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Momentus forced to delay its first mission due to FAA bureaucrats

Capitalism in space? Momentus, aiming to provide satellite makers a tug that can move satellites to their preferred orbit, has delayed its first mission because the many bureaucrats in the federal government need more time to review the paperwork.

In a Jan. 4 statement, Momentus said the flight of its first Vigoride tug, which was to be part of the payloads on a Falcon 9 dedicated rideshare mission launching as soon as Jan. 14, will be delayed to later in the year because it was unable to get approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for the mission. “This move will allow for the additional time necessary to secure FAA approval of Momentus’ payloads, including completion of a standard interagency review,” the company said in a statement.

The company did not elaborate on that review, but part of the FAA commercial launch licensing process is a review of the payload that the agency describes as intended “to determine whether its launch would jeopardize public health and safety, safety of property, U.S. national security or foreign policy interests, or international obligations of the United States.” That process can include consultation with other government agencies.

In a Jan. 5 document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the form of an interview, Fred Kennedy, president of Momentus, said there was no specific issue that was delaying that review. “The FAA did not express any specific concerns of its own, but rather indicated that more time was needed to complete its interagency review of Momentus’ payload,” he said. [emphasis mine]

The highlighted words reveal the truth. There is nothing wrong with the payload or its tasks. The problem is that several government agencies have not completed the paperwork, and so Momentus must wait. I imagine that there is a thick application sitting on some bureaucrat’s desk, requiring a signature, and that bureaucrat has been too busy collecting his or her paycheck at home because God forbid he or she might get the cororavirus by coming into work.

This is modern America. You don’t have the real freedom to do what you want. You must sit, twiddling your thumbs, while your betters in Washington decide whether they will allow you to do it. It doesn’t matter they know little or nothing about your goals. All that matters is that they are in charge, and can boss you around at their whim.

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

8 comments

  • V-Man

    Could also be that they didn’t provide brown nondescript envelopes to the right people. It’s how things work here in Quebec (mostly for public works, but probably in other departments too).

  • This is modern America. You don’t have the real freedom to do what you want. You must sit, twiddling your thumbs, while your betters in Washington decide whether they will allow you to do it. It doesn’t matter they know little or nothing about your goals. All that matters is that they are in charge, and can boss you around at their whim.

    And most people are led to believe they are unworthy to challenge the “experts” on the basis of common sense and proximity-to-the-problem insight.

  • janyuary

    Ritchie, you said it: “… most people are led to believe they are unworthy to challenge the ‘experts’ on the basis of common sense and proximity-to-the-problem insight.” YUP, on many fronts all around us.

    The true words that really fry me are: “All that matters is that they are in charge, and can boss you around at their whim.”

    There are rules, and there are laws. Rules are made by men. When the big dog (that would be the people) has figured out that he’s three times the size of the so-called “alpha dog” (that would be the rule mak… um, er, “lawmakers” and bossers around), then I think and hope petty rulers will find out the difference between rule and law.

    Yeager’s quote rang true from first reading in Press On: “… the rules are made for people who aren’t willing to make up their own.”

    God and nature make the laws. We adapt to those laws … or perish. Rules are a different item.

  • janyuary, the second-most-important thing my parents taught me, was to think for myself and not just follow the crowd.

    And as an engineer, it is easy to see a meter reading or a scope trace that looks ok … until you’ve been burned by the right answer that was there for the wrong reasons, leaving the door open for the wrong answer to blow up in your face. I tell young engineers that, if you don’t understand WHY the meter says what it says, you don’t know if it’s lying to you or not.

    What burns me, is when those in charge act like they KNOW me as an individual well enough to micromanage my life, when they CAN’T – no matter their intent – tell me apart from a statistic from their far-off capital … and proceed to apply such micromanagement in a manner reminiscent of a bull in my china shop.

    That lack of perceived worthiness I refer to, is a symptom of what I call comfortable numbness … a state we have been conditioned to embrace over many generations, as we began to turn education, intellect, and innovative ability into objects of worship … at the expense of respect for common sense and wisdom from all sources, on its merits.

    https://parler.com/post/d08de4378f3444e7ae4f296924fc33a5

  • janyuary

    RtR: What was the first most important thing they taught you?

    “I tell young engineers that, if you don’t understand WHY the meter says what it says, you don’t know if it’s lying to you or not.”

