Invoking China to keep the shuttle alive

Today’s Wall Street Journal has a commentary by Richard D. Fisher, Jr., a senior fellow with the International Assessment and Strategy Center, discussing claims of Chinese work on a military space plane of some kind and its implications for US national security and space policy. (Those without a WSJ.com subscription can read Fisher’s essay on […]

The natives are getting restless

NASA is used to being criticized in editorials from major national newspapers (New York Times, Washington Post) or papers in areas where the agency has a major presence (Florida Today, Houston Chronicle). When smaller newspapers in areas with no significant NASA presence start taking aim at the agency, though, that’s a sign that things are […]

Nature measures up the candidates

This week’s issue of the science journal Nature reviews the various candidates’ views on science issues, including space, summarized in a single table or a text version. These capsule summaries don’t provide many new insights for readers here, although you may learn that Democratic candidate Joe Biden “wants to make China a full partner in […]

Obama clarifies his space policy

The Barack Obama campaign has been quiet about its space policy plans since the release of its education policy in November, which called for delaying the Constellation program for five years to help pay for its education initiatives. I contacted the campaign last month to seek clarification and heard nothing back. However, a reader in […]

“Breaking the classic NASA mold”

Wall Street Journal columnist Holman W. Jenkins Jr. wants to change the way NASA does business. In an essay in today’s issue [subscription may be required], Jenkins thinks NASA would do well to follow the lead of Robert Bigelow, who has offered $760 million for eight flights to his planned orbital habitats, a guarantee of […]