Some interesting comments about NASA’s future from Clark Lindsey
Clark Lindsey of www.rlvnews.com/ has posted some interesting thoughts in reaction to the successful launch of the Air Force’s second reusable X-37b yesterday and how this relates to NASA’s budget battles in Congress. Key quote for me:
Charles Bolden doesn’t seem prepared to make a forceful case against the clear and obvious dumbness of the HLV/Orion program. Perhaps he in fact wants a make-work project for NASA to sustain the employee base.
As I’ve said before, the program-formerly-called-Constellation is nothing more than pork, and will never get built. Why waste any money on it now?
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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Clark Lindsey of www.rlvnews.com/ has posted some interesting thoughts in reaction to the successful launch of the Air Force’s second reusable X-37b yesterday and how this relates to NASA’s budget battles in Congress. Key quote for me:
Charles Bolden doesn’t seem prepared to make a forceful case against the clear and obvious dumbness of the HLV/Orion program. Perhaps he in fact wants a make-work project for NASA to sustain the employee base.
As I’ve said before, the program-formerly-called-Constellation is nothing more than pork, and will never get built. Why waste any money on it now?
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
..As I’ve said before, the program-formerly-called-Constellation is nothing more than pork, and will never get built.
> Why waste any money on it now?
Robert, Robert, Robert.
Pork was the primary design goal of Constellation. How else could Griffen design a return to the moon configuration rivaling the total cost of the total space race program of the ‘60’s in same year dollars. An Orion Capsule that would cost 20% more to develop then the shuttle orbiters, and yet was fully expendable and much less safe (compromises must be made to keep the costs up) then the orbiters. 2 Ares boosters that each rivaled the total development cost of the total shuttle program.
Pork has been one of the two primary goals of NASA (sp[ace merely a means to those ends) and Griffin could boast of delivering in spades. Congress and the public would get the pork they loved – and they would give NASA the votes it needed.
Seriously bad timing for Griffin with the public – and hence congress.. reluctantly – losing their taste for pork. As of yet no other real mission has been agreed to, so the point is to just keep it running so all US manned space (old space or new space) capabilities in the country does die. There is a real love in the US for the US to have a NASA and a manned space program. But sorting that out isn’t a high priority at the moment – so having NASA treed water on Constellation, and stopping Obama from killing NASA, is the best were going to get.
Welcome to the 21st century..
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In a more philosophical mood. If congress does go with a commercial option, really the only two credible providers would be Boeing and L/M for the same reasons they won Orion/Ares. If you keep the same contract and NASA oversight rules – they’ll cost as much as Orion /AresHLV. If NASA gets to choose the design, it will look like Orion /AresHLV.
Not what I’d choose. If your being reasonable a version of Boeings X-37b with crew carry would maker more sense – but congress doesn’t want to get that hands on enough to choose a design themselves, and NASA convinced them you need a Apollo style capsule and HLV to get beyond LEO. So…..