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 as addressed here and elsewhere.

Apollo–it was to beat the Russians to the Moon and was not a vision for space exploration.  Holding on the stunt-mentality of the Apollo era (“let’s see Ivan try and do that!”) is a stumbling block to doing more–that’s of more value–in space.

Milestones are needed.  Without these, there is little urgency.  Likewise, without them, funding will tend to slide to the right and that means tomorrow never comes.

Great work by Dr. Logsdon!!

New National Space Policy

Forgive the absence.  A note from my mother will be forthcoming.

This is the new national space policy.

Review to follow when my catching up is caught up.

Obama’s Space Policy Review

Amy Klamper, writing for Space News (subscription required) has said President Obama has given his administration until 1 Oct to review the existing U.S. Space Policy, which was issued under the Bush administration in 2006.

Given the tone of the administration in the article, expect any revised space policy to de-emphasize national security space and to emphasize commercial space, cooperation, and “no kidding” issues like mitigating space debris, space situational awareness, and improving the industrial base. Don’t expect any discussion regarding “space weapons,” whatever they are. During the campaign, Obama endorsed a ban on space weapons–that statement has since been removed from the White House web site.

While space policy is interesting, space funding is important.