It’s been an exciting week on the International Space Station. On Monday, it had to dodge an old upper stage that was in danger of colliding with it. Then, yesterday, a reaction-control thruster unexpectedly fired for half a minute, causing a sudden unplanned shift in the facility’s attitude. Fortunately, the system reacted well overall, and … Continue reading Congress Continues To Fiddle With Monster Rockets, While Human Spaceflight Burns→
Jim Hillhouse doesn’t understand any of them: The plan germinating from deep within NASA, and that sees some tentative support within Congress, is to fly one, or both, of the Morpheus and Mighty Eagle landers on the first flight of the Space Launch System in 2017. The reason for this is to begin to answer … Continue reading Orbital Mechanics, Selenology, Economics And Logistics→
…have come home to roost. I’ve started blogging at Open Market. [Evening update] Can I call them, or what? I wrote: It will be interesting to see how those in Congress who have been demanding that NASA build a heavy-lift vehicle for which there is no mission with insufficient funding, while starving Commercial Crew, will … Continue reading Our Space Policy Chickens→
…who are writing open letters to the NASA administrator. Dear Senators Shelby, Boxer, Feinstein, Warner, Chambliss, and Murray: Why are you only calling for competition on one particular component of the SenateSpace Launch System? It is a huge project, estimated to cost many billions of dollars. If the taxpayer would be best served by competing … Continue reading An Open Letter To Certain Senators→
Tea in Space has a press release: June 23, 2011 — For Immediate Release TEA Party in Space (TPIS), a non-partisan organization, today publicly released the TEA Party Space Platform. “This is our response to the vacuum of leadership in Washington, D.C., for America’s national space enterprise,” said Andrew Gasser, President of TPIS. “Whether it’s … Continue reading The Tea Party Platform For Space→
No, of course Atlas Shrugged has nothing to do with life in modern America: Ah, that must be the Anti Dog-Eat-Dog Law, or one of the Fairness Laws, or something, right? The WSJ isn’t sure what law the NLRB is talking about, either. Not only do businesses routinely relocate to find the most advantageous environment … Continue reading Just A Right-Wing Fantasy→
He’ll be starting in a couple minutes. Two topics today, second one a short rant. Eight years ago companies in the industry and Dennis Tito started to get Congress to create a clear regulatory regime for personal human spaceflight. Some vehicles looked like airplanes and some looked like spaceships, and some like using experimental aircraft … Continue reading Jim Muncy On Space Politics→
Congressman Ruppersberger (D-MD) has an op-ed piece in the Baltimore Sun on space policy. Here’s his bottom line: To give up our quest for the moon, Mars and beyond is not what is best for America’s space program. We need a new road map. We must commit to return to the moon through a program … Continue reading An Incoherent Mess→
Henry Vanderbilt has the latest on the space-policy battle in DC: NASA Exploration Funding: The Battle Continues “No man’s life and property are safe while the legislature is in session.” – widely attributed to Mark Twain This is a follow up to our last two Updates, both of them urgent political alerts in the continuing … Continue reading Space Access Update→
I sat in on a Boeing press conference on CST-100 yesterday morning, with several other space reporters, including Andy Pasztor, Ken Chang, Denise Chow, Todd Halvorson, Bill Harwood, and others. I’ll be incorporating some of it into a PM piece that I just wrote, but Pat Brennan at the OC Register has a story this … Continue reading Boeing Is Cutting Metal→