Two years from today, it will have been half a century since the launch of Sputnik and the beginning of the old space age. Sadly, rather than initiate a new one, NASA seems determined to prolong the old one.

Clark Lindsey points out that, while there may be many good arguments against NASA’s human spaceflight program, the notion that we can’t afford it is ludicrous.

It’s really tragic that the debate is so simple minded. There seems little point in debating whether or not NASA should continue to spend money on manned spaceflight–that seems to be inevitable, for reasons of inertia, perceived prestige, and (most importantly) pork. So, as Clark points out, if we could accept that as a given, it would be nice to have an intelligent discussion about how NASA spends the money that they seem inevitably to be given. Unfortunately, that debate is driven largely by pork as well.

[Update at 8:50 AM EDT]

Jeff Foust has an article about media reaction over at The Space Review this morning.

[Late afternoon update]

There’s an interesting discussion in comments at this post by Jeff Foust at Space Politics, including comments on the existence of lunar water by Paul Spudis.

The Washington Post has an editorial against the Vision for Space Exploration in general, and Mike Griffin’s implementation plans in particular. As usual, there are unstated assumptions built in:

…we believe that the needs of NASA — and the country — can, at this point, be better served by continuing and expanding robotic exploration.

But what are those needs? They don’t say. They think they know what they are, and assume that everyone agrees with them. But I can’t think of any needs of mine that are met by sending robots to other planets. NASA obviously has some need to do so, because they do so, but clearly that doesn’t satisfy the sum total of their needs either.

Once again, we have clueless pundits making policy pronouncements when we haven’t had a national discussion or debate about what the purpose is of having a national space program and policy. Until that happens, it will continue to be driven by the needs for pork in certain congressional districts.

On 9/27 Tierney’s column in the New York Times (subscription required; the cheapest option is get home delivery and go on permanent vacation hold) again picked up the alt.space agenda of colonization. His advice, “If officials hope to get money for NASA’s new program of manned exploration, I suggest they go to Capitol Hill with a two-word sales pitch: gray goo.”

I second the sentiment that civilization protects and heals itself, but a rich planet can afford a stylish colony just in case the unthinkable happens.

Thomas James investigates and dissects the moonbat space agenda.

[Late morning update]

A commenter asks what a “moonbat” is. Short answer is a leftist idiotarian. Here’s a picture of the subspecies barking moonbat, but google the word and you’ll come up with plenty of examples and more images.

Dan Wiener wants to use space elevators to prevent hurricanes.

And if we could get them to lance volcanoes, Jonah Goldberg would probably get behind the project, too.

…and about a hundred million more to go. Liftport had a successful space elevator climber test.

Thomas McCabe fires a broadside at Bob Zubrin, with an article about the irrelevance of the Martian frontier.

Robin Snelson reports on the “losers” of the X-Prize competition. It’s a good survey of what’s going on in the suborbital world right now, and some of them could still end up being winners.

Also at today’s issue of The Space Review, Taylor Dinerman wonders whether NASA will renege on its launch deal with the Air Force (my money’s on “yes”). I think the piece is mistitled. The question isn’t whether NASA can keep up its end of the deal, but whether it will.

Also, Jeff Foust has a movie review from the premiere of Tom Hanks’ Magnificent Desolation.

Someone over at Free Republic (see comment #11) had an amusing comment on the space elevator concept, which brings up a serious issue:

So this elevator “would crawl up a single cable into space over several days.” How would people be able to not start up conversations for that long? Would they be allowed to make eye contact or would they have to look up at the ceiling? What if there’s a pretty girl on the elevator? And would they pipe in Muzak? These are the things that would have to be worked out.

For this reason, and perhaps safety reasons, even if elevators are built, they may be used primarily for bulk cargo, rather than passengers. Given my acrophobia, I know that I personally wouldn’t want to ride one–I don’t even like elevators in medium-size buildings, and you couldn’t get me into a glass one of more than a story or two on a bet.

I still suspect that there will be a market for reliable space transports to get people quickly to and from LEO. From there, cheap propellants made possible by use of extraterrestrial resources (and perhaps the elevator for more sophisticated equipment) will open up the other “half of the way to anywhere.”