A long article on the reasons we’re not burning it in reactors, including a lot of comments from Kirk Sorensen.
Blue Origin
…has been working on previously undisclosed Space Act Agreements with NASA on a lunar lander. That would seem to be part of the puzzle of what’s been happening over the past several days.
The Southern Poverty Law(less) Center
It’s a terrible place to work, that does terrible work.
But the media will probably continue to rely on it.
The Space Council Meeting
Bob Zimmerman isn’t optimistic that NASA can break out of the status quo.
Free Inquiry
“Scientists” are horrified that colleges will have to respect free speech.
A Truth Commission
We need one for the Russia collusion set up:
…the most powerful individuals, institutions and interests in America conspired to set up a presidential candidate, and later president-elect, and later still President. Their goal? To defeat him in 2016; should he be elected, to prevent his taking office; and should he take office, to have him removed. And yet it’s precisely these people who accused (and, in many cases, still accuse) Mr. Trump of ‘stealing’ and ‘rigging’ an election, of ‘subverting our democracy.”’This is projection on an unimaginable scale.
Indeed. It also has to dig into the Clinton “investigation,” and see how high the abuse of power and obstruction of justice went.
[Late-afternoon update]
Sorry, broken link is fixed.
Butterfield Stage
When we went to San Diego County last week, we explored some parts of California where we’d never been, even though I’ve lived here for four decades, and it’s not that far. We took a road through the desert from Highway 78 east of Julian south to I-8 at Ocatillo, and we passed by an historical monument for the stage route that ran from St. Louis to San Francisco from 1858 to 1861. It was a 25-day trip, stopping only to change horses and drivers. The monument pointed out that some Mormons had hacked their way through rock to get through the mountains west of Yuma, and then the route had headed north from there to Chino Hills and Los Angeles, then up to San Francisco taking the route of what is now I-5. When we cut across from Perris to I-15 to see the flowers in Riverside County, we ran across more signs for the stage route. Interesting bit of history.
To The Moon, Alice
Mike Pence just gave a speech in Huntsville in which he stated as an administration goal to get back to the moon in not nine years, but in five (I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that this would be at the end of Trump’s second term). And he doesn’t care how it happens, even if it takes commercial rockets. That’s a shot over Dick Shelby’s bow. And he threw a lot of shade at Boeing over SLS.
That will either require a budget increase, or SLS/Orion cancellation. I imagine that if he’s not already doing so, Elon will put people on 24/7 shifts in Boca Chica.
[Update mid-afternoon]
Here‘s the story from Loren Grush.
The Spacesuit Mess
This has been an issue for decades, largely as a result of lack of competition, when NASA stove piped the EMUs to JSC and Hamilton Standard, instead of having more innovation from Vykukal and Webbon at Ames.
The Chicago Way
The charges against Smollett have been dropped. Same with my jaw.
[Update a while later]
[Update mid-afternoon]
“This has never been about justice. It’s been about social justice.”