As I’ve been predicting for a few days, long-time space appropriations committee chair (and ranking member when his party was out of power) and corrupt representative Alan Mollohan is out.
So there is no doubt that there will be a new chair of that subcommittee next year. The only question now is, who? And what will it mean for space policy?
[Wednesday morning update]
Link is fixed now, sorry.
I have some thoughts over at AOL News today on the political uncertainty of the human spaceflight program.
There are two points about this letter from General Lyles to Frank Wolf about NASA’s funding priorities. First, if I were Congressman Wolf, I wouldn’t know what to do with it. It seems pretty vague on actual recommendations:
The burden of proof thus now lies with Congress and NASA to define and to develop a human spaceflight program that does not re-inflict damage on the breadth of NASA’s activities and that serves the nation well. It is possible to do this.
If you don’t think that such a program exists now, it would be helpful it if were a little more specific about in what way it’s deficient. If it’s possible to make it so, couldn’t the general have provided a little guidance? It’s not clear exactly what the source of his unhappiness is, other than that he thinks that manned space is now “under-resourced.” What does that mean? Just send more money?
The other interesting thing about the letter is that he sent it to Frank Wolf, the ranking member, rather than Alan Mollohan, the chairman (who may lose his primary tomorrow). Is this a sign, like David Obey’s resignation, that he expects Wolf to be committee chairman next year?
Langley’s Doris Hamill has some useful thoughts over at The Space Review about NASA’s challenge in changing its culture (and subcultures) for the new policy direction.
Thoughts on the new policy from Alex Gimarc, over at the American Thinker.
Looks like it’s been around since January, but Alan Wasser draws my attention to Colin Doughan’s Space Business Blog, where he has an interview with Alan on space property rights.
The latest issue is out, with links galore.
V’ger is starting to go mad:
The first hint of a problem came on April 22, when engineers first spotted the data pattern change. Since then, they’ve been working to fix the glitch and began sending commands back to Voyager 2 on April 30.
Because Voyager 2 is so far from Earth, it takes 13 hours for a message to reach the spacecraft and another 13 hours for responses to come back to NASA’s Deep Space Network of listening antennas around the world.
I hate when that happens.
You know, the essay I wrote at The New Atlantis last summer has been up for many months now, and I have never seen anyone critique it, with the exception of an idiotic attempt by Mark Whittington. I’ve received nothing but praise for the most part (which is why I wish more people would read it). The editor has also told me that he received no letters to the editor objecting to it. Is anyone aware of a serious, informed critical review? If there are none, I suspect that one of the reasons why is that I circulated drafts of it among a lot of smart people in the process of writing it.
The reason I ask is because I’m in the process of working up a book proposal, and I want to hone it, if there are any serious and useful issues with it, because a lot of the book will be based on it. And of course, people will be reviewing drafts of the book as well.
[Saturday morning update]
I’m not looking for suggestions for improvement (I have no plans to rewrite it or republish anywhere else). I’m looking for things that people think I actually got wrong.
He has a surprisingly (for him — considering what an Ares koolaid drinker he’s been over the past few years) calm and objective assessment of the state of the new plan. I don’t know whether he’s right or not, but it’s politically plausible, for the near term. If we have to waste a few billion continuing to pretend to develop an Ares-based heavy lifter for a few years to keep the Florida rice bowls full, I can live with that, as long as the orbital technology funding doesn’t get starved for it. I’m still hoping that eventually, and before we sink too much money in that money pit, we’ll realize that we don’t need it. As for lunar landings and bases, there’s also plenty of time to change peoples’ minds on that. Everything planned for the deep-space missions will support it, and all we’ll need is a lander (which Masten and Armadillo, not to mention Blue Origin, are developing prototypes of now). If a fueling depot is established at L-1, that’s a natural time to decide whether to use it as a staging point for lunar surface activities.