Remembering the USS Gregory today. After action at Iwo Jima and in the Bonin Islands, she was hit and put out of action for the rest of the war by a Japanese suicide plane.
The stakes for this week's Starship launch are high. The US commercial space industry is depending on lower launch costs and higher capacity. NASA’s lunar ambitions, to a great degree, hinge on its success. And the stakes are highest of all for SpaceX.
https://t.co/JuBTjtdbpH
It’s interesting to read critiques of the Moon base proposal, which seems like the smart path forward and could fit within NASA’s budget. The gist I’m hearing from critics is that this Isaacman priority is happy talk, will all fade away, and not happen. Then you realize these were the same people who:
- Said Isaacman wouldn’t be renominated
- Said he would was a political amateur
- Said he couldn’t build a coalition to cancel EUS and put SLS on a path toward sunset
-Said he was an Elon puppet (who has subsequently prioritized getting Blue Origin moving on HLS due to Starship delays)
- Said he would never get Congress, which called it a “national priority,” to go along with canceling Gateway
- Said he would never actually cancel Gateway
These people are now saying Isaacman can’t get NASA and its contractors to execute on a plan that has administration and Congressional support. The reality is, from a policy and political standpoint, NASA is in a better place now than it has been for years. If the Moon Base fails that’s on NASA and private industry, not stupid policy. And believe me, I’ve seen a lot of terrible, pie-in-the-sky space policy over the decades. #JourneyToMars
It’s a new era. I’m not sure everyone realizes this, but Isaacman and his team have eyes wide open to a lot of the major challenges facing NASA and they’re trying to fix them. They’re working long days. Weekends. It’s inspiring to see our government work like this, especially in an era when so much seems broken. I don’t know what will happen. Maybe this Moon base all will fade away. But I do know that NASA’s chance for success in the next couple of decades is a lot higher today than it has been for a long, long time. What we were doing was decidedly not working. This has a chance.
This really is an enormous gift to astronomy. Also, if Schmidt's team succeeds in building a Hubble replacement for hundreds of millions of dollars in a few years, it will completely change space science (for the better).
https://t.co/IfbS0nettw
Late change in our annual rankings.
"That is, ULA’s leader is leaving a company that largely subsists on national defense launch contracts to go be a national defense contract rainmaker at its direct competitor. From which ULA buys its rocket engines."
https://t.co/wJelXz2GKl
I spoke with Blue Origin's CEO about the company's goals for next year. To start with, "well above" a dozen New Glenn launches.
https://t.co/Jh0h9Yghd4
Major news. For the first time in 53 years NASA has a rocket that is fully stacked in the VAB that will transport people around the moon. The last time was Apollo 17. I remember the moon landings when I was a teenager and the failure of NASA to deliver following Apollo was a great let down.