The Scientific Breakthrough That Could Upend the Abortion Debate
Jeff Bezos just gave a private talk in New York. From utopian space colonies to dissing Elon Musk's Martian dream, here are the most notable things he said

Friday, February 22, 2019

First the moon, now China plans to launch space-based solar power satellite

For anyone who wonders why the Chinese are so anxious to explore the moon, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that China intends to start developing space-based solar power satellites. The Chinese are building the first prototypes now. They plan to deploy small and medium models in the stratosphere between 2021 and 2025. A megawatt-level satellite would be launched in 2030.

Thursday, February 21, 2019

Seen on Twitter: "Imagine telling someone watching that launch (Apollo 17 in December 1972) that the next lunar mission from the Cape would carry an Israeli flag, and be almost half a century in the future."
HOW TED CRUZ, NASA AND SPACEX COULD GET AMERICA BACK TO THE MOON "Senate Space and Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Ted Cruz has promised to write and pass a new NASA authorization bill as well as new commercial space legislation. The NASA bill would allow Cruz to fix a huge problem facing NASA’s efforts to take Americans back to the moon as well as to take advantage of SpaceX’s latest project in South Texas."

Friday, February 15, 2019

SpaceX could disrupt NASA plan to return humans to the moon

However, developments taking place in Boca Chica, Texas might disrupt NASA’s plans for returning to the moon and provide both an opportunity and a politically difficult decision.

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

From the pages of the Daily Caller: HOW THE GREEN NEW DEAL WOULD END AMERICAN SPACE TRAVEL

The so-called Green New Deal is the sort of thing that might have been dreamed up in a college dorm after the bong pipe has been passed around too often. The plan, which was presented as a serious proposal by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her supporters, appeared and suddenly disappeared from the Internet with accusations and recriminations galore. The Heartland Institute has saved the documents from being memory-holed. It does indeed ban beef, cow’s milk, air travel, and the private automobile. It mandates support for people who are unwilling to work and for every building in the country to be retrofitted or rebuilt. It wants a carbon-neutral economy without recourse to nuclear power.

Unknown to most people, the Green New Deal effectively bans space travel. The reason is that rocket launches create harmful emissions, some of which are greenhouse gasses, some of which are harmful in other ways, such as causing damage to the ozone layer. Scientific American has a good rundown of the potential problems rocket exhaust may cause, especially if Elon Musk’s and Jeff Bezos’ dreams of space travel being as common as air travel come to fruition.

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Saturday, February 09, 2019

The archive of my appearance on the Friday 2/8/2019 edition of The Space Show

Friday, February 08, 2019

Moon mission could solidify Israel as Silicon Valley of the Middle East

Recently, an Israeli robotic probe called Beresheet, Hebrew for “In the beginning,” made the first leg of its journey to the moon on a flight from Israel to Florida. Beresheet, if it reaches the moon and fulfills its mission, will be as history changing in its own, small way as the Apollo moon landing.

Just a reminder, I will be on The Space Show podcast today at 12:30 p.m. EST discussing the return to the moon, space policy, recent space politics events, and no doubt a lot of related things. Click here to listen in.

Reading List: My articles in The Hill can be found here and here. Check out my Daily Caller articles here. Also, in the Washington Examiner read NASA wants to go back to the moon the hard way. Also The real reason space aliens haven’t visited Earth

Thursday, February 07, 2019

An award for blatant hypocrisy should go to Rep. Lizzie Fletcher:

Houston's legacy of exploration is best exemplified by the people who have set a course for outer space, to learn more about the universe and our place in it. Today, #NASARemembers, and we honor the sacrifice of those astronauts who lost their lives in this pursuit.

Nice sentiment to be sure, but it contrasts with Out of this World.

Wednesday, February 06, 2019

HOW A KEY HOUSE DEMOCRAT ABANDONED SPACE EXPLORATION IN FAVOR OF CLIMATE CHANGE

When news broke that Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas) had received a seat on the House Science Committee, it raised eyebrows in the scientific and aerospace communities, which were still smarting from her attacks on science. Would she use her position to mend fences with supporters of space science, offended by her campaign’s open mocking of her opponent, John Culberson’s support for the Europa Clipper mission?

The real reason space aliens haven’t visited Earth

The problem with socialism, as the late, great Margaret Thatcher pointed out, is that, eventually, one runs out of other people’s money. We already are witnessing end-stage socialism in North Korea, where a mad tyrant lords it over a starving, parasite-ridden population, and in Venezuela, which has become a dystopia resembling that of “The Road Warrior” where the people are currently in open revolt over the lack of food, water, and medicine wrought by the Maduro regime. Imagine then, a disaster as has afflicted those two countries happening on a planetary scale?

It may well be that, if human civilization avoids the siren call of Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and their ilk and expands into space, future explorers will find the ruins of former civilizations which adopted some form of socialism among the stars, where survivors live lives that are nasty, brutish, and short. These alien societies will not have been destroyed by war or environmental catastrophe, but by bad public policy in pursuit of free stuff, heedless of the cost or consequences.

Monday, February 04, 2019

I'm going to be on the Space Show podcast this Friday, Feb 8, 2019, 12:30 to until about 2 or 2:30 PM EST to talk about things space, including the return to the moon.