Category: Behind The Black
A Koran, and Free Speech, In Flames
Obama Rejects Latest Republican budget
Looks like he has decided to shut the government down: Obama rejects latest Republican budget.
Astronauts take cover as debris drifts toward International Space Station
Astronauts in ISS take cover as Chinese space junk flies past.
NASA human space-flight programme lost in transition
From the British science journal Nature: NASA human space-flight programme lost in transition.
Ann Barnhardt vs Lindsey Graham
This woman bluntly, clearly, and without apology explains freedom, the first amendment, and the difference between peaceful protest and violence to Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina).
Make sure you watch part 2 of her oration, where she goes through the worst quotes from the Koran (bookmarked with bacon strips!) and burns those pages.
SpaceX Unveils Plan for World’s Most Powerful Private Rocket
SpaceX unveils its plan for the Falcon 9 Heavy, what would be the world’s most powerful private rocket.
The new rocket will be able to carry about 117,000 pounds (53,000 kilograms) of cargo to orbit – about twice the payload-carrying capability of the space shuttle. The Falcon Heavy would launch more than twice as much weight as the Delta 4 heavy, currently the most powerful rocket in operation. Only NASA’s Saturn 5 moon rocket, which last launched in 1973, could carry more cargo to orbit, SpaceX officials said.
Musk said the rocket should lower the launch cost of cargo to about $1,000 per pound, about one-tenth the cost per pound on NASA shuttle launches.
Ryan proposes $6.2 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years
Progress! The House Republicans propose $6.2 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years.
Tallest Known Cliff in the Solar System
Russia Speeds Up Moon, Mars Plans as U.S. May Cut Spending
Russia is accelerating its space program.
“It is the first time that the government has allocated decent financing to us,” Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, said in a phone interview on April 2. The agency’s $3.5 billion budget for 2011 has almost tripled since 2007, reaching the highest since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. “We can now advance on all themes a bit,” Perminov said.
Unlike 50 years ago, when beating the U.S. into space marked a geopolitical victory in the Cold War, Russia is focusing on the commercial, technological and scientific aspects of space travel. President Dmitry Medvedev has named aerospace one of five industries the government plans to nurture to help diversify the economy of the world’s largest energy supplier away from resource extraction.
House GOP introduces one-week stopgap with $12B in spending cuts
The House Republicans last night introduced a one-week stopgap continuing resolution with $12 billion in spending cuts.
For Some Entrepreneurs, Moon Is Money
Software engineers to the Moon!
Crazy? Absolutely! Impossible? Probably not! There are a growing number of people who believe that with federal funding for our space program getting scarce, the future lies in private-public partnerships. Entrepreneur Elon Musk’s third job (after leading electric car company Tesla and acting as the Chairman of solar installer SolarCity) is heading up SpaceX, which was the first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a rocketship. Virgin’s Richard Branson has a similar private space venture.