17 thoughts on “Will America Go To Space Again?”

  1. “But America has no viable plan to return to space anytime soon, and that’s both a tragedy and a blow to our nation’s security. We no longer command the highest ground around earth, and it’s fair to doubt whether we ever will slip the surly bonds of gravity, apathy, debt and politics again.”

    It would be nice if people who felt this way also wanted to do something about the situation like more funding for NASA or realizing that the fastest way to end the gap is to unleash the ingenuity of the private sector. And maybe Bryan Preston does, I don’t know.

    He is sort of right though when he says we don’t have a viable plan, this is true in terms of having a plan for what we want to do in space.

  2. having a plan for what we want to do in space

    This made me imagine if America just made an announcement that they were going to recognize private property claims by any human using the reasonable terms of a settlement charter.

    Suddenly there is quiet in the debate followed by an uproar from every nation saying they too will recognize individual private property claims by possession.

    Every country on the planet would soon be sponsoring some kind of space settlement program.

  3. If we’re depending on private space flight, we’re now far back in second place behind the Russians.

    Once Dragon lands, it will have surpassed the Progress-M.

  6. People are whining when James Cameron is about to ironically participate in the creation of an actual Weyland-Yutani coropration next tuesday.

  7. I’m sorry for being out of the loop, but could someone please explain “and hopefully in a couple weeks” to me? A link would be fine.

    @M Puckett: Likewise, an explanation or link about James Cameron, please? 🙂

    2. SpaceX has a planned ISS flyby on April 30 with the possibly of docking if NASA gives the final green light. (My understanding)

      Bing “SpaceX dragon april”

    3. James Cameron is part of the group of billionaires about to announce a big space venture that will raise GDP. The theory is that the plan is to capture/mine asteroids. This would make the new company similar to “The Company” (Weyland-Yutani) from the Alien franchise, and James Cameron directected the 2nd film.

      1. I hope Cameron plans on backing Rand’s proposal on Space Property Rights; otherwise the US (or whatever country Cameron decides to use for launches) can just claim the returned minerals.

  8. Is NASA still insisting on incredibly high safety/reliability standards for absolutely all launches?

    I’ve said this before, and I’m sure I’m not the only one: Necessary reliability standards are different for different payloads. High-value cargoes (comsats and humans for example) need much higher reliability levels than do low-value items like structural beams and big tanks of consumables. Admitting that would go a very long way towards making space access cheaper and easier. After all, more reliable means more expensive.

    But as the real purpose of NASA has nothing to do with space access and everything to do with handing out the pork…

    1. Is NASA still insisting on incredibly high safety/reliability standards for absolutely all launches?
      Yeah, standards that they have never bothered to meet and have proven useless in practice ( ahem, Need Another Seven Astronauts ? )

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