What’s missing from the bold plans for human spaceflight?

The answer to the Washington Post headline is, of course, money. Whatever the problem(s), to include NASA’s, chances are good it can be fixed with time and money. However, an essential task of leadership is establishing priorities.  After all, when everything is priority one, nothing is priority one.  This is because there is always more [...]

Why Do We Have A Space Station?

Cooling pump problems have served to bring the space station, a $100 billion space effort, into the public’s view once again.  Danger and failure often seem to have that effect. Why do we have a space station? I keep forgetting.  Maybe through some sort of Freudian stream of consciousness posting I can figure things out. [...]

No need for manned spaceflight, says astronomer royal Martin Rees

Yes, it’s true: Martin Rees is not a fan of manned space. Why does he feel this way?  Because unmanned space is what actually creates value for human beings and provides otherwise unavailable information to humanity. His thoughts bring to mind a Milton Friedman story: At one of our dinners, Milton recalled traveling to an Asian [...]

Caption Contest

Buzz Aldrin’s Way Ahead

Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin supports many of the principles the administration has called for regarding NASA and he’s given some thought on how to move the nation forward in space. Mr. Aldrin identifies a number of important ideas, but IMHO the three most important goals he calls for include 1) an increased presence and use [...]

The Best Blog Entry Evah?

John Logsdon, writing at Space News, has a profound and truly excellent guest blog.  The crux: Apollo was great, but can we put it behind us? Among the highlights: The administration’s incoherent defense of NASA’s current vision…whatever it is.  You could go on to say this has been exasperated most recently by the Administrator’s comments [...]

Soyuz Docks With ISS

This is the link which won’t show per normal methods…sigh. Interesting to be sure, but where’s the beef?! Tell me again just what we get from the ISS?  It was supposed to be a one decade, $8 billion effort.  It turned into a $100 billion 25-year effort. The idea of putzing around in LEO is [...]

Mars500 Mission

Humble Pie sang of 30 days in the hole.  Six ‘terrastronauts’ (I made that up in case you like it) are looking at 500 days of lock-up in a Moscow-based simulated spacecraft. The purpose is to serve as a sort of pathfinder-effort culminating in a manned mission to Mars.  It’s all sponsored by the European [...]

NASA Finds New Criticism and Skepticism Before Congress

There is a reason Congress is incredulous.  It’s because the disconnect between what the President says NASA is going to do and what the President’s FY2011 budget funds is a yawning chasm. There’s some sort of ‘watch what we fund and not what we say’ lesson here. Still, I feel commercial manned space is the [...]

Confusion and Conflict Bode Poorly For NASA

Space News reports U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski is troubled by the approach to the Constellation termination. Aviation Week reports that NASA and Congress are inching towards compromise. Between the two reports, I’ll offer that NASA is now just along for the ride. They’re stuck between having to deal with the administration’s massive redirect while concurrently having [...]