    In your field especially, one would take that as a given! I see it with folks who cannot tune a guitar or fiddle without a digital tuner, using their eyes for what the ear should do. Wrong tool unless you use it like Jose Feliciano would. ;^)

    In entry-level jobs, youths for centuries were expected to be able to count back change — and trusted to count it back. Today’s entry level cash register attendants couldn’t count you back change to save their souls. They are reduced to something pathetic, not even worthy to do a simple mathematical calculation solo. I have seen businesses cease exchange because of lack of electricity, when customers were ready and able to pay in any of a number of ways, but the dumb folks at the registers were stalled when the escalator stopped, so to speak. Jaw dropping.

    My field was persuasive writing in marketing, humble, anonymous, sometimes lucrative and usually fun. But I watched the medical industry switch gears on aggressive marketing. I made a few bucks from it, I am sad to say. I believe that “conditioned to embrace” is actually the affects of a LOT of money poured into marketing, more than any other industry in America, over the past 20 years, the medical industry.

    They understand the aggressive hypnotic all-media 24-hour marketing power of suggestion constantly broadcast. Trying to tune out in your mind while leaving audio or visual “on” is next to impossible as language and the subconscious operate on a level removed from conscious will. What’s been seen cannot be unseen, we all know. The medical industry is at lethal point of convincing folks doctors should be using force of government to overrule our right of self ownership, rendering us livestock, to be immunized and categorized and monitored as per the state’s management plan. It has prepped society with lots of marketing.

    It has been marketing aggressively for one generation now. We are seeing the return of pouring that $$$ into media of all stripes, from billboards and busses to tv screens and radio. Constantly suggesting that you’re already or in danger of something, and don’t know it! Constantly pitching products you’re prohibited from buying (“ask your doctor!”) and on and on, or treatments or ailments, and people think they must keep jobs they hate so they can pay as much for a month of health insurance as what is a decent house payment!!!.

    The example that’s my particular peeve is how medical pop-marketing has people thinking that all “diabetes” is equal when Type II diabetes is a whole nother’ planet, galaxy, than Type 1 diabetes. It is an insult to Type 1s to see generally a behavior ailment (diet controlled Type 2) connected to their disease (Type 1), which truly comes out of the blue and requires introduced insulin or die. But in marketing diabetes is equalized in the fear factor mode that has people worrying from doc visit to doc visit ……. People are primed to be scared by “the doctor” into giving up what would be way too difficult to take by force. Easier to scare them into giving it up. Grrrrrrrr.

    Ah … hey it’s Friday. I tell myself to lighten up, fruity.

  • januyary … most important thing: There is a God – I’m not Him – so I needed to get to know Him.

    I can somewhat relate to what you describe; I write a lot of the technical material for my firm’s customer proposals – and I’m Type II diabetic. I have to admire the diligence and courage of those with Type I.

  • januyary – The medical industry is at lethal point of convincing folks doctors should be using force of government to overrule our right of self ownership, rendering us livestock, to be immunized and categorized and monitored as per the state’s management plan. It has prepped society with lots of marketing.

    Much like central planners might have had us before too long regarding location and housing, had not Winnie the Flu come along and revealed the vulnerability of dense urban housing to pandemic.

    I used to say that the four most dangerous words in politics are “it’s for the children” …. but I’m beginning to understand that “it’s for your own good” is even more dangerous.

  • janyuary

    Ritchie, your parents had good priorities.

    Type 1 can hit anyone, anytime, at any age. One day a person’s pancreas decides to stop producing insulin, and that’s all she wrote. It’s diligence or die.

    Fortunately, it’s rare. Type II is very common, more common where there are more doctors and regular testing. I hope you are able to discover how what you eat determines your health (every body is different with nutrition) but please REMEMBER doctors are pretty much all morons when it comes to nutrition, I have been shocked at the very bad nutritional advice routinely given by doctors! GOD put everything we need for maintaining good health right here; doctors’ pills and surgeries are too often dangerous vanities, I have concluded!!!!!!!

    “It’s for your own good” — my rote answer now is a challenge: “You think that because you’re smarter than me, you get to boss me around? Only the very stupidest think ‘smart’ people have a right to boss them around.”

    Truly smart folks know to leave the stupid to their own choices but remain on standby to provide charity if needed. “Stupid” is often a learning process, I think.

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