Monday, March 27, 2023

Kathy Lueders is retiring from NASA. Commercial Crew exists largely because of her efforts. She will be missed.
Has the science on NASA’s International Space Station been worth the money?

Thirty years later, one might ask if the science on the ISS has been worth the $100 billion and more that NASA and its international partners have paid for it? Let us leave aside the diplomatic benefits that have allowed several nations to cooperate in space more or less in harmony. The ISS has allowed its partners to garner a vast amount of experience in maintaining human beings in space. With the Commercial Crew program, the space station has enabled the development of private space vehicles such as the SpaceX Crew Dragon.

Sunday, March 19, 2023

How will we know when we win the new space race?

Over 50 years later, another space race has developed between NASA, along with a coalition of nations and private companies, and the People’s Republic of China. But what constitutes a victory in Space Race 2.0? Surely the winner will not just be the side that returns humans to the moon first?

Monday, March 13, 2023

Sunday, March 12, 2023

In defense of space colonies and mining the high frontier

Scientists, business entrepreneurs, tourists and others will live side by side in space colonies. If the term “colony” is too fraught, try “settlement,” “community” or even “village.” Whatever one calls it, space colonization will be to the unalloyed good of all humankind.

Sunday, March 05, 2023

Jimmy Carter’s space policy and the saving of the space shuttle

Carter’s single term in office is not known for any space initiatives. President Kennedy launched America to the moon. President Nixon started the space shuttle program. President Reagan initiated the program that began the International Space Station. After two false starts under American presidents named George Bush, President Trump and now President Biden have sent America and much of the world on a voyage back to the moon and eventually on to Mars under the Artemis Program.

How Gone With The Wind could have been even MORE controversial: Explosive lost script shows bitter fallout between writers and producers over the portrayal of slavery