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The FAA has given its permission for Blue Origin to expand its operations in Texas.

I’m so glad: The FAA has given its permission for Blue Origin to expand its operations in Texas.

“After reviewing and analyzing currently available data and information on existing conditions and the potential impacts of the Proposed Action, the FAA has determined that issuing experimental permits and/or launch licenses to Blue Origin for operation of suborbital RLVs at the West Texas launch site would not significantly impact the quality of the human environment,” the agency said in document posted on its website.

Two takeaways: First, Blue Origin is moving forward with the testing of more sophisticated suborbital and maybe orbital spacecraft. That is great news. Second, it really is annoying that they need the government’s approval to do this, especially since the FAA knows far less about it then they do.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

3 comments

  • Jwing

    Robert, thinking of NASA’s history and the amazing people who did it right in this country, I will be driving down to Houston today with my two sons to visit the 4th man on the moon at his art studio. Yes, we purchased on original Alan Bean painting. He is so gracious that he extended an invite and lunch on him. We are quite excited as you can imagine. We’ll visit the Johnson Space Center, the USS Texas and the travelling exhibit of the Magna Carta at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, as well. Happy Valentine’s Day!

  • wade

    My oldest daughter is a micro-biologist for NASA at Huntsville. I live in the approximate of 200 miles of her . Whenever we get together which is ,on occasion due to our work constraints, my Off-the-cuff and blindsided question to her is, has our space agency ever came across evidence of Life or Ancient Life during any course of their Exploration . She gets wide-eyed and red in the face then says, “no Dad. if their are any aliens, then WE are Them”

  • Kelly Starks

    >.. Second, it really is annoying that they need the government’s approval to do this, especially since the FAA knows
    > far less about it then they do.

    That’s a big jump to assume the FAA knows less about it then they do, much less that they aren’t better at verifying when someone’s doing a proper job of making sure a test is being run safely ….or more importantly to the FAA, that its not endangering others around or above them.

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