I’m happy that he invested in space, I guess, but there is a long history of wealthy people doing that to little effect, because they didn’t understand either the technology or the business, and they either thought they were smarter than everyone else (because, you know they were rich), or listened to the wrong people. The big difference with Elon and Jeff Bezos is that they were technically competent and quick studies.
I’m a little depressed that so many people my age are dropping like flies.
[Update a few minutes later]
I wonder what this means for Stratolaunch? It never made business sense to me. Will it survive without him?
Yes, I heard, but don’t know details. This should be a precipitating event to accelerate Commercial Crew.
[Update Friday morning]
It was an interesting coincidence that this event occurred in conjunction with the ISPCS, where it was discussed by both SpaceX and Boeing, in response to ASAP concerns.
Neither Mulholland nor Reed suggested that development of their commercial crew vehicle could be accelerated much from their current schedules in response to the Soyuz MS-10 failure, adding they would not cut testing needed to ensure their vehicles’ safety.
“We look at it in terms of, ‘Could I work extra shifts or put extra people on it?’” Mulholland said. “It never crossed our mind to think what could you not do, what scope can you reduce.”
“You have to do the same work. You have to do the right work,” Reed said. “The question is whether there’s a way you can compress that schedule. You don’t look at in terms of cutting out work.”
Silly me, I look at it in terms of are we serious about getting Americans into space on American rockets, or are we not?
I wish this was unbelievable, but for Congress, overruns and slips are a feature, rather than a bug. Glad I’m not the Boeing press flack, though. Not enough money in the world to pay me to do that job.
We haven’t all gone insane, but a lot of us seem to be.
I have to say, though, that I’ve been pretty unimpressed with Kelly’s political acument and judgment. He should stick to astronautics. I would also note that the demands of the howling left that he do a struggle session is Maoist.
Rick was one of the earliest NASA astronauts to recognize the value and potential of commercial human spaceflight. RIP to a great and literally inspiring guy. https://t.co/lEFeR4JfMD
IMO, even with erroneous attribution of extreme weather/climate events and projections using climate models that are running too hot and not fit for purpose of projecting 21st century climate change, the IPCC still has not made a strong case for this massive investment to prevent 1.5C warming.