Wil McCarthy says the moon is too darn big. He has a plan.

Jack Parsons is an interesting character in the history of American rocketry, but it’s a major slight to the memory of Dr. Robert Goddard to call Parsons the father of it.

Via NASA Watch, an interesting article about SETI:

Denounced a decade ago as a misguided effort to find “little green men” and cut off from government funding, SETI, which stands for search for extraterrestrial intelligence, has found a new following among Silicon Valley titans and techies elsewhere who are interested in space. They have infused the institute with money and unconventional technical ideas, bringing a new respect and energy to the organization. Some argue that being cast away by the federal government was the best thing that could have happened to SETI, that it has become stronger and more innovative in the private sector than it ever could have as part of a public bureaucracy.

More of this, please, particularly for human spaceflight.

Via NASA Watch, an interesting article about SETI:

Denounced a decade ago as a misguided effort to find “little green men” and cut off from government funding, SETI, which stands for search for extraterrestrial intelligence, has found a new following among Silicon Valley titans and techies elsewhere who are interested in space. They have infused the institute with money and unconventional technical ideas, bringing a new respect and energy to the organization. Some argue that being cast away by the federal government was the best thing that could have happened to SETI, that it has become stronger and more innovative in the private sector than it ever could have as part of a public bureaucracy.

More of this, please, particularly for human spaceflight.

Via NASA Watch, an interesting article about SETI:

Denounced a decade ago as a misguided effort to find “little green men” and cut off from government funding, SETI, which stands for search for extraterrestrial intelligence, has found a new following among Silicon Valley titans and techies elsewhere who are interested in space. They have infused the institute with money and unconventional technical ideas, bringing a new respect and energy to the organization. Some argue that being cast away by the federal government was the best thing that could have happened to SETI, that it has become stronger and more innovative in the private sector than it ever could have as part of a public bureaucracy.

More of this, please, particularly for human spaceflight.

…that seems to be having problems with dodgy procurement practices. OSC may be in trouble as well.

Orbital said an investigation led by the U.S. attorney’s office in Phoenix appears to be focusing on “contracting procedures” related to “certain U.S. government launch vehicle programs.”

…that seems to be having problems with dodgy procurement practices. OSC may be in trouble as well.

Orbital said an investigation led by the U.S. attorney’s office in Phoenix appears to be focusing on “contracting procedures” related to “certain U.S. government launch vehicle programs.”

…that seems to be having problems with dodgy procurement practices. OSC may be in trouble as well.

Orbital said an investigation led by the U.S. attorney’s office in Phoenix appears to be focusing on “contracting procedures” related to “certain U.S. government launch vehicle programs.”

Here’s a pretty good take on NASA’s current situation by the Economist.

My main complaint comes toward the end, when it seems to lament that this isn’t about science. Who says it should be?

Florida Today makes a rampant speculation, unsupported by anything, apparently, other than the fevered imaginations of its editors:

In case you missed it, NASA’s former chief Sean O’Keefe killed the [Hubble] mission in 2004, citing post-Columbia safety concerns. More likely, that was just a cover story to start redirecting money for the agency’s moon-Mars plans.

No, more likely it was exactly what O’Keefe said, and no evidence has ever been produced to indicate otherwise. It was a dumb decision, and O’Keefe should have stepped down much sooner, because it was quite clear that he no longer had the stomach for the job post-Columbia, but it had nothing to do with the VSE. As Keith Cowing says, if they don’t have any actual basis for this statement, they shouldn’t be making it.