Hey, I like space elevators, but if James Miller thinks that this idea will win the 2006 election for Republicans, he’s…well…politically naive.

I can just imagine the Democrat commercials, were they to attempt such a thing. All they’d have to do is show the end of the Simpsons monorail episode, with the giant magnifying glass, the skyscraper made of popsickle sticks, and all of the people riding the escalator to nowhere and falling off the top.

“Millions go without health insurance, our soldiers are dying in Iraq, and the Republicans want to build an elevator to nowhere.”

Sadly, in many ways (as I’ve noted previously), the human spaceflight program has in fact been building a metaphorical elevator to nowhere.

I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but here’s a long piece from ABC News about the prospects for public space travel, and it seems to take it quite seriously.

This should make Mark Whittington happy, seeing as how he likes space races (real or not). The Swedes have plans to colonize space.

At least that’s what the headline says. Makes as much sense as saying that the Chinese have a program to be on the moon before us just because one of their bureaucrats say they have the technology.

Dwayne Day doesn’t believe in “Blackstar”:

it turns out that the atomic-powered bomber never existed, and the plane was never

Want to watch a rocket blow up on the pad, at night (warning: about a hundred-megabyte wmv file)? I’ve never heard so much cursing in such colorful European accents. It happened three and a half years ago at Plesetsk, in Russia. Here’s the story.

[Via Jim Oberg]

A test flight of the X-37 was postponed for snow. There are some beautiful, and rare shots of the phenomenon in the high desert and the Tehachapis over at the Mojave weblog.

I wonder how good the poppies will be this year? So far, it doesn’t look good.

[Via Clark Lindsey]

The news is coming fast from from SpaceX and Musk.

• Keith Cowing told us about Dragon on March 6.
• Alan Boyle asked one of the questions I wanted to ask him, “Do you talk to Jeff Bezos?” Yes occasionally. “Musk … will probably seek outside funding once the company has a few successful launches under its belt.”
• Jon Goff’s supposition that Dragon development has not require more than $100 million founder funding was confirmed with Musk by Boyle

Makes my interview (part 1 and 2) of Dianne Molina, Marketing Manager at SpaceX just the tip of the iceberg.

The news is coming fast from from SpaceX and Musk.

• Keith Cowing told us about Dragon on March 6.
• Alan Boyle asked one of the questions I wanted to ask him, “Do you talk to Jeff Bezos?” Yes occasionally. “Musk … will probably seek outside funding once the company has a few successful launches under its belt.”
• Jon Goff’s supposition that Dragon development has not require more than $100 million founder funding was confirmed with Musk by Boyle

Makes my interview (part 1 and 2) of Dianne Molina, Marketing Manager at SpaceX just the tip of the iceberg.

The news is coming fast from from SpaceX and Musk.

• Keith Cowing told us about Dragon on March 6.
• Alan Boyle asked one of the questions I wanted to ask him, “Do you talk to Jeff Bezos?” Yes occasionally. “Musk … will probably seek outside funding once the company has a few successful launches under its belt.”
• Jon Goff’s supposition that Dragon development has not require more than $100 million founder funding was confirmed with Musk by Boyle

Makes my interview (part 1 and 2) of Dianne Molina, Marketing Manager at SpaceX just the tip of the iceberg.

I’ve got a lot of work to do today, and then I’m heading home on a red eye tonight. In the meantime, lots of interesting stuff over at Clark Lindsey’s place.