travel) and am staying with my brother and his family for a few days in Denver before traveling to Yellowstone to start my usual summer-time job of counting beans. I’ll keep the bandages and immobilizing harness thingie on for somewhere around 3 weeks, then about a month later my arm should be back up to strength. My wonderful summer employer at Yellowstone, Xanterra Parks and Resorts has been very understanding.
The JP Aerospace crew managed to recover the final two payloads (which were also the targets of that ill-fated attempt on Tuesday) last Saturday. So we’re looking good on that side.
Thanks to everyone for their care (and Rand for the blog article). I’m doing well.
Good to hear.