Business, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

“Why Doesn’t The Press Report On This?”

19 Comments

Gene Cernan admits that when he testified before Congress, he didn’t know what he didn’t know:

Some, like Charlie Duke and Al Bean, were effusive in their praise of SpaceX and the next generation of space explorers. Al Bean spent 20 minutes writing rough drafts and crafting each word of his message with the SpaceX team in mind.

Then I approached Gene Cernan, and held my breath. I figured it would be a bit more difficult to break from the social proof of his esteemed colleagues. And so he listened. As with every Apollo astronaut who signed this photo, I was able to talk about SpaceX and answer his questions. Gene was interested in who financed SpaceX — what big money interests got it going. I told him that Elon Musk personally financed the company for all of its first $100 million, when no one else would bet on the venture, and he saw it through thick and thin, including the first three launches of the Falcon 1, all of which failed spectacularly. As I told him these stories of heroic entrepreneurship, I could see his mind turning. He found a reconciliation: “I never read any of this in the news. Why doesn’t the press report on this?”

Good question.

[Update early afternoon]

Clark Lindsey mirrors my thoughts:

…it was always clear that Cernan and Armstrong had not done their homework on SpaceX or on NASA’s commercial crew program in general. They didn’t know a lot of rudimentary facts about the CCP, such as the involvement of Boeing and ULA, and had not visited the entrants in the program. It should not have required a perfect mission to the ISS to get them to take the time to learn about SpaceX. Their criticisms of the CCP in the hearings got tremendous press attention and played a role in the underfunding of the CCP and the partial restoration of the Constellation hardware.

It was truly a disservice to the nation. I hope that at least they’ll try to make up for it in the future.

19 thoughts on ““Why Doesn’t The Press Report On This?””

  1. The press is always late to the party. Then they get the history wrong.

    Try reading a news report that you have first hand knowledge and be amazed.

  2. “I never read any of this in the news. Why doesn’t the press report on this?”

    The “space press” reported on all of this extensively. Space.com, Space Politics, Rand’s site, NASA watch, et cetera.

    What is the surprise is that Gene obviously is a headline reader of the big mainstream media and not a regular reader of any space blogs, space news sites, hell not even the NASA site because they reported some of this.

  3. Nonsense. The very first Falcon 1 was in newspapers, and anyone with even a slight interest in spaceflight in general would have read about it. An attitude problem, nothing else.
    A very nice gesture from Jurvetson there, though !

  4. It certainly shows that some people can detach legitimate reservations about Obama commercial space policy from genuine admiration for the achievements of SpaceX. It’s a wonderful tribute,

    1. Mark R. Whittington
      July 11, 2012, 10:49 am | # | Reply

      It certainly shows that some people can detach legitimate reservations about Obama commercial space policy from genuine admiration for the achievements of SpaceX.

      Really, that’s what you gather from this? A far more obvious conclusion is that, prior to his testimony, he knew little about the newspace community in general and SpaceX in particular. He believed the narrative of the establishment aerospace community, of which he had been a part, unquestioningly. He then regurgitated that narrative to an equally uninformed and greedy panel of glorified pork-slurping lawyers.

      1. I can but note that the transcript of Cernan’s testimony and a link to the oped he wrote with Armstrong and Lovell in USA Today that slammed the cancellation of Constellation is still up on his official website. There is nothing there that suggests that he has changed his mind about Obama space policy. I think that some of the Visigoths are making too much of his remarks concerning SpaceX. It is possible to admire what SpaceX has accomplished and still find Obama’s crony capitalist commercial space policy dysfunctional.

        1. I’m not sure what Cernan’s op-ed has to do with anything, other than the fact that it clearly demonstrates exactly what I said before. He has been an unquestioning supporter of the narrative of the establishment aerospace community. Furthermore, if what is being reported is true, it is obvious to all of us here that, at the time of his testimony before Congress, Cernan was not well informed about the commercial entities he was dismissing, and was simply regurgitating the establishment narrative.

          I’m pretty sure that neither I nor anyone else on this site has suggested that somehow Gene Cernan has “seen the light” or been “converted” to a NewSpace booster, and that from now on he will disavow all he’s cherished beliefs (though I’m sure many here hope he will). For a single event to change a person’s worldview so dramatically, it generally needs to be equally dramatic, and maybe even traumatic.

          Based on your insinuation that commenters here are suggesting a Cernan conversion, along with your hostile comments about “Visigoths”, and “crony capitalist” commercialism, it seems to me that you’re simply building up a straw man to knock it down.

        2. Obama’s crony capitalist commercial space policy

          Regardless of how many times you repeat this ignorant idiocy, the program started under George Bush. It is not anyone’s “crony capitalism”; it is simply a smarter way of procuring services than a traditional cost-plus contract. Do you really believe that Boeing is a “crony” of Barack Obama? Really? Do you enjoy making a fool of yourself on the Internet?

          That last was a rhetorical question.

  5. Rand,

    I may be completely wrong here, I state this upfront. However, one of the advantages I thought SpaceX had over NASA was SpaceX’s ability to avoid the press. Particularly, SpaceX’s choice to test Falcon 1 at Kwajalein Atoll. Not much press out there. So when a test launch fails spectacularly, its not news everywhere with space advocate equivalent of Nancy Grace deliberating for months on what caused the event and whether its worth it.

    To me, this is a large part of NASA’s risk aversion. I witnessed it up close with PA-1, which was launched in New Mexico rather than Florida, yet still NASA feared the press if a failure occurred. Failure isn’t option after all. And a spectacular failure in Florida or California is seen by millions.

    So for me, I always thought the lack of initial press coverage of SpaceX and their failures was a benefit. I realize lack of press affects the ability to get VC, but then large VC’s are typically captured through direct press releases that companies control. It’s the small VC’s (and the large number of them) that you are not able to gain as effectively.

    1. And yet CBS/’60 Minutes’ was pretty generous, essentially repeating their earlier SpaceX story during the ISS mission…

  7. Elon at 12:28 in video “I wish they would come and visit”.

    When I first heard him say that my thought was “Why don’t you send them a real invitation?”

    Send Armstrong and Cernan both round trip, first class airline tickets (or send his personal jet), put them up in a fine hotel, invite their wives to come along and show them the Hawthorne facility, fly them down to Texas and show them the facilities there. Personally explain what SpaceX is about and where it’s headed. Doing this would probably be the best public relations dollars Elon ever spent.

    1. Neither Cernan nor Armstrong would take his calls. As for the rest, have you heard the word “bribe”? ’cause that’s how it would have been characterized by his opponents.

  8. “I never read any of this in the news. Why doesn’t the press report on this?”

    You’re a God damned “subject matter expert” testifying before Congress! Why didn’t you make sure you knew? Why didn’t you do your homework?

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