Someone over there has been noticing the new space industry:

New commercial markets, among them space tourism, have a great potential to become major drivers in space technology development. This study aims at the assessment of the feasibility of European initiatives to address these new markets through the development of crewed space vehicles.

The more the merrier, but given Airbus’ problems and the general bureaucratic issues over there (even worse than NASA, if that can be believed), I’m not as encouraged as some might be. In addition, they’ve even more of a nanny-state mentality than we do here, and they’ll have trouble getting the kind of flexible regulatory environment with regard to passenger safety that we just won from the FAA. Not to mention the fact that they don’t have any natural flight test sites there–they’ll have to go to Africa, Asia or the Middle East to find sufficiently large unpopulated areas.

It looks like we may actually have a Shuttle launch in a couple weeks. The best place to stay on top of this will probably be The Flame Trench, the Florida Today blog.

Keith Cowing seems to think that Stephen Hawking is being inconsistent:

When asked about his thoughts on President Bush’s proposal to put a man on Mars within 10 years, Hawking simply replied: “Stupid.”

This, in the context of the recent story that Dr. Hawking thinks that we must colonize space for our long-term survival.

I don’t see what the problem is. It’s possible to both believe that we should colonize space, and that the current policy is a poor way to do so, for the expenditures being proposed. I can attest to this, because I do in fact believe that.

Keith Cowing seems to think that Stephen Hawking is being inconsistent:

When asked about his thoughts on President Bush’s proposal to put a man on Mars within 10 years, Hawking simply replied: “Stupid.”

This, in the context of the recent story that Dr. Hawking thinks that we must colonize space for our long-term survival.

I don’t see what the problem is. It’s possible to both believe that we should colonize space, and that the current policy is a poor way to do so, for the expenditures being proposed. I can attest to this, because I do in fact believe that.

Keith Cowing seems to think that Stephen Hawking is being inconsistent:

When asked about his thoughts on President Bush’s proposal to put a man on Mars within 10 years, Hawking simply replied: “Stupid.”

This, in the context of the recent story that Dr. Hawking thinks that we must colonize space for our long-term survival.

I don’t see what the problem is. It’s possible to both believe that we should colonize space, and that the current policy is a poor way to do so, for the expenditures being proposed. I can attest to this, because I do in fact believe that.

Over at Volokh’s place. It may not have been as big a kaboom as originally reported. Certainly (on the evidence, thankfully) not an earth-shattering one. Or even a Norway-shattering one.

Mark Whittington has a strange complaint about a Russian space program:

However, like a lot of other Russian schemes, it seems to me to depend on getting a hold of a lot of other peoples’ money.

In what way does that differentiate it from “NASA schemes”?

A meteorite struck Norway a couple days ago, releasing many kilotons of energy–equivalent to the Hiroshima bomb in explosive power.

Fortunately it was out in the boonies. If it had hit a major city it would have killed many thousands of people, and if it had struck in the ocean it could have generated a nasty tsunami. And we continue to do very little to defend ourselves from them.

We were lucky this time, but we shouldn’t continue to count on luck. The sooner we become a truly spacefaring country and planet (and NASA’s current plans do little to advance us in that direction), the sooner we’ll be able to manage these things.

NASA hasn’t completely given up on propellant depots. At least, not all of it.

NASA hasn’t completely given up on propellant depots. At least, not all of it.