Japanese government adopts revised space policy emphasizing defense

The Japanese government today announced a revision to its space policy, with the changes mostly focused on increasing that nation’s military surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities in space.

Though defense and security appeared to be the focus of the revision, there were hints this would be achieved through a greater use of the competitive free market.

The government also vowed to bolster collaboration between the Defense Ministry and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in a bid to provide support to private companies engaged in critical space technology development, the blueprint says. By attempting to stimulate private-sector-led development in space, the government will aim to reduce costs in the face of budget constraints, it adds.

Japan has traditionally operated as the U.S. used to, by letting its space agency JAXA do and control everything. JAXA in turn has routinely hired established companies like Mitsubishi to build what it wants, while retaining all control and ownership. The result has been a moribund effort, with Japan at present having no low cost rocket that can compete on the international market for business.

Whether this new policy will allow new companies to compete with the big established players remains unknown.

The evidence shows clearly that Biden has worked to squelch Elon Musk and SpaceX

Starship #15 about to land
Starship prototype #15, during its successful suborbital test flight in May 2021

The public concerns expressed last week by one NASA official about the regulatory delays caused by the FAA to SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy development program illustrated once again my sense that there had been a stark change in how SpaceX was being regulated by the federal government, from the Trump to the Biden administration. Under Trump, SpaceX was moving fast, launching test flights frequently. Under Biden, all such test flights appeared to grind to a halt.

For example, it seemed to me that during the Trump administration the FAA allowed SpaceX to complete its investigations of explosions or launch failures quickly, so they could proceed as quickly to another test launch, sometimes only weeks later. After the first orbital test flight of Superheavy/Starship on April 20, 2023, however, the FAA responded quite differently, demanding the right to oversee a full investigation that it also implied would take many months.

Others have disputed this assertion. For example, space reporter Doug Messier commented about my analysis, stating that the FAA’s insistence on a lengthy investigation into the April 20, 2023 Superheavy/Starship orbital test flight failure was simply standard procedure. “I don’t think this represents any change in policy. This is how it’s been done for years,” Messier wrote. “It’s easy to scapegoat FAA as THE cause of the problem, and speculate about nefarious actions by the Biden Administration.”

Who is right? Am I being paranoid? Or is Messier being naive? As Howard Cosell used to say on Monday Night Football, “Let’s go to the videotape!” Or in this case, let’s take a hard detailed look at how SpaceX’s test program for Starship/Superheavy came to a screeching halt when Joe Biden took over the White House from Donald Trump.

From 2018, when SpaceX began first cutting metal on Starship prototypes, to May 2021, the company did eight suborbital test flights and at least six tank and static fire engine tests, with some resulting in explosive destruction. Below is a list of those tests (There were more such engine and tank tests during that time, but these were ones I could quickly find).
» Read more

Astronomers admit new satellite constellations “are not a threat” to Hubble

In a June 5, 2023 press release from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) that operates both the Hubble and Webb space telescopes, astronomers admitted that the increased number of orbiting satellites from SpaceX and OneWeb have had little impact on Hubble’s observations, and even that impact has been reduced by new software tools.

Stark applied the new tool, based on the image analysis technique known as the Radon Transform, to identify satellite trails across Hubble’s camera with the widest field of view, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). In 2002 the satellite streaks were present in five percent of ACS exposures, with many of those too faint to discern easily. This rose to ten percent by 2022, although the typical brightness of the detected trails remained unchanged.

…”To date, these satellite trails have not had a significant impact on research with Hubble,” said Tom Brown, Head of STScI’s Hubble Mission Office. “The cosmic rays that strike the telescope’s detectors are a bigger nuisance.”

Radiation from space hits the ACS electronic detectors on every exposure, leaving streaks. These are easy to identify from exposure to exposure. The same holds true for artificial satellites. “The average width I measured for satellites was 5 to 10 pixels. The ACS’ widest view is 4,000 pixels across, so a typical trail will affect less than 0.5% of a single exposure. So not only can we flag them, but they don’t impact the majority of pixels in individual Hubble images. Even as the number of satellites increases, our tools for cleaning the pictures will still be relevant,” said Stark. [emphasis mine]

In other words, the claims by many astronomers that the increase in satellites is a threat to astronomy have been exaggerated. The new satellites might have a greater impact on ground-based telescopes, but based on these numbers (which would be comparable if not better for the giant 8-meter-plus big telescopes on Earth), that impact should be as easily mitigated.

I am gob-smacked that STScI issued this press release, since it undercuts the entire political narrative of the astronomical community that demands these new satellite constellations be either regulated, limited, or even banned, because otherwise all astronomy will be impossible. Based on the information presented here, none of those regulations are justified, at all, and that narrative is an utter lie.

