This looks promising.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
SN8
…has been stacked for flight.
Gordon Woodcock
I just learned that he passed a few days ago. He was both a good and great man, devoted to getting us into space. He was the manager of the Boeing SPS study in the late 70s. I knew him both from L-5 and NSS, and from working with him in the 80s when Boeing and Rockwell teamed on a project.
[Update a while later]
Sorry, link is fixed now.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Well, that was fast. This post is already on the first few links at DuckDuckGo.
My Hillsdale Panel Discussion
I just got an email from a friend who saw it on line, so I went and looked it up. Here it is.
I was originally supposed to lead off, but the moderator rearranged things so I ended up batting clean up, and it ended up well. Sercel told me that he was going to talk about some of the things that I did, but dropped them in the interest of time, so all our talks ended up being complementary. A lot of the audience told me later that the panel discussion (the first time space had ever been a topic at this event) “blew their minds.” It was the first time I’d ever met General Kwast, but he has been talking up my book to many people.
On The Road Again
I took a ride in an airplane today, for the first time since early March. We’re in Kansas City, driving up to Omaha tomorrow for an event where I’m speaking on Friday. Posting may be light.
The Post-Pandemic New Normal
…is looking very authoritarian.
And there is no constitutional exception for pandemics.
“Clean, Limitless Power”
This is interesting. Probably only useful for small devices, but still useful.
Boeing’s Tar Baby
I wonder at what point the company will just pull the plug on Starliner? They’ve been spectacularly unimpressive, Andy Pasztor’s worship aside.
I mean, if Starship goes to orbit before they have their crewed test flight, even NASA has to say, OK, maybe we don’t need a backup from them for Dragon.
Escape From 2020
If it makes you feel any better, next year may be worse.
Perrow writes about how the failure of a complex, highly-coupled system can be catastrophic. I used his book, Normal Accidents, as a source for my book.
Recycling Programs
With city budgets declining, it’s time to rethink them.
It’s time to rethink lots of things, but we don’t usually do it until under duress. The virus has been helpful in that regard in many cases.