Both claims are nonsense. This is not what the incoming administration is planning. I’ll probably have a piece up debunking it, with transition team input, tomorrow at Pajamas Media.

I read the Bloomberg article. I think the most interesting thing about it is (1) its claim that military space assets would be used to bridge the gap between the Space Shuttle and Constellation, and (2) that the effort is directed against China. If anything, it seems like Russia, not China, is the real reason to make sure there is a manned space option after 2011. (I assume an INKSNA exemption to pay billions a year to a country that invaded a democratic, if erratic, ally is not going to pass.) Thoughts?

Actually, I think what happened is that they also sent out the book to the standard list of people who get review copies of NASA History Office publications (which I’m on). That would explain why I got it, rather than a seemingly unlikely promotion to any”FoM” list…

I still wonder …

1) How many Members of Congress are getting a copy, and

2) How many people in the Obama-Biden transition team are getting copies.

3) Who is Griffin asking to hand-deliver a copy to the President-elect.

BTW, the existence of the online edition changes nothing about my procurement question.

Spending $50k to print 2,500 books, plus the cost of postage, seems (to me) to be a lot of taxpayer money for something we can get online.

– Al

PS — The biased distribution of tax-payer-funded books to some members of the space media, but not to others, is another question. Keith, maybe you should pay them in kind, and do a FOIA to get the list distributees?