Why The Third World Digs The UN

The third world (in this example, Cuba) generally digs the UN.  Why?  It’s a sweet jobs program that makes them feel important. Check out the heart-felt angst and disappointment of Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno Fernandez as relayed by Defense News: "For more than a decade, it [the UN International Conference on Disarmament, of [...]

Soyuz Anomaly Resolution: Well, That Was Quick

Stephen Clark at SpaceFlight  Now tells us the Russians have already run the Soyuz anomaly to ground: In an announcement Monday, the Russian space agency said the investigation into the Soyuz launch failure Aug. 24 was focusing on a malfunction in the rocket’s third stage gas generator. The launch was carrying an automated Progress cargo [...]

An Attempt At Analysis Gone Tragically Awry

As we approach the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, the journalistic drumbeat will build to a deafening crescendo.  While much of this will be mere traditional lookbacks, there will be plenty of contrarian and ‘what-if’ retrospectives as well.  One is an article at Foreign Policy, The Black Hole of 9/11, which can be characterized as… not [...]

Russian Hand-Wave Takes Place of Traditional Anomaly Resolution?

The Russian launch queue must be deep because they’ve cleared the Breeze-M upper stage to return to flight in record time.  Money talks and Russian space needs the dues. From Space News: In a remarkably quick end to a launch failure investigation even by Russian standards, a Russian state board of inquiry on Aug. 30 [...]

The UN and Its Bloomberg Fan-Boys

If you want to know why the Bloomberg editors wrote in favor of the UN yesterday (attempting to point out its strengths, acknowledging several of its weaknesses, and advocating for some limited reform), it was for one reason: the U.S. Congress. Or more specifically, a legislative proposal offered up by Florida representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, in [...]