Category Archives: Space

Business, Education, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

On The Chopping Block

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(My CEI colleague) Iain Murray says that part of a budget deal should be to eliminate the Department of Commerce.

It’s not actually the first one I’d go after (I’d get rid of e.g., Education, Labor and Energy first), but I understand the potential appeal. But it does serve many necessary functions that would have to be redistributed elsewhere. For instance, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) wouldn’t find a comfortable home in the State Department, nor would NOAA or the weather service. Granted, the latter is kind of a mess right now, in terms of not getting needed new satellites up (particularly now that we’re headed into the heart of hurricane season), though it’s not clear whether that’s NOAA’s fault, or NASA’s, which actually manages the development of the satellites. Also, giving over the commercial export list to the State Department could make ITAR even more of a disaster than it already is. It would also raise the issue of finding a new home for the Coast Guard (and the Space Guard, if we ever get one).

There is a reason that Commerce has been around a lot longer than the three agencies I mention above as better targets — if it didn’t exist, we’d probably have to invent it in some form. And unlike education, energy, or labor, we actually do have a Commerce Clause in the Constitution (flawed and overstretched though its interpretation has become).

Political Commentary, Space

Calling My Representative

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I’d like to call my representative and tell her to help fix the NASA appropriation disaster, but I don’t have one, because she resigned a few months ago.

There’s a special election to replace her tomorrow, though, and I want to encourage everyone to vote for Craig Hughey, a libertarian/Tea-Party type who managed to come in second in the free-for-all primary a few weeks ago, which pits him against the long-time LA County political hack (from a long-time family of political hacks), Janice Hahn. It should be a walk-in for her, given the way the district is carved to favor Democrats, but it’s actually a close race, partly because of internecine bitterness from the Democrats who supported Debra Bowen, but who came in third due to nasty attacks by the Hahn campaign. It’s entirely conceivable that Bowen supporters will either sit out the election, or actually vote for Hughey, in the hope that Bowen will get another shot at the seat next year (it’s unclear what redistricting will do, particularly in light of the new, supposedly less partisan plan to do so). Zombie has a lot more detail on the race, and Jim Geraghty has the rundown on the Hahn corruption, including her aiding and abetting LA gang members. On the other hand, she and her supporters may have turned off the black community in LA as well.

It will be very interesting to see the outcome, but as Geraghty notes, the weird circumstances won’t really tell us anything about general Republican prospects next year, even if Hughey pulls it off.

[Update a while later]

Taking a vet’s name in vain?

Business, Political Commentary, Space, Space Science

Space Political Action Alerts

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As a result of the disastrous initial markup of the House appropriation for NASA last week, the Space Access Society, the Space Frontier Foundation, and Tea Party in Space have all put out alerts for everyone to call your Congressman (extra points if your congressman is one of the chairs of the appropriations committee or subcommittee, Hal Rogers or Frank Wolf).

Briefly, to summarize, the top line of the NASA budget has been cut back to pre-2008 levels (no shock, except to those living in denial), but the real problem is where the cuts are, and aren’t. The Webb Telescope was canceled, which was probably necessary given how out of control it was, but Commercial Crew and space technologies were severely chopped back as well, putting off further the day that we will no longer be reliant on the Russians for ISS, and that we can start moving humans beyond LEO. Instead, the Senate Launch System and Orion-by-another-name earmarks were actually increased, though there is still insufficient funds to build them in any timely manner, and no missions described or funded for them. Go follow one or more of the links, where there are useful instructions as to who to call and what to say. And as always in these matters, be firm, but polite. You have until tomorrow to make a difference.

[Update a few minutes later]

One other disastrous cut, though it’s small, is the CRuSR program. It’s only fifteen million, but it could really help jump start the suborbital industry. Given the trivial amount, it can’t really be about the money. I would guess that it’s pressure from the traditional sounding rocket people, who stand to be put out of business by low-cost reusables.

Business, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

It’s Not The End Of American Leadership In Space

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So sayeth Dana Rohrabacher.

[Update mid afternoon]

Jay Barbree has finally noticed that there’s more to the commercial space industry than SpaceX, but he’s still drinking the ATK koolaid:

he key here would be the launch vehicle for Boeing’s CST 100.

Standing by is arguably the world’s most reliable rocket: a U.S.-European vehicle which is an upgraded version of the space shuttle’s solid booster rocket that has flown perfectly 216 times, and France’s Ariane-5 rocket as a second stage that has flown 41 times successfully.

The rocket, called Liberty, is being offered by ATK Space Launch Systems. It’s capable of carrying all crew vehicles in development today.

“Both stages of Liberty were designed for human rating from the beginning,” said ATK Vice President Charlie Precourt, a veteran astronaut and former director of NASA’s flight crew operations. The other rockets haven’t yet gone through the time-consuming process to be certified as safe for flying humans.

Without getting too deep into the details of this nonsense (any discussion containing the phrase “human rating” are almost predestined to be nonsense), he writes this as though Liberty exists in any form other than marketing viewgraphs. Here’s a question I have. Can an Ariane-V even handle the vibration environment on the top of an SRB without major beefing up of the structure?