There’s a nice long piece at Air & Space about Mojave. I’m still reading it, so I may have comments later.
Category Archives: Space
Space Access ’11
Henry Vanderbilt has the list of speakers up. With the number he has, it’s going to be hard to come up with a schedule. It really needs two tracks, given the time available, but that would entirely change the flavor of the conference. I’m not sure what he wants me to talk about, but likely it will be my ongoing efforts to get Republicans and conservatives to act like it when it comes to space policy.
Now that this stuff is finally taking off (both figuratively and literally,with real hardware), the industry may be outgrowing the conference. I’m sure that Henry can’t be unhappy about that, though it may mean big changes in the future.
Iran Lies About Its Space Program
…and the AP buys it uncritically:
Iran says it has sent the country’s first space capsule that is able to sustain life into orbit as a test for a future mission that may carry a live animal.
The state IRNA news agency says the capsule was carried by a rocket dubbed Kavoshgar-4 – or Explorer-4 in Farsi – some 75 miles (120 kilometers) into orbit.
There is no such thing as a 75-mile orbit. That’s barely into space (the official altitude is a hundred kilometers, or about 63 miles), and there is too much drag to sustain it. If they have enough velocity to get to orbit, they’d also have enough to get to a decent altitude (at least a hundred fifty miles or so). This was probably a suborbit. If there was a launch at all.
I wonder if they bothered to confirm with the JSPOC? Maybe I will.
I Wish Congress Wouldn’t Make NASA Waste So Much Money
So they could afford to do things more like this.
It’s always a little unnerving to me to see them fly through the ring plane. It makes you realize that as striking they are in appearance, the mass density is very slight, and there’s plenty of open space in there. Not that they couldn’t have had a collision, but they haven’t.
OK, I know, even if they weren’t being forced to waste money, they’d still have trouble getting more funding for more planetary missions.
The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming
The latest space policy adventure with the teddy bears. Or dogs. Or whatever they are.
The Chairman Speaks
And it isn’t pretty. Ralph Hall has an absurd space-policy press release at The Hill. Fortunately, almost all of the commenters pile on and point out the absurdity. I’ll probably have a release of my own later today or tomorrow.
The Suborbital Research Market Matures
Jeff Foust has a good write up on the recent suborbital research conference in Orlando.
Vanity Press
I see that Mark Whittington has found a new place to self-publish his ever-illogical ignorance.
Note that the commenters are unremittingly clueless as well.
[Sunday afternoon update]
Just in case anyone ever bothers to read Mark’s web site, he is now (as often, and hilariously stupidly) claiming that I have “leaped the length of my” (imaginary, just like the “Internet Rocketeers Club”) “chain,” once again demonstrating his complete inability to accurately discern human emotions. He also accused me of lying, with zero basis, since I never claimed that he wasn’t being paid. But then, as always, reading comprehension has never been been his strong suit, either.
Cleanup On Aisle Three
I have a troll infesting the blog at Competitive Space. That’s the problem with having a comments section.
Space Isn’t A Jobs Program
That’s the headline of an op-ed I have at the Washington Times (it should be in print on Monday).
Unfortunately, at least for now, or at least in the eyes of Congress, it’s not true.
[Crossposted at Competitive Space]