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Bridenstine is a chameleon. When he was a Representative, he said what MAGA wanted to hear. When he wanted be NASA Admimistrator, he said he believed in climate change. When he got the job, he worked with SpaceX to get NASA the most results. When he left to join Viasat, he criticized SpaceX. Now...

This is just for a test. When the actual landing happens, SLS will send Orion to the Moon. That said, I hope this test puts the idea into the right heads: Orion docking with HLS in LEO -> Capsule docking with big spacecraft in LEO -> Dragon docks with Starship and crew goes to Moon. Doubt it...

I once read an article in the Atlantic (I think) that described Apollo 11 as a feat plucked from decades into the future and placed in the age of vacuum tubes, magnetic tapes, and slide rules.

I admit, I didn't want him to take the job. He had no NASA experience, and I wanted to see more of his Polaris Program, far from the mess that was the federal government in spring 2025. After Scott Manley pointed out that he had experience running large organizations, I started to change my...

I guess all the stories of other species being quite taken with our women were true. That's why Spock had a Vulcan father and human mother.

Hopefully, in four years we will be talking about how the rebuilding of Ukraine is going.

It's not about manifest destiny. It's about China being, well, China. See this:

But sovereign launch isn't about market dominance. ULA wasn't competitive in the worldwide launch market, but they helped ensure the US government could launch important payloads on its own terms, not another country's. For the great powers of the world, it makes sense to maintain a certain...

This country is already at risk of falling behind, thanks to people who think they're making it great again. If we let China get ahead, we'd really be a disgusting failure.

More advanced than the SLS, but not the newer American rockets coming online or already present.

That's how Arianespace got its start. The Europeans realized they couldn't rely on America for space access and started making their own rocket company. The current situation is a reminder of why Ariane exists.

I did say in a few years, if all goes well. It's not like I'm expecting Starship to work tomorrow, or that nothing will go wrong in the next few years. And I'm very familiar with "Elon Time".

Starship is in development, so SpaceX will be able to check those three off the list in a few years, if all goes well. Still need the other stuff, of course.

I don't think it's that simple. He created and ran SpaceX since 2002, and it's successful. He bought Tesla early on and it's grown huge. On the other hand, he bought Twitter, a mature and functional company, and almost destroyed it. He also had his grubby paws on the US government (almost 250...

So now Musk is saying what Moon first advocates have been for decades. Tardy to the party, but fine. It's not like SpaceX would be able to ignore the Moon with so many agencies, NASA among them, going there.

We shouldn't try to save every little thing from the Space Age, but I would love to see the ISS preserved in orbit as a museum. It's earned its keep. The oldest space station, the only space station the world had for years, the first multinational space station, testbed for new tech like...

Because of refueling, Starship will be able to send more payload to the moon than the Saturn V. 100 tons vs 45 to 50 for Saturn V.

Great, now I have to say something nice about the French, which makes me even more mad at Musk. Just kidding, I'm loving what France is doing.

I thought it was the SLS that had that problem. I had read about the strobing display solution in an article years back. The article had also mentioned that more complicated solutions had been considered, like using springs to dampen the vibrations felt in the Orion.

They live very well with themselves, having held on to their jobs for all this time, since the SLS keeps them employed. They also sleep well at night, thank you very much. (50% sarcasm)