Space population plunges by 54%

Today is the anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13, a mission that failed to land on the moon, but is hailed for the ingenious problem-solving abilities of NASA. When there was an explosion aboard a spaceship headed to the moon, we managed to bring the three astronauts home alive. Difficult projects demand superior capabilities [...]

An unmanned space plane, originally developed by NASA but now operated by the Air Force, will make a test flight April 19th. The X37B is about a quarter of the size of the shuttle. When the project was canceled by NASA in 2004, to concentrate on the (now apparently doomed) Constellation project, it found a [...]

NASA is an organization with talented managers and an impressive track record from its birth in the 1950s to today. It pioneered new technologies, send probes and people to distant—seemingly unreachable—places.

But it needs to have clear goals, and a budget to match. Congress and NASA legion of critics have left the space agency in a foggy mess, with ever changing demands. So, NASA seems to have taken the best available tactic: coming up with a modular space launcher, and letting Congress make up its mind which version it wants to fund.

Of course, even this isn’t good enough for some people. Because by putting up orbiting fuel depots and using existing satellite launchers, NASA could do manned space exploration cheaper. This works great if human life doesn’t matter to you—because existing rockets like Delta and Atlas are much, much more dangerous than NASA’s designs for future manned launchers.