Random thoughts on politics, current events, popular culture, and whatever else interests me.
Sunday, May 30, 2021
NASA's Bill Nelson shows how sausage making will take America back to the moon
Bill Nelson, the administrator of NASA, attended a hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies on the subject of the space agency’s fiscal 2022 budget recently. His testimony was a master class on how sausage making is going to take America back to the moon. It also demonstrated the wisdom of once again naming a politician as the chief of NASA.
CEO Elon Musk says SpaceX is building a Raptor rocket engine every 48 hours, disputing claims of a 'bottleneck' for the Artemis moon mission boosters
Saturday, May 29, 2021
Friday, May 28, 2021
Thursday, May 27, 2021
Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
My latest from the Daily Caller Are The Recent UFO Sightings Proof Of Aliens?
And a differnt view from some dude: UFOs Are Definitely Not Aliens
Monday, May 24, 2021
Kendra Horn should not be executive secretary of the National Space Council
Last year, Horn was the principal sponsor of H.R. 5666, a NASA authorization bill that would have gutted the Artemis program, ending commercial partnerships for the Human Landing System and prohibiting a lunar base and the use of lunar resources to sustain astronauts on the lunar surface. Artemis would become a series of Apollo-style sorties designed solely to support a human mission to Mars. Opposition to the bill was so intense and widespread that it did not advance beyond Horn’s subcommittee.
Sunday, May 23, 2021
The day President Kennedy sent America to the moon
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
Newly published Why is America Going Back to the Moon
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
Musk's SpaceX has a competitive advantage over Bezos' Blue Origin
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.
Saturday, May 15, 2021
Friday, May 14, 2021
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
First All-Virtual NewSpace Business Plan Competition, with $5000 prize, won by Venture Ingredients
"Venture Ingredients is developing a closed-system that can process solid human waste into fish meal, which in turn can sustain a variety of food fish that humans generally prefer. This system, while initially designed for space experimentation, can also be expanded to add value in a very lucrative waste processing market right here on earth, adding to human food supplies at the same time."
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Monday, May 10, 2021
Sunday, May 09, 2021
What should NASA do about the Chinese space station?
It says a lot about the regard that the Chinese government has for the safety of others that the core stage of the Long March 5B, which launched the Tianhe module of that country’s planned space station, is due to crash back to Earth in an uncontrolled reentry. The rocket will mostly burn up on reentry, but large pieces could still bombard the Earth. If the spent rocket lands in an inhabited area, we can mark it as yet another crime committed by Beijing against the civilized world.
Saturday, May 08, 2021
Friday, May 07, 2021
Thursday, May 06, 2021
Wednesday, May 05, 2021
Tuesday, May 04, 2021
Monday, May 03, 2021
By choosing SpaceX, NASA proves it is serious about returning to the moon
When NASA really wants to make a statement, it does not kid around. By choosing SpaceX as the sole contractor for the lunar Human Landing System, NASA proclaimed that it is serious about returning astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in about 50 years — and the sooner, the better.
Sunday, May 02, 2021
SpaceX's Elon Musk has become the coolest capitalist of them all
"The real reason that Musk has become the coolest, more controversial capitalist of them all stems from the fact that NASA has made SpaceX a full partner in the Artemis return to the moon program. A lunar lander version of the Starship won sole funding for the Human Landing System (HLS). NASA is forking over $2.9 billion for SpaceX to make two moon landings. The first will be an unpiloted test flight. The second will take the first astronauts to land on the moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972. Unlike Apollo, Artemis has become a true public-private partnership."
Picked up by Real Clear Politics