A couple weeks ago Haley Wilt asked me and Eric Berger for suggestions as to what to ask the chairman of the House subcommittee on space for an interview she had scheduled. Here is the result.
Category Archives: Space
Farewell To A Giant, And Dreams Never Realized
Elon And Russia
Putin’s Determination
“The crisis is not merely that Russia is invading Ukraine; it is that Russia is invading Ukraine in particularly reckless, destructive, and catastrophic ways. It is as if Vladimir Putin is an obsessed and abusive lover, determined to destroy what he cannot possess.“
No Matter How Bad You Think It Is
…you can’t keep up with what a programmatic disaster SLS/Orion is.
[Wednesday-afternoon update]
More commentary from Bob Zimmerman.
Mriya
Was the AN-225 destroyed in Ukraine? That was a unique airplane, the Soviet’s equivalent of our Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.
Ukraine And Space
Thoughts on the implications of the invasion, from Bob Zimmerman.
[Friday-morning update]
The repercussions of this for the space industry could be broad and unforeseeable.
It was always a mistake to make ourselves so reliable on Russian/Ukrainian hardware.
[Afternoon update]
Ukrainian invasions have affected our own space policies in the past.
As Jeff notes, if the Russians pull out of ISS, their human spaceflight program wouldn’t have much to do.
[Mid-afternoon update]
Yet.
[Saturday-morning update]
Eric Berger runs through the potential implications for space.
P.J. O’Rourke
RIP. He will be missed.
Little-known fact: He was a big fan of space. He was on the board of The Space Foundation. He never used email, but I sent some stuff to him once via his wife, and he wrote a nice letter thanking me.
[Update late afternoon]
John Podhoretz remembers him.
[Update Wednesday morning]
This kind of thing is why he was a national treasure.
[Monday update]
Matt Labash remembers him, as does Jonathan Last.
[Bumped]
Getting Their Own Ride
By the time Europe could develop its own crew launcher, it would be past obsolete (just as Ariane 6 is). They should be focusing on getting around in space with their own vehicles, not getting there.
[Monday-morning update]
Problem solved! Russia is offering to provide them with rocket independence.
[Bumped]