“But believe me, I’m fully aware of what Orbital Sciences has done and is doing.”

Since we can all only be judged by what we write (I can’t peer into your brain), the only way to show that you are knowledgeable about something is to be accurate.

People do make mistakes, but keep in mind that you still don’t know what you don’t know.

I’m going to love using that phrase now…

“Orbital Sciences is not ‘moving into HSF.'”

I knew someone would catch me on that one. I should have said “was” as they had hoped to be “moving into HSF” with Prometheus.

A slip of the tongue (or in this case, the gray cells) I’m afraid. But believe me, I’m fully aware of what Orbital Sciences has done and is doing.

“Of course, moving into HSF and servicing the ISS is something new for them [Orbital Sciences].”

Orbital Sciences is not “moving into HSF”.

I find it odd that you and Matt are so gleeful in pointing out that SpaceX and Musk “don’t know what they don’t know”, but neither of you know who is or isn’t planning to do human spaceflight.

I wonder what that says about the rest of your “informed” opinions?

“they will have learning events.”

Matt, how many companies have you founded, grown successfully in tough financial times, IPO’d and sold?

How many have Cernan, and all the other supposed “experts” that you say must be consulted before any aerospace company starts up.

Musk has had to deal with plenty of business challenges, and his results speak more loudly than your ignorant rants.

And maybe you didn’t know this, but SpaceX is not a company of one (Musk), it is a company of over 1,500 professionals, and those professionals come from NASA, rocket companies, the tech world, and some of the best and brightest of our engineering schools.

So what are you trying to tell them, that they don’t know what they’re doing? That you are smarter than them, even though you have no idea what they do and the challenges that they have already overcome?

You always say that SpaceX “doesn’t know what it doesn’t know”, but that applies to everyone, including you and Cernan. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know, and neither do you. Cernan never built a rocket or spacecraft, he’s an electrical engineer and pilot. So he has no idea what the challenges are that SpaceX is going through.

What Cernan said is pablum to the ears, and makes a good sound bite, but it’s useless as a management technique. How do you manage the unknown? To some degree you can’t, and NASA has proved that on many occasions, even though they had people like Cernan et al.

How come Cernan and your crew of experts weren’t able to stop all the NASA failures? Didn’t they know what no one else knew?

Do Boeing and Lockheed Martin have this ragtag group on a consulting contract? Where are their offices? What papers have they published on the subject? Do they hold seminars?

Or are they just a bunch of former aerospace people expressing personal opinions that you have cobbled into an imaginary super hero group like The Avengers?

“then I stand corrected, but they’re lumped into the category of startups when Commercial Crew/Cargo services come up in Congressional hearings. Probably because of their involvement with Pegasus, correct?”

You don’t even know why you call them derogatory names?

Just another lemming…

“Probably because of their involvement with Pegasus, correct?”

I suppose so, in that OSC was regarded in that light when they developed the original Pegasus. But I think they are long past the “startup” phase.

You may not have noticed, but you need a lot of correcting, on a more-than-daily basis. Has it ever occurred to you to actually go out and do a little research and educate yourself on these topics before spouting off and making a fool of yourself in public?

“Only then will the skeptics-which are numerous-be satisfied.”

Thankfully no one cares about the ignorant skeptics. SLS is done/gone. MPCV will follow shortly.

Look at this start-up http://www.sncorp.com/ Only 50 years in business…

We only care of knowledgeable skeptics and they are few and far between.

Oh well…

“Space X, Orbital, etc. have yet to do so.”

Actually, Matt, Orbital Sciences Corporation enjoys a solid reputation resting on its record of success over the past three decades. OSC has built hundreds of launch vehicles and satellites during that time, as well as the Dawn spacecraft which recently went into orbit around the asteroid 4 Vesta. So I would not describe OSC as a startup. It’s an established member of America’s space industry. Of course, moving into HSF and servicing the ISS is something new for them.