Random thoughts on politics, current events, popular culture, and whatever else interests me.
Monday, May 24, 2021
Sunday, May 23, 2021
On May 25, 1961, 60 years ago, President John F. Kennedy stood before a joint session of Congress to deliver an address on “Urgent National Needs.” The speech was a laundry list of proposals, including a nuclear rocket called Rover and weather satellites. However, all that most people remember about the speech is the following line:
“First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”
Saturday, May 22, 2021
Friday, May 21, 2021
Thursday, May 20, 2021
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
The moon has held a fascination with Americans ever since President John F. Kennedy threw down the gauntlet and challenged the Soviet Union to a race to land a man on Earth’s neatest neighbor and return him safely to the Earth. 60 years later, a different president of the United States, Donald Trump, proposed that Americans and astronauts from American allies return to the moon. Trump’s Artemis project, unlike previous attempts to return to the moon, looks like it actually may succeed.
Why does American want to return to the moon? Is it science? Is it riches? Is it glory? Or, perhaps, it is a combination of the three. Mark R. Whittington, author of Why is it so Hard to Go Back to the Moon and Children of Apollo, seeks to answer that question in Why is America Going Back to the Moon.
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Monday, May 17, 2021
Sunday, May 16, 2021
SpaceX’s strong competitive advantage over Blue Origin arises from its wealth of flight-proven hardware, including its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets and Dragon spacecraft. It is developing a Starship rocket that promises to revolutionize space travel. Blue Origin has a suborbital rocket called New Shepard, which is about to be operational, and an orbital rocket called New Glenn in development.