Thomas Matula

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

  The Space Shuttle, like the Great Eastern, was a couple of generations ahead of its time. But just as the Great Eastern found its success laying the Transatlantic Cable, the Shuttle found its success building the ISS....

• Commented on Klaus Heiss

  When names are given to streets in the first lunar city his name should be on a major one so no one forgets it. Condolences to his family....

• Commented on Kepler Co-Investigator Spills The Beans: Lots of Earth-like Planets

  OK, so smaller "Earth size" planets are more common then Gas Giants. Makes sense. And it appears the Solar System, with 4 small planets to one Jupiter size, one Saturn size and two Neptune size shows the Solar System distribution...

• Commented on Newspace 2010

  Keith, Great post and I agree 100%. Well said. Nothing new has come from the SFF since the early 1990's and the New Space they promote is about nothing more then merely creating "New Space contractors" to serve NASA. That...

• Commented on KSC and JSC Really Want a Shuttle

  I like the idea of the USAF Museum in Dayton, it would make it very accessible to the school kids in the Midwest. And they do have a link to USAF history to justify it....

• Commented on California Reps Support White House Space Plan

  This is good as it sounds like they would be more supportive of the Senate bill when it come to conference, or perhaps before....

• Commented on Full Draft Text of House NASA Authorization Legislation

  GREverett, What I am saying is if you want to keep commercial space commercial you keep it away from NASA. NASA's space launch needs are different then for commercial spacelift. And military needs are different from both although it has...

• Commented on Letter: Armstrong, Cernan, and Lovell Support NASA Authorization

  This is good news, especially with Buzz Aldrin doing an op-ed yesterday in support of the Compromise. With Astronauts who were on different sides of President Obama's policy coming out with endorsements of the Compromise may well be the key...

• Commented on Full Draft Text of House NASA Authorization Legislation

  GREverett, The FAA and NASA are separate agencies. Currently the FAA Associate for Space Transportation regulates commercial launches, not NASA. VG's Spaceshiptwo will be licensed by the FAA AST, not NASA. What the House bill threatens to do is set...

• Commented on Full Draft Text of House NASA Authorization Legislation

  GREverett, Do you really want NASA to be involved with the design and certification of private human spacecraft. From page 49 of the House Bill [[[NASA INSIGHT AND OVERSIGHT PROCESSES.— Any company that seeks to provide commercial crew transportation services...

• Commented on Full Draft Text of House NASA Authorization Legislation

  infocat13 The Senate bill requires the HLV to have to evolve to 150MT to LEO. Do you really think that is possible with Side-Mount?...

• Commented on Full Draft Text of House NASA Authorization Legislation

  Having gone through both bills the Senate bill is all around better then the House bill. The only major change I would make to the Senate bill would be to eliminate the prohibition on procurement for commercial crew for FY2011...

• Commented on The Senate NASA Compromise: A Hinge of History?

  GREverett, Shuttle has already been pushed into FY2011 by NASA, so it would be funded by the CR. But again, President Obama appears to have no interest in extending this. Its not one of his core issues....

• Commented on The Senate NASA Compromise: A Hinge of History?

  Frank, A small 6-8 person lifting body like Buzz Aldrin proposed for StarBooster (called Altair...)would be nice, but the sense of the bill seems to be to use Constellation elements as much as possible which means Orion. However it is...

• Commented on The Senate NASA Compromise: A Hinge of History?

  martijn.meijering, [[[It's actually cheaper and faster without the HLV. An uprated commercial crew capsule, an EELV upper stage with an EDS kit and a mission module with its own propulsion (scaled up SM) and you're good to go. You could...

• Commented on The Senate NASA Compromise: A Hinge of History?

  GREverett, President Obama needs to end this as soon as possible if he hopes to have any chance in Florida in 2012. Without Florida there is little hope he will be re-elected. So really President Obama has more motive to...

• Commented on The Senate NASA Compromise: A Hinge of History?

  Martijn.meijering, Yes, "in theory" when you are starting from scratch you may do anything with enough time and money. But in practice it so much easier if you already have a BEO capable Orion and a HLV to start with....

• Commented on The Senate NASA Compromise: A Hinge of History?

  GREverett With all due respects I think the White House is basically done with space at least in terms of this authorization bill. The only real barrier I see left to this is the House where the hard core opponents...

• Commented on The Senate NASA Compromise: A Hinge of History?

  EarthShine, The Saturn family of rockets was started in 1960 while work on the F-1 engines to power it dates to 1955. Neither program had a "destination" to go to when they were started, but both provided the critical foundation...

• Commented on The Senate NASA Compromise: A Hinge of History?

  Frank, Great article. I think one factor is that space exploration, especially human space exploration, reminds folks that we are a nation of pioneers built on frontiers. Frontiers by their very nature require folks to work together to create win-win...

• Commented on White House/ Senate Compromise Reaction

  Also the NY Times headline seems misleading. Under Findings for Sec.301, Paragraph 7 requires NASA to report to Congress withing 120 days progress on defining near term Cis-Lunar missions. Also Sec. 301, Paragraph 1 clearly puts the surface of the...

• Commented on White House/ Senate Compromise Reaction

  I agree with Frank Sietzen, this bill has a lot of good elements in it and should be supported. Its a good compromise with the potential to move HSF beyond LEO, first to the Moon, then beyond....

• Commented on Commercial Space Proponents Respond

  Commercial Guy, IF the industry really needs federal dollars to move forward there are other federal agencies that would serve the purpose better, like the NSF and DoD, without the danger of them micromanaging launch requirements or safety. And also...

• Commented on Commercial Space Proponents Respond

  As a side note, the cartoon the Space Frontier Foundation is using in their press release was originally created to show the unity of the country after 9/11 (its dated 9/14). Do they really think this issue is on the...

• Commented on Commercial Space Proponents Respond

  Actually killing the funding for CruSR would be a blessing for the crewed Suborbital industry since it would allow them to stay focused on the needs of commercial markets. Introducing so much money at this point would create the risk...

• Commented on NASA OIG is Not Pleased With ZeroG

  Hi All, For reference here is the information on the C-9B that NASA uses for its in-house reduced gravity flights. http://jsc-aircraft-ops.jsc.nasa.gov/Reduced_Gravity/C_9B_history.html Note all that the craft, a former Navy jet, is used for other missions then reduced gravity. [[[The aircraft...

• Commented on Work Continues On Cancelled Rocket

  Robert, Although its true presidents do treat Congress as a rubber stamp they are more subtle about it. Again, a speech in January that was proceeded with some "dealing making" talks with key members would have avoided most of the...

• Commented on Work Continues On Cancelled Rocket

  EE Scott, [[[Their intentions are so transparent - they just want to get re-elected so they act like they are fighting for Constellation.]]] That is exactly why, when President Kennedy proposed Apollo he worked with Vice-President Johnson and Administrator Webb,...

• Commented on Zombie Ops in GEO

  Hopefully this is an opportunity to educate the industry on the need for your services. Unfortunately the adoption of innovations in industries are often reactive and rather then proactive. Perhaps its time for a few op-eds to drive the lesson...

• Commented on Senate Opposition to Obama Space Plan On The Increase

  Frank, I agree which is sad that the new policy was rolled out so poorly. The more I think about it, the more I think this entire fight could have been avoided....