…is bright, with the end of the Shuttle.
Category Archives: Space
The Space Studies Institute
…is under new management. They want to reenergize it, and start to push the technologies we need to actually develop space. If you still want to contribute and get the deduction for 2011, you have two more days to do it. It’s a worthier cause than ever.
Ballooning Is Not Spaceflight
Jeff Foust has to explain this to The New Scientist.
Another Stratolaunch Story
…at The Economist.
This is the first time that I’ve seen the aircraft called a “Stratolaunch.” I wonder if the correspondent knows something we don’t, or is just making a false inference? Also, I’m a little surprised that the editors don’t know the difference between a hanger and a hangar. Unless it’s a British spelling.
What Are The Chances?
A piece of the Meridian satellite hit a street named after cosmonauts. But this is the troubling part:
The loss of the Meridian satellite caps a disastrous 12 months for Russia that has already seen it lose three navigation satellites, an advanced military satellite, a telecommunications satellite, a probe for Mars as well as the Progress.
“This again shows that the (Russian space) industry is in crisis,” admitted Vladimir Popovkin, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, in comments broadcast on state television. “It is deeply unpleasant.”
Acknowledging that the jobs of the Roscosmos leadership were at risk, he added: “I think it is possible that the organisational conclusions will be quite severe, right up to including myself.”
I don’t think that this is a problem that will be solved by changing out personnel. It’s just rearranging deck chairs.
Newt’s “Zany” Space Policy
I have some questions for Mitt Romney over at PJMedia. By the way, today is the forty-third anniversary of Apollo 8’s circuit of the moon, when we won the space race.
Does Earth Have More Than One Moon?
Maybe, but only temporary ones.
Another Soyuz Failure
And it was (again) in the third stage, but it doesn’t seem to be common with the failure a few weeks ago. There is one common cause, though — it is a product of the Russian space program, which seems to be having ongoing problems, and Congress continues to fiddle with SLS while it burns, while underfunding the only program that can eliminate our dependence on it.
[UPdate late morning]
A combustion-chamber burn through? If so, was this a manufacturing, or processing problem?
3-D Printers
…are going mainstream. An interesting survey at Computer World. As I’ve noted previously, this is a key technology for space development.
Chris Kraft Speaks
It’s time for NASA (and Congress) to get real:
So come on NASA, wake up! Take the lid off and turn loose the human resources you already have in place. Most of these bright people came to NASA excited about the future, about going back to the Moon to stay and becoming a part of what could be another renaissance in space.
Building a great big rocket is not a necessary expenditure at this time. In fact, the budget that will be consumed by this big rocket will prevent NASA from any meaningful human exploration for at least the next decade and probably beyond. We don’t have to march in place while we wait for the powers that be to cancel it. Let’s be innovative; let’s wake up the sleeping giant and have at returning to the Moon right now.
Unfortunately, NASA isn’t the problem.