Comments on: Bolden attacks the “myths” about NASA’s new plan

By: Fred Cink

Fred Cink — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 03:58:35 +0000

To Robert G Oler, the cool aid stains on your Cheer Leader’s For Obama Sweater are looking a little tacky. How about some real coments other than RHA RHA RHA. I dont think space policy should be based on preserving jobs in someone’s district just because thats the way it’s been since LBJ brought home the bacon to Houston. But It DOES keep jobs and income (and income taxes) LONG after (and before) a booster flies out of sight. All the advanced tech like VASIMIR to Mars and ISRU once there in 5,10,15or probably 50 years isn’t going to do squat without access to LEO. Show me some MEANINGFULL support by this admin for x38/ Dreamchaser on Atlas V or Delta 4 or your argument is, dare I say, ideological.

By: Donald Ernst

Donald Ernst — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:39:07 +0000

How do I know both those things, well it’s simple because the Democratic party is going to commit suicide on Sunday March 21st.

By: Robert G. Oler

Robert G. Oler — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:41:06 +0000

Donald Ernst wrote @ March 18th, 2010 at 12:25 pm

Obama is not even going to be around after 2012 and his congressional support is gone come november. ..

and you know both those things how?

Ah ideology

Check in about August for the later, the former…well 2011.

Robert G. Oler

By: Robert G. Oler

Robert G. Oler — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:40:01 +0000

Rand Simberg wrote @ March 18th, 2010 at 11:20 am

hopefully he can read better then you! A LAS implies a failure detection system…pay attention.

Robert G. Oler

By: googaw

googaw — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:40:14 +0000

richardb, Bolden is just recycling the old propaganda that was used to sell the ISS as “infrastructure” in the first place.

By: silence dogood

silence dogood — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:04:45 +0000

I want to make a t-shirt that says:

“My country went to the moon,
and all they brought back
for me was this stupid t-shirt.”

Any takers?

By: richardb

richardb — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:56:43 +0000

Bolden said “â€œCommercial is about making money,â€ he continued, â€œand I think there are incredible opportunities for money to be made with commercial access to low Earth orbit.â€ NASA was willing to pay for to transport crews to the ISS, and perhaps later, he suggested, even manage access to the station as the agency tries to get out of more routine operations. ”
What incredible market is he talking about? The only market I know of is the USG’s ride to the station and the station itself.

Maybe the market is all the science projects the crew could be doing. But so far there is little of that being done. In most companies R&D is an expense, not a market maker.

Maybe tourism to the station?
Would SpaceX risk the company to build a business around competing with the Russians for lift to the ISS?

Perhaps he’s talking about the Bigelow station? How does that help utilize the ISS though?

I’d like Bolden to describe this dazzling market he’s talking about.

I don’t think he can. In fact, unless the USG guarantees business and profits, nobody will invest in it. That is also known price fixing in the commercial world.

No wonder Congress is frustrated with the Nasa plans. They don’t make much sense.

By: googaw

googaw — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:33:57 +0000

stephen:
Otherwise, itâ€™s like a kid building a fort: â€œWell, that was fun. Letâ€™s blow it up!â€

This is the kind of philosophy we get when there is no economic accountability.

By: Donald Ernst

Donald Ernst — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:25:18 +0000

Obama is not even going to be around after 2012 and his congressional support is gone come november. Considering the fact NASA was going to be accomplishing little of anything anyway in this time period I dont see what the fuss is about. Hopefully after Obama we will have a real effort to develop domestic based commerical launch capabilities, BTW we are already purchasing commerical services to launch ISS crews, it’s just we are purchasing them from the Russians.

By: Rand Simberg

Rand Simberg — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:20:39 +0000

In fact with a LAS IF I were Charlie I would have no qualms about putting people on it â€œas isâ€.

Charlie’s smarter than you. He knows that an LAS is useless and expensive deadweight without a good failure onset detection system to tell you when you need to use it in a timely manner. Delta doesn’t currently have one.