Ralphy

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• Commented on NASA Announces Next SpaceX Dragon Mission to ISS

  I just wish Noofcsq would stop his name calling and character assignments such as "childish", etc. He even gave a "grade C" to a message I wrote. WTF, over? He needs to cease and desist his preening arrogance thinking he...

• Commented on Neil Tyson: Misquoted or Missing The Point?

  You need to go back and review Nasa's budget. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA I also wonder about your $5 billion or less figure to close the "gap". What assumption is that based on? It seems to me the evidence points to the...

• Commented on New SLS NRA Ready for Release

  Surely the depiction of the size of the rocket in the artist rendering is incorrect? The mobile launch tower is 335 ft tall from the platform deck. I realize the rocket will be big but certainly it won't be taller...

• Commented on MSL Is On Its Way To Mars

  The Curiosity Atlas V launch used a second stage Centaur which uses the venerable RL-10 engine(s) developed by P&W in the late 1950s. Not Russian. also usd in the launch were four solid rocket boosters. Not to take anything away...

• Commented on ESA Contact With Phobos-Grunt - Off and On and Off

  "b. Make use of all available ground station resources such as USN, NASA DSN, NASA GN, ESA etc from the beginning and plan for coverage. See MSL." Hi, my name is Peggy and you have 1000 long distance anytime minutes...

• Commented on Medvedev: Punishment for Space Failures Will Not Include Firing Squads

  Stalin did send people to be executed by firing squad for failure to achieve government program goals. But that was back suring the 30's and 40's. Modern day Russia seems to be yearning for a "strong leader" nationalism and I...

• Commented on SpaceX Launch Site Updates

  Sorta off topic but when the F1 was being fdeveloped at Huntsille, Al, my high school was about 13 miles away. We were having a student assembly in the gym when the F1 kicked off for what seemed like a...

• Commented on Phobos-Grunt Mission Threatened

  (and to go on a related tangent - I wish people would stop trashing the James Webb telescope - Hubble cost 4-6 billion + ESA costs in 1999 dollars and with Shuttle servicing costs factored in and in today's dollars...

• Commented on Phobos-Grunt Mission Threatened

  "running on past glories.."? Hardly. 1. We have a current mission to Pluto and beyond. 2. We have a new space capsule the Orion being developed with its first flight test scheduled in 2014. 3. We have a brand new...

• Commented on Phobos-Grunt Mission Threatened

  The Russians have had a great planetaary probe history with Venus and with the Moon, the Lunakhod(sp?). So there is no doubt about their ability. However, Mars has a special curse for practically all space programs, not just the Russians....

• Commented on What Would Wernher Do? What DID He Do?

  "..hung up on inventing or perfecting new technology on everything..."? Maybe because we are bettering mankind through our funding of NASA? Maybe so people can have better lives? Maybe a future based on the technology needed to conquer space or...

• Commented on WSJ. Magazine Honors Elon Musk

  I don't think Boeing and Lockmart plan on getting out of the space business. However, if SpaceX is successful in their future launches, there is no doubt it will place a huge competitive factor into the launch business. This will...

• Commented on Did China Hack U.S. Satellites? (NASA Update)

  They don't have to know the commands. All they have to do is to interfere with it....

• Commented on Bolden's Plan for Webb

  It would be hard to over estimate the impact astronomy makes on school children. Hubble is the number one science project in America and every school child in America practically knows about it. I think Hubble is even more popular...

• Commented on NASA Funded Astronomer Wins Nobel Prize

  Here is what another scientist has to say about it. http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2011/10/an-insiders-account-of-the-nobel-prize-winning-dark-energy-discovery/ "Credit too must go to the National Science Foundation and NASA for supporting this project through their facilities of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope....

• Commented on Video: J-2X Rocket Engine Test

  If wiki is to be believed, NASA has retained only 14 to 16 SSMEs for the SLS program. So they are either going to have to build more or start a human rated program for the RS-68. Or build a...

• Commented on Video: China Uses "America The Beautiful" on Their Space Station Propaganda

  "Yes, that's why it was such an insult. He demanded access to every facility, making it clear that he was only interested in getting information and not in improving collaboration." I remind you that the Chinese were given complete tours...

• Commented on Video: China Uses "America The Beautiful" on Their Space Station Propaganda

  1. IIRC, Griffin refused at the conference due to the limited accessibility that was being offered by the Chinese. 2. The Chinese have a problem in that their economy is export driven, a lot of which is to the US....

• Commented on Houston Takes Another Shot at New York Over Shuttle Exhibit

  I don't think the Air force should have anything to do with the shuttle after the Air Force's disgraceful abandonment of the shuttle in the middle of the program. Period. End of story....

• Commented on SpaceX Unveils Fully Reusable Falcon 9 Plans

  Actually it will be NASA who will provide the answers to the science fiction that is described by the video. These answers will come from the current Mars exploration program. That program has already bumped up against the maximum load...

• Commented on SpaceX Unveils Fully Reusable Falcon 9 Plans

  Good thing the video used music from the sci-fi rock band Muse (Uprising) because that is what the video is, science fiction. But I did enjoy it. Very entertaining....

• Commented on SpaceX Is Building the "Grasshopper" RLV

  Laziness of its people? More Tea Party codswallop. I won't even bother refuting this unsubstantiated asertion. And the last time I checked Richard Branson is a British national. He's here for a reason other than to lead our nation from...

• Commented on NASA Exploration Ideas - With Added China Bashing (Update)

  Chips are also engineered in Israel and India. A lot of engineering work is being farmed out of the US. And if the Taiwanese know how to do it, so do the Chinese. In my opinion Taiwan is completely compromised....

• Commented on NASA Exploration Ideas - With Added China Bashing (Update)

  Chris Wilson: Last year China had over a $273 billion trade surplus with the US. And its been over $200 billion/yr for a number of years. See: http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html Not only that, China has an avaricious copying and pirating of technology...

• Commented on NASA Exploration Ideas - With Added China Bashing (Update)

  I agree that the Chinese graphic is needlessly antagonistic. There is no doubt however, that the Chinese think that space is their destiny too and they are out to prove it on their own time table. I think competition from...

• Commented on Hutchison/Nelson: Undermining America's Manned Space Program

  This is unbelievable. People are writing about the Falcon Heavy like it already exists or something. It doesn't even have a tested second stage engine yet (with dual pyrophoric igniters no less). It's all on paper. At least NASA's J-2X...

• Commented on Apollo 18 Review: Good Fun. Go See It.

  Uh, pay no attention to that Saturn V rocket behind the curtain....

• Commented on Sudden Self-doubt in Russia

  Jim Oberg follows the Russian space program closely. He is somewhat optimistic that the ISS won't have to be abandoned. He thinks the Russians are pretty good rocketeers and they will fix the problem fairly quickly....

• Commented on Hutchison et al Wants NASA's SLS Design - Now

  The last I checked there is no Falcon "Heavy" launch rocket either....

• Commented on Dear NASA Folks: Show Up For Work, Please

  Rocketman you have my sympathy. It's the pits to have worked on the mightiest space vehicle ever built and then see it abandoned. That's just gotta be a ball buster. Please accept my thanks for your work and I hope...