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• Commented on Progress 38P Docks With ISS

  Dream on! Even if SpaceX does that 5-10 years from now--the Russians will have raised the price (which btw is closer to $56M!) to $150M per seat in 2013! And, another little fact most don't know, the US pays that...

• Commented on Draft NASA HLV BAA Released

  RC, how do "we know" shuttle extension isn't happening? And, actually, although I personally think SD HLV lift could be made to "be adequate" for BEO missions, there are many who say even it does not provide for the real...

• Commented on An Editorial That Is NOT Written By A Moon Walker

  I'm also an engineer in Houston and have probably been one here since before "James" was born! I am just happy I don't know him and he doesn't work with or for me, since his naivete (not to mention ignorance)...

• Commented on Moving Ahead With the ISS National Lab

  Good point Earthshine--but the REAL showstopper (and why ISS extension to 2020 is a farce) is that after Shuttle is retired, the vaunted "access to ISS" is only for small experiments and payloads--AND, there is virtually NO down payload capability--yeah,...

• Commented on Presidential Space Visit Update

  Not only can someone fly on the Orion-lite CRV but (here's the clever part of the New Plan) it may go up (unmanned) on an EELV and/or a Falcon-9 or whatever (with a little re-design might even go in a...

• Commented on Presidential Space Visit Update

  Speaking of You Tube---here's an apropos video song to the Constellation situation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILj28Lvm47Q The lyrics are below the screen. Yeah, I know, it shows pix of ISS not CxP but mox nix!...

• Commented on Bigelow Is Looking For a Few Good Astronauts

  "I have always heard positive comments about Bigelow.' Well, sorry, Chuck, then you haven't talked to MANY who worked (for a while) for him! Not only does he not have a clue---but his management style is, let's just say, "Goldin-like"!!!!...

• Commented on NASA's Most Important Asset, Gerry Griffin, 31 December 1996

  WOW! Those 5 comments (as I write this) by "moonman, Ray, possum, rkoenn, and Carl", along with Jerry G.'s excellent thinly veiled (well-deserved)shot at the Goldin Screw and his sycophants who almost destroyed NASA in the '90's,are the most cogent,...

• Commented on Bolden Responds To Congress over Constellation Actions

  Best check YOUR "facts" before calling the "kettle black", for example: 1)I believe the VASIMR works (Chang-Diaz's) are in Costa Rica not Puerto Rico! (Hopefully it will get a demo on ISS) 2)The Altair was "put on hold" not officially...

• Commented on Bolden Responds To Congress over Constellation Actions

  Here's a little song I've written that I think captures the current mood, around the HSF parts of NASA anyway: Hotel Constellation On a doomed NASA Project, rumors flying anywhere The threat of cancellation rising up in the air Up...

• Commented on Space Shuttle Endeavour Lands

  Another tremendously successful mission accomplished by the LAME-DUCK Shuttle---and now only a few more flights before they put this amazing machine "out to pasture" (not even to stud service!) ! Yes, it's "expensive" but tell me again WHY it's being...

• Commented on Detailed NASA Budget Materials Now Online

  "The T&R budget includes funds needed for assets such as the Mission Control Center, the launch pads, the Vehicle Assembly Building, and the Launch Control Center to prepare these assets for modification, and use for future needs, or transferred to...

• Commented on Public-private Partnership Honeymoon Coming?

  I'm sorry but your naivete' is only exceeded by your apparent ignorance of the huge challenges of HSF by "commercial" space entrepreneurs! I'm not a defender of Constellation, either, but I have been in the HSF business probbaly longer than...

• Commented on Mike Griffin's ESAS Architecture is Dead

  Wow! I thought I was the most cynical old critic of NASA but Pawn (slightly) out does me! He's right on about the current NASA--its inevitable decline into the bureaucratic federal government mire is obvious and just about complete! A...

• Commented on Mike Griffin's ESAS Architecture is Dead

  It would be beyond naive to think this would "solve all of HSF's problems"--but I guarantee it would put us on a better path than the POR, even if realistically it probably means another year or two slip beyond HSF-renewal...

• Commented on Obama Backs New Launcher and Bigger NASA Budget

  Hard to believe--but might have kernels of truth--I hope so! Look for Shelby and Co. to fight it UNLESS the HLV is the Sidemount or Direct and MSFC is assured the lead--which they should be. Also, MAYBE, it means keeping...

• Commented on New Ways to Use Constellation Stuff

  Well, in light of the Augustine Report and Bolden's hesitancy in defining a new path for HSF this has got to be viewed as "encouraging". Assume that use of "current and future human spaceflight architecture" implies that notional missions needing...

• Commented on Backslapping at the Broadmoor

  I agree it's basically an internal, waste-of-money boondoggle but do you really think anybody that's not already a Trekkie or a space nut cares what an over-the-hill actor has to say about actual space and its realities? How many "recruits"...

• Commented on Today's Video: STS-129 Ascent Highlights

  Agree! After watching this flawless video of the most capable vehicle ever built and flown, tell us again how it makes any sense (or cents) to retire it in a year, lay off 2-3K US space workers, take half the...

• Commented on Anti-Space Tourism Defeatism From ESA Alumni

  Hey, you can call them "defeatists" but I prefer the term "realists"! What they say about CHEMICAL propulsion systems is THE REALITY! Until there is a breakthrough (and I wouldn't discount it within, say, 20-30 years) with something like anti-matter,...

• Commented on Is There A 10% Budget Cut In NASA's Future?

  ......while the Houston Chronicle is saying we are getting 4 billion more.(Kori..whoever) Re-read that old (Nov. 5)news--the Senate just restored a few $100M to the Obama NASA request of $4B for Constellation and MSF--not $4B MORE! And that has to...

• Commented on China and U.S. To Cooperate in Space (And On Trains)

  This raises, among other issues, some interesting questions about ITAR. I say give the Chinese ARES-1 data and let THEM solve the Thrust Oscillation problem!(They may already have the solution!) Hey, at least work a deal on ISS and let...

• Commented on STS-129 Launched

  Flying better thab ever---and safer! Tell us again how it makes even political "sense" to retire Shuttle, layoff 2-3K of American space workers, take half of the money the US "saves" and give it to Russian space workers to keep...

• Commented on Congress Falls For Time Magazine's Ares Award Too

  How embarassing this will be to the House Committee and Time Mag (who obviously have no clue as to the speciousness of the demo of Ares-1X as "much ado about nothing--except politics" as Buzz correctly points out!) But, hey, maybe...