I have a piece up on the subject over at The Weekly Standard.
Category Archives: Space
I Hate This Phrase
No, NASA is not “hitching a ride” from the Russians. “Hitching a ride” implies that we are getting it for free. We are paying for taxi services, and because they are a monopoly provider, we are paying too much. But the problem isn’t buying rides, it’s that we’re paying too much for them, and not purchasing them from American providers. This is something that could be fixed within three years, but the Congress is cutting the funding to do so so that it can build a giant (in both size and cost) unneeded rocket that won’t fly for at least a decade.
[Update a couple minutes later]
I should note that the headline is probably not Ken Chang’s fault — copy editors come up with headlines. But I do think he should have pointed out that the same Dragon capsule that could start delivering cargo to ISS next year could also be delivering crew in the next three or four years.
The Rise Of Newt
Some thoughts. Regardless of his other attributes, he would be the best president ever in terms of space policy, if he could get the congressional porkers under control.
The Problem With Herman Cain
…isn’t just that he is clueless about space policy. After all, he’s clueless about most everything other than 9-9-9. The real problem is that none of the candidates, with one exception, are any better.
Are The Martians Messing With Us?
Phobos-Grunt’s orbit appears to be rising.
The Phobos Mission
Can anything be salved from it, scientifically? Some thoughts from one of the scientists. If we were really a spacefaring nation, we’d have someone on their way to it right now, or soon, to retrieve or fix it.
[Update a while later]
The latest from Emily Lakdawalla. As she says, unless there’s a change in the situation, not much more to report until it comes down, either on its own or with assistance from the ground. I also agree with her that it’s strange that anyone thinks they can predict an entry date at this point.
[Update a few minutes later]
Alan Boyle: “NASA’s Nicholas Johnson tells me @PhobosGrunt isn’t projected to re-enter till next month; too early to be more specific right now.”
That’s right.
The Spirit Of Apollo
…is alive and well. Just not at NASA:
…the legacy of Apollo, at its core, isn’t about big rockets; it’s the boldness of new, game-changing ideas. It’s John Houbolt’s proposal for lunar orbit rendezvous in 1962, an idea that flew so wildly in the face of accepted wisdom that NASA’s uber-engineer Max Faget protested, “Your figures lie!” — before realizing it was the right way to go.
It’s Office of Manned Space Flight chief George Mueller pushing for all-up testing of the Saturn 5, because he knew testing one stage at a time would require too much hardware and too much time, and most important, wouldn’t reduce the risk of failure. All-up testing so horrified members of Wernher von Braun’s rocket team that Mueller basically had to tell them they had no choice.
And it’s George Low’s summer of ’68 realization that with the lunar module seriously delayed, the only chance of staying on schedule was to fly Apollo 8 around the Moon, without a lander. Once again, some resisted; NASA Administrator Jim Webb yelled at his deputy over a transatlantic phone line, “Are you out of your mind?” But once again, the wisdom of the idea won out. Like all of Apollo’s bold moves, it looked from the outside like a Hail Mary pass, but in reality it was a stroke of genius.
Four decades later the challenge is not just to follow Apollo’s trail into deep space, but to do it affordably and sustainably. That’s not going to happen if NASA continues to be run as a jobs program as much as a space program.
As I’ve noted before, today’s NASA would never be able to do Apollo 8. It’s far too risk averse. Of course, back then, space was actually important.
Air Launch
I had lunch with Mitchell Burnside Clapp a few months ago, when he told me about this program. This doesn’t seem true, though:
Today there’s one way to get a satellite into space: launch it from the ground on a booster rocket, which is expensive and can take weeks or months between missions to prepare the launch pad.
What’s Pegasus, chopped liver? Not that we couldn’t stand to get the cost way, down, of course.
Phobos-Grunt
What a name. Anyway, I have an article about it up over at Popular Mechanics.
[Update a while later]
Here’s some more info. According to that piece, it’s dropping in altitude a little over a mile per orbit, but that will accelerate as it gets lower in the coming weeks, if they can’t get it on its way.
[Update a few minutes later]
Emily Lakdawalla has the latest. It’s not looking good, according to sources in Russia.
A Space Guard Discussion
The audio from yesterday’s interview with Jim Bennett is up now.