EarthShine

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• Commented on NASA Announces Next SpaceX Dragon Mission to ISS

  Keep in mind that the faster Elon plows through those COTS milestones, the more of is cash he saves; thus the push for this flight scenario. If gosh forbid something goes wrong, the mishap board will no doubt conclude 'profit...

• Commented on NASA Announces Next SpaceX Dragon Mission to ISS

  A docking flight now saves Elon money. The faster he moves thru the Cots milestone the less of his money he spends. If there is a mishap or accident here, a contributing factor will be profit driven schedule pressure. Schedule...

• Commented on COTS Faces Reality

  Steve, I'd be happy to wake you up, but I think you are better off in dream land, as what is going on in 'waking land' is far worse than your nightmares! Imagine how our Congress critters are behaving with...

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

  The US was fearful of being 'behind' the Russians from a technology point of view. To address those fears, we needed to show the world we were ahead of the Ruskies. Kennedy made a declaration, Congress and the American public...

• Commented on NASA PAO Wants You To Know That Jobs Have Been Saved

  All Federal Agencies PAO's were probably told by the White House to put these kinds of words in their press releases. This is consistent with Executive Orders banning all NASA SWAG stuff. You can tell it's election time in DC....

• Commented on Local TV Station Skewers GRC on Remodeling and Travel Costs

  There might be a policy that when a new Center Director is appointed, he/she gets the opportunity to remodel the Center Director suite. Anyone know?...

• Commented on Paying for Webb Overruns and Delays

  Does anyone have the manifest for NASA SMD for the next decade? Pretty slim pick'in's I bet...

• Commented on Former Astronauts Make A Case For Commercial Crew

  Commercial Space: Good idea. And more money for it, as the letter seeks, means less money for some other program at NASA. NASA is not going to get a plus up while the republic spirals down towards anarchy. So, more...

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

  "We cannot sustain a program where the cheapest planetary missions are $700M (i.e. Discovery + Launcher)" Earth Science missions, those that are directed as part of the decadal survey, are near or over $700M , and a few that Obama...

• Commented on Apollo on Steroids Redux: Big Rockets Are The Only Answer

  Given the state of the US economy for decades to come, and the NASA history of post Shuttle rocket developments, it is very likely SLS will end prematurely, or at best complete revamped. Yet again....

• Commented on SLS: Its All About Jobs, Mr. President

  Messrs Mayors: "While I am happy that we now have a mission for SLS..." Did I miss something? What mission?...

• Commented on Huntsville's Last Stand?

  Yes...

• Commented on Commercial Crew Hearing This Morning

  The history of our republic is filled with failed government initiatives and programs that have been marked by political shenanigans. The HSF Program, commercial crew included of course, is now falling victim to this dynamic. We are witnessing the end...

• Commented on Bolden's Plan for Webb

  NASA, or any aerospace contractor, does not know how to estimate the cost of something like JWST, or any mega-billion Flag ship mission. NASA does not know how to manage such a mission either. Too big and too long a...

• Commented on Florida's Sneaky Business Tactics

  Having been through the launch processes at both Wallops and KSC, I'd take WFF any day of the week. WFF, and by extension, it's commercial collaborators, know how to do things cheaper, and quicker, and are just as technical bright...

• Commented on Planetary Scientists Mobilize to Contact Congress Over Webb Costs

  You have to figure Dr. Weiler saw this coming and decided after many years of saying he'd retire, that the time to do so was now. Who wants to deal with this mess in SMD....

• Commented on NASA Study: Why SpaceX Can Build A Rocket Cheaper Than NASA

  NASA has to spread the money around. Contractors get their lobbyist to have Congress direct how NASA does business. And if as many NASA Centers aren't involved in something as they could be, then local politicians pick up the phone,...

• Commented on Florida is Getting Greedy About Human Space Flight

  Steve, Indeed, WFF requires a dog leg to get anywhere, which will drive down mass to orbit. However, the WFF culture is very ingenious and has learned how to do small inexpensive programs - something they will carry over to...

• Commented on Florida is Getting Greedy About Human Space Flight

  If it came down to a competition for launch services, for small and medium lift ELV's, WFF would win hands down. Anyone who works in the world of flight projects knows that KSC adds unreasonable costs to a projects LV...

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

  The Country is bankrupt. This presentation puts forth an idea that will allow HSF to move forward. Call it Apollo-Lite. Makes sense given the world we live in today....

• Commented on Found Tatooine, We Have

  Some pretty amazing discoveries for 1/10th the price of JWST!!!...

• Commented on Will The Webb Money Sponge Drain Funds From The Rest of NASA?

  If NASA gets $511M less, or thereabouts, and JWST gets nearly $200M more, then the rest of the agency will need to make up nearly $700M. Wow. Can't wait to see how that unfolds....

• Commented on Soyuz Launch Dates Announced

  NASA should hire the Russians Mishap Board, because they work a lot faster than the Americans!...

• Commented on NASA's Internal SLS Cost Scenarios (Full Document)

  Keith. Well yes, there is no "SBU" label on it, as there should be for an SBU document. And I see no problem in posting it then. I'm just wondering why this wasn't labeled SBU given the sensitivity of this...

• Commented on NASA's Internal SLS Cost Scenarios (Full Document)

  I'm sure a document like this is categorized as 'Sensitive But Unclassified', or SBU in NASA parlance. As such, per SBU requirements, it doesn't get emailed around w/o a pki email enabled account. And the paper version must have an...

• Commented on NASA CTO Bobby Braun Is Leaving NASA

  I'm guessing his reach exceeded NASA's grasp.... frustration with not being able to create what he wanted....and a future of every declining budgets.....oh, and he'll probably get more money and more perks at a University....

• Commented on Another Earth?

  Finally a destination/purpose for NASA HSF Program! And with the level of funding expecting to continually decline, there is plenty of time to work out the details of getting to Earth 2!...

• Commented on Webb: Who Cares What It Costs - Don't Bother Us - Just Send Money

  Not sure the best way to divide $4.5B dollars, but, consider that, w/ medium LV's, an Explorer mission is probably around $380M ish. So about, 2.5 Explorer mission per Billion. New Frontiers is $650M a pop, but those missions typically...

• Commented on More Sour Grapes From Mike Griffin

  There is no fundamental reason, that garners enough support, that is wide and deep, from the American public, for the existence of a sustained HSF program. What we are seeing, and have seen since post Apollo, is a HSF program...

• Commented on Robbing Human Space Flight To Bail Out Webb

  I seem to remember around the 2006 time frame, that Constellation/Mike Griffin raided science. Programs were hit delaying missions. Perhaps my memory is off.... ...so if the firewalls went up, it's only be recently. ...and Scientist have long memories. ..and...