Elon is still having manufacturing problems.
I frankly don’t care. I wish he’d just focus on space.
Groundhog Day
The movie, at once funny and profound, has become a classic at a quarter of a century.
Falcon Heavy
SpaceX’s plans, from Falcon 1 to Falcon 5, to Dragonlab, and perhaps now this, tend to outpace their accomplishments. And that’s a good thing.
[Update a few minutes later]
A preview of the flight.
Only pad 39A is outfitted for crew flights, which are expected to start later this year (an ambitious timeline, according to the Government Accountability Office). Should the Falcon Heavy damage 39A, how will that affect NASA’s commercial crew program, which has been waiting to launch astronauts from American soil since 2011? It’s a fair question, and you can bet NASA officials will be watching this demo flight with clenched teeth.
Maybe, but with the successful static fire, I don’t think it should be as big a concern.
The Memo
Here it is.
This gross abuse of power comes as no surprise to anyone who was actually observing and reporting on the Obama administration for eight years. #IRS
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) February 2, 2018
[Update a few minutes later]
And here are the key findings.
[Late-night update]
This is worse than Watergate.
I’ve been saying for years that Barack Obama got away with things that Nixon could only dream of. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. And we’re only finding out because despite all their machinations, their candidate lost. If she’d won, it would have been corrupt business as usual.
[Saturday-morning update]
Why did the Democrats lie so baldly about the memo?
Because they’d reached the point at which it was the only, last resort.
Columbia Anniversary
It’s been fifteen years. Challenger was the beginning of the end of the Shuttle program, less than five years after the first flight. Columbia doomed it, though it continued to fly for eight more years. But the decision to end it led to the much more hopeful future we have now, with new commercial vehicles finally demonstrating real reusability, and competing with each other to drive down costs.
Here are my immediate thoughts at the time. Click on follow-up posts for a lot more.
[Update a few minutes later]
Glenn Reynolds: We just entered a golden age of space exploration. Why all the pessimism?
More importantly, we’re finally entering an age of not merely exploration, but development and ultimately settlement.
[Afternoon update]
In rereading what I wrote then, I’m surprised at how prescient it was and how well it held up. Including the foretelling of the book that was to come a decade later.
[Update a few minutes later]
Note my comment there at the time:
Who has an operational solution that’s any better than NASA’s?
Who’s been funded to provide one?
The fact that NASA hasn’t done better does not imply that it cannot be done better. NASA operates under significant political constraints.
Note that fifteen years later (and the two people doing this had started two years earlier), that problem seems to have been solved.
The NASA Safety Bureaucracy
Bob Zimmerman has some useful thoughts on how it continues to hold it back.
And yes, I did see the launch, from Jetty Park, but I didn’t see them fail to expend it out to sea. I’m sure that Loren Thompson will declare it another SpaceX failure tomorrow, and now a hazard to shipping lanes.
On The Road Again
Heading to Florida in the morning for the mundane, non-landing Falcon 9 launch on Tuesday (though recent wind forecasts make me suspect it will slip to Wednesday), then down to south Florida to deal with another house we want to sell. Then back up to the Cape on Monday for what I hope is a Tuesday Falcon Heavy launch (which will be historic). From there, to DC on Tuesday night. I’ll be checking in from the road, but be good in comments.
The Lancet
It’s catching up on the nutrition science:
High carbohydrate intake was associated with higher risk of total mortality, whereas total fat and individual types of fat were related to lower total mortality. Total fat and types of fat were not associated with cardiovascular disease, myocardial infarction, or cardiovascular disease mortality, whereas saturated fat had an inverse association with stroke. Global dietary guidelines should be reconsidered in light of these findings.
It’s a epidemiological study, but it matches most recent research.
Don’t Know Much About The Constitution
No, Congress can’t prevent Trump from firing Mueller. I think firing Mueller would be a bad idea, but if I were Trump, I would refuse to be interviewed, and if I were subpoenaed by a grand jury, I’d ignore it.
The Tax Bill
No, sorry, blue states, you can’t fix it.
This may be one of the most consequential things of Trump’s presidency. So far, anyway.