gpurcell

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• Commented on Double Standard: Using NASA Twitter Accounts After You Leave (Update)

  An "official NASA Twitter account"? I'm not even sure what that means. AFAIK, Twitter accounts are the property of the individual who established them. Commander Kelly has the right to have a private Twitter account. That right was not constrained...

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

  The Chinese word for America translates directly as "Beautiful Country": Měiguó. I'm certain the choice of music was not an accident, although the message being conveyed is obtuse. Perhaps it is hinting that China is now the equal of America...

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

  It was absolutely obvious at the time that the Obama Administration was never going to allow a shuttle to go to Texas. With luck that decision will have sufficient flaws to allow it to be overturned and an orbiter to...

• Commented on Space Commerce: NASA Changes Its Mind - Again

  Sigh. So NASA decides to cut the legs out from under commercial space to preserve the standing army....

• Commented on James Hansen Arrested For Yelling

  Truly it is shocking that there are questions about how objective he is in assessing scientific evidence....

• Commented on SpaceX Plans To Berth Dragon With ISS on Next Flight

  This is great news--and if successful will be a massive boost to Space-X CC efforts. Going to be darn near impossible to argue against the final few pieces to modify Dragon for crew if the system is shown to work...

• Commented on Being Clear As To Who Actually Cancelled The Shuttle

  There are plenty of people with responsibility for where we stand now, going all the way back to Dan Goldin and his idiotic decision to choose LockMart's X-33 proposal. What is undoubtedly true is that Bush set shuttle retirement in...

• Commented on Last Minute Plea To Not Retire Shuttle Fleet

  "The only reason to retire the Shuttle IMHO is the fact that there never was adequate crew escape. It should have been the reason to never allow it to fly in first place." Absolutely. Fly Shuttle long enough and all...

• Commented on A Bigelow Module on the ISS?

  NASA catches a lot of flack, most of it justified, for poor choices in program design and management. But it is becoming absolutely clear that the choice to get a station up was absolutely right--and critical--to keeping manned spaceflight going...

• Commented on Space Exploration: 10% of the 21st Century Has Been Used Up

  This decade saw the ISS being constructed--and not a moment too soon. If it had not been pretty decently along the path to completion when Columbia disintegrated human space flight in the US would be done. No ISS, no Dragon....

• Commented on Falcon 9 Static Fire Test Successful

  The webcast isn't mission critical; watch it or not, it's being done as a public service by a private company. If it was NASA, of course it would be slicker. There would also be a group of employees within the...

• Commented on What is the Space Shuttle's True Legacy?

  I meant X-33, of course, not the CRV. That was its very own little disaster...could have used it instead of redoing Orion....

• Commented on What is the Space Shuttle's True Legacy?

  Yes, the decision to retire shuttle was the right one. We had the opportunity to retire with some planning or wait until the third fatal accident ended the program abruptly. The main thing we learned (or should have learned) from...

• Commented on Details of Presidential Space Flyby Continue to Emerge

  I'm sorry, Frank, but that's pure revisionism. Let's remember the sequence of events properly, shall we: 1) Commission called. 2) OMB cuts NASA budget significantly BEFORE Commission report which 3) Puts the Commission in a much tighter box on their...

• Commented on Details of Presidential Space Flyby Continue to Emerge

  "It ticks me off when people spread disinformation like that I quoted above. It is so obviously false that it makes me wonder what their motives are. Maybe it is just emotional and they have simply gotten confused and mistaken...

• Commented on Details of Presidential Space Flyby Continue to Emerge

  I've said it once and I will say it again: If it was your long-term plan to end human spaceflight you'd be taking exactly the steps that Obama is taking--kill the existing jobs, delay any direct work on future systems,...