The usual suspects want to end the learning period for commercial spaceflight.
As George points out, it is not obvious that making people wear pressure suits doesn’t add more hazards than it reduces. We don’t make everyone on an airliner wear a parachute. We minimize the possibility that they’ll need one. Just design to vehicle to have a low probability of unexpectedly depressurizing. We know how to do this much better today than we did in the sixties.
…or not to declassify? That is the question. An interesting article on space weapons and deterrence.
This video about the competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin is…interesting. The music is a nice touch.
It’s interesting to read this essay that I wrote on space policy just after the first flight of SpaceShipOne and see how it’s held up. Things haven’t happened as quickly as I had hoped, and the government policy has remained awful with respect to NASA human spaceflight, but I think we’re finally on the verge of seeing things happen.
Is it finally less than thirty years away? It doesn’t say what the fuel is, but I assume it’s deuterium. I wonder if the concept can be adapted for space propulsion?
Yes, it does need a serious investigation.
[Update a while later]
And then there’s the disastrous suit program.
Sad to see the IG indulging in the sunk-cost fallacy.
[Bumped]
I haven’t seen it yet, but this interview with Elon by Tim Dodd comes highly recommended.
[Friday-afternoon update]
A BBC article on the mating of SH and Starship, temporarily creating the largest rocket ever built, with a nice infographic.
[Bumped]
[Saturday-afternoon update]
Part 2 has been posted.
[Bumped again]
Why the engine is four years late.
I’m surprised that Bob Smith still has a job.
George Dvorsky is not impressed.
I wonder how many times Starliner will end up flying, if and when they get it operational? It can’t compete with SpaceX on price, especially when Starship starts flying.