Posted by Ray Katz in NASA, current
In today’s New York Times, readers defend NASA against an op-ed charging that the agency is an irresponsible spendthrift.
Perhaps the best line was from Robert Zubrin of the Mas Society. He noted that there were cost overruns for “the Panama Canal, the transcontinental railroad and almost everything else this country has ever done that was hard to do.” Moonwalker Harrison Schmidt also chimed in.
Those great pictures of Saturn we saw from the Cassini spacecraft were brought to us, in part, by Carolyn Porco. She’s the head of NASA’s Cassini imaging team. In the current issue of Wired, she’s got some space policy advice for the next president. She’s never much cared for the shuttle. Porco wants big rockets [...]
Amazing private space companies Looking at various private space companies, only a handful of the new-ish ones have delivered anything impressive. Some are already doing great things: SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, Scaled Composites. Intriguing companies Others are intriguing, but haven’t done much…yet. Think: Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, Bigelow Aerospace. Add to the intriguing list: Reaction Engines [...]
Although Robert McCall never got to space himself (something he passionately hoped to do), some of his artwork did make it there. Stamps he designed were canceled on the lunar surface by the Apollo 15 crew. McCall died February 26. He was 90. His artwork will always be a part of our popular space culture. [...]