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This year I celebrate Behind the Blackโ€™s sixteenth anniversary. In those sixteen years I have done more than 35,000 posts (which means I added more than 2,000 in the last year), with my main focus covering the global space industry and the related planetary and astronomical science that comes from it. Along the way I sometimes also post my thoughts on the politics and culture of the time, partly because I think it is important for free Americans to do so, and partly because those politics and culture have a direct impact on the future of our civilization and its on-going efforts to explore and eventually colonized the solar system.

 

You canโ€™t understand one without understanding the other.

 

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Australia’s leftist government issues a new policy statement on space

The leftist Labor party that is presently running Australia’s government today issued a new policy statement on the nation’s space industry, focused on trying to encourage its growth.

You can read the statement here [pdf]. Though it is mostly filled with meaningless bureaucratic and leftist jargon, including an an “acknowledgement” of the primary land rights of the aborginal population (or as it calls them, “the many nations of First Peoples”), the statement has one item left to the very end that suggests this government recognizes its bureaucracy is slowing development.

After many pages of gobbly-gook that has little substance in reality, that last action item is the following:

Action: Advance regulation and international governance:

  • Evolve domestic regulatory frameworks to support current and emerging
    Australian space activities, ensuring safety, security and national interests
    while enabling entrepreneurship and innovation.
  • Shape international governance by contributing to global rules and norms
    for the safe and sustainable use of outer space.

It appears the Labor government recognizes the regulatory framework in Australia is slowing development, and is at least willing to say it wishes to fix the issue. At the same time, it also vows its continuing allegiance to international globalist regulations and the need to make space “safe and sustainable.”

These two goals are generally opposed to each other. How Labor will square this circle is quite unclear, but at least it appears it is aware of the regulatory issues. Its ability to fix them however will I think be hampered by that party’s very “woke” focus. For example, the statement opens by endorsing ancient aboriginal religious beliefs, but never once recognizes the very basic western values of private property and law that built the country that presently exists.

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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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

6 comments

6 comments

  • BMJ

    Oh, good grief! They’ve got “land acknowledgements” in Australia as well…..

    Here in Canada, there’s hardly a public event or institution that doesn’t have them.

    • The whole point of these “acknowledgements” is to discredit Western Civilization and make the savage tribal culture of the past the dominant culture of today. It is vile beyond belief, but it is what the intellectuals of the west have decided must be done.

    • COL BEAUSABRE

      What on earth do the aborigines have to do with space . Oh, I KNOW, , they want a payout (bribe) for the use of their ‘sacred lands’ for launch facilities

  • COL BEAUSABRE

    Evolve domestic regulatory frameworks to support current and emerging
    Australian space activities, ensuring safety, security and national interests
    while enabling entrepreneurship and innovation.

    Shape international governance by contributing to global rules and norms
    for the safe and sustainable use of outer space.

    Bob, they are not contradictory. Item 1 is doubtlessly within the benevolent hand of government guiding the whole effort. As I stated before, ALL Labour parties are socialist. It’s in their DNA. They may SAY they encourage entrepreneurship and innovation, but watch what happens to private enterprise or anyone who tries to make an honest buck in space outside of government or government sanctioned monopolies.

    • I agree completely. I just wanted to note that the Australian Labor party is at least making positive noises about reducing regulation. I don’t expect them to do it, however.

      By the way, did you get my email about your evening pause suggestion? If you don’t email it to me directly, it won’t be considered.

  • Jay

    I read the document. I have read similar documents to this style, lots of fluff, and it looks like they used ChatGPT or another program to embellish the original document.

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