On this busiest shopping day of the year, Alan Boyle has a good roundup of gifts for space geeks.

Jim Oberg says that it’s possible. It’s certainly technically doable, and a cool idea. The big question, I think, is the market at the price that it’s doable for. As they point out, though, it’s certainly within the capability of many governments to do it, if they just want the prestige. I’m not sure that it could be justified scientifically. Unfortunately, the Soyuz capsule is too small to fit someone like this.

[Disclosure: I’ve done some consulting for Constellation Services in the past, and may in the future, but I was previously unaware of this.]

I haven’t (yet) commented on the American Physical Society’s little screed against human exploration, but the membership should be embarrassed over this. Keith Cowing is being threatened with a slander suit (why slander? Why not libel–it was published on his web site?) for criticizing it.

I think that they need to get someone for their public affairs office who knows how to actually deal with the public. Professor Lubell is not as bad as this guy (yet), but he shows promise. And now I suppose he’ll send me a threatening email, too.

Mark Whittington contrasts the President’s space initiative with that of his father. Suffice it to say that the current one has much better prospects for success, or at least lasting beyond his term.

Keith Cowing notices a curious lack of enthusiasm.

Glenn has a piece at his MSNBC site wrapping up last week’s arguments over safety and the coincidental passage of the new launch regulation legislation by the House. It’s a good roundup, but when he writes:

That’s how we took aviation from an expensive and risky activity, mostly the province of governments, to a safe and reliable means of transport.

He’s mistaken. Actually (and fortunately), aviation has never been mostly the province of governments, starting from the beginning with the Wrights. Had it been, we’d probably still be arguing about whether to build National Air Transportation System II (after the necessary technology had been proven out), or whether to just increase the fleet size of the current, dangerous “Air Shuttle” from three to five…

He also says that the legislation passed on Friday afternoon. Actually, it didn’t happen until Saturday.

I know that this proposal by Greg Zsidisin isn’t serious, but it does demonstrate just how deranged some otherwise intelligent people have become at the prospect of Democrats no longer being in power. It’s not particularly clever satire. I think it’s just sad.

And by the way, Greg, perhaps in your conspiratorial dreamworld in which the new Inquisition with corporate sponsorship by Enron and Halliburton will start any day, Tom Delay is a senator, but in this universe, he’s the majority leader of the House.

Things were a little too frenzied in the past few days to actually spend much time analyzing the legislation, but now that the shouting is over, Nathan Horsley has an analysis of the legal effects of the launch legislation passed by the House this weekend. I agree with it, and share his concern that the compromise language inserted in the bill may cause the good people at FAA-AST to be more (and possibly too) concerned about passenger safety, to the detriment of a fledgling industry.

As Nathan says:

Well, shouldn

The House has passed the new regulation bill (HR5382) with the required 2/3rds majority. Alan Boyle (who properly owns this story, with his diligent reporting over the past couple days) has the latest. As he says, now on to the Senate.

[Update at 6 PM EST]

Alan Boyle now has the full story up.

Jeff Foust says that it’s this morning or never. Or, at least, next year.

Keith Cowing has a copy of the letter from Chairman Boehlert to his colleagues, which lays out the issues.