Rocketman thinks that a new NASA administrator has been chosen. For what it’s worth (not much, since we don’t know whether he really knows, and we don’t know who it is).

In case you haven’t been checking the web site (graphic link also over to the left), Henry Vanderbilt has updated it with the current list of speakers, and the conference starts a week from today. It’s really the best conference to go to all year if you want to find out what’s going on in the world of private space launch. I’m looking forward to seeing Henry Spencer’s awaited exposition on how we get to orbit from suborbit.

I usually miss the beginning of the conference in the afternoon, still being on the road from LA, partly because Henry has a stock discussion on general orbital mechanics and space access issues, but this will be a new talk, at the request of several people. It is a contentious issue, and it’s one that’s often thrown back at proponents of suborbit (“You need orders of magnitude more energy! It’s a distraction and a waste of time!”). I fully expect Henry to compellingly explain why it’s not, even if some skeptics will remain forever unconvinced (even after we do it).

Oh, and I’m not specifically slated to talk, but Henry has made great efforts to get me to come, so I assume that he’ll want to do something with me (perhaps on the wrap-up panel, if nothing else occurs to me in the interim).

The comments section in this post over at Space Politics has certainly gotten lively, with an ad hominem attack on me (after which Ferris Valyn of all people rises to my defense) and Alan Stern weighing in on his New Horizons program overruns. Not to mention that he clarifies why he left NASA, and takes himself out of the administrator race (not that his name has been floated anywhere other than by some wishful thinkers).