NASA worried FAA launch permit delays to Starship/Superheavy will delay first lunar landing

During a public meeting on June 7, 2023, a NASA official expressed concerns that the FAA’s slow launch permit process for SpaceX’s test program for developing Starship/Superheavy will end up seriously delaying the first Artemis manned lunar landing, presently targeting a December 2025 launch date.

The official, Jim Free, was very careful how he worded his comments, but the FAA issue loomed large in his mind.

Free said NASA met with the Federal Aviation Administration recently to discuss the importance of the Starship rocket to the space agency’s moon exploration plans. The FAA is overseeing SpaceX’s investigation into the problems encountered on the April 20 test launch, when the flight termination system took longer to destroy the rocket than expected. The destruct system is designed to terminate the flight before an errant rocket threatens populated areas.

The FAA is not expected to grant SpaceX another Starship launch license until the investigation is complete, and federal regulators are satisfied with changes to the rocket to address any public safety concerns. “They just have to get flying,” Free said of SpaceX. “When you step back and you look at (it), that’s a lot of launches to get those missions done, so our FAA partners are critical to that.”

For the FAA to treat SpaceX’s test program like ordinary launches, requiring a detailed investigation by it after every test flight, will likely delay the development of Starship/Superheavy by years.

Following the early suborbital tests of Starship, the FAA did not “oversee” the investigations. The FAA merely observed closely SpaceX’s investigation, and let it move forward when SpaceX was satisfied. Now the FAA wants to determine for itself when each launch will occur, even though there is no one at the FAA truly qualified to do that. The result will be endless delays and paperwork, and many fewer flights spaced many more months apart, none of which will do anything to aid the development.

NASA is obviously trying to get the FAA to see this, but we must remember that the change in policy at the FAA almost certainly came from the Biden administration, which doesn’t care as much for getting to the Moon as it does wielding its power to hurt Elon Musk, whom it now sees as a political opponent. Expect NASA’s pleas to fall on deaf ears.

Space Force awards SpaceX and ULA contracts for six launches each

As part of its long term launch agreement with SpaceX and ULA, the Space Force today awarded both companies contracts for six launches each, all to occur beginning in 2025.

According to the overall agreement, each company got five-year contracts to launch as many as 40 missions. ULA won 60% of the missions and SpaceX 40%. However, the delays to ULA’s Vulcan rocket will likely change those numbers:

In a report released June 8, the Government Accountability Office noted that the NSSL program office continues to order launch services from ULA and SpaceX amid concerns about Vulcan’s delays. “ULA delayed the first certification flight of the Vulcan launch system … to accommodate challenges with the BE-4 engine and a delayed commercial payload, nearly two years later than originally planned,” said GAO. “In the event that Vulcan is unavailable for future missions, program officials stated that the Phase 2 contract allows for the ability to reassign missions to the other provider.”

One of the reasons that ULA has not hurried its effort to make Vulcan reusable and more competitive with SpaceX is that is already has this guaranteed military launch commitment. It doesn’t need to be as competitive.

What needs to happen is a third or fourth company has to enter the market, giving the military other options. The military also has to cancel this long term launch agreement, which limits the number of companies it will do business with to just SpaceX and ULA. It would be much better to open the competition up to everyone. The ULA would be forced to compete.

Pushback: Racial quotas on corporate boards, imposed by California Democrats, struck down by court

The Democratic Party's long held support of racial hate
Segregation: The Democratic Party’s long held #1 goal,
then and now.

Pushback: A federal court has now struck down a 2020 law passed by the California legislature — run entirely by a Democratic Party super-majority — that required corporations to impose racial quotas on who they hired for their corporate boards.

In Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment v. Weber, [the court] struck down a state statute that required racial and gender-identity quotas for board members of publicly held corporations in California. The court ruled that this quota statute violates the U.S. Constitution as well as federal civil rights law.

The 2020 statute, AB 979, required California corporations to have as members on their board of directors individuals from supposedly “underrepresented groups,” including “an individual who identifies as Black, African American, Hispanic, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Native Hawaiian, or Alaska Native, [or] gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.”

The number of directors needed to satisfy these quotas was determined by the size of the corporation, but a minimum of one to three members was required. This racist statute went so far as to impose fines ranging from $100,000 to $300,000 for noncompliance.

» Read more

Who blew up the dam in the Ukraine?

section of ISW map
Taken from ISW’s report on June 6, 2023. Click for original.

Since the news broke yesterday that someone had blown up the Nova Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro River, there has been endless speculation by numerous pundits attempting to pin the blame. It seems that half say Russia, and half say the Ukraine.

Let me provide my readers the answer right up front: We as yet haven’t got the foggiest idea who did it.

Why am I so sure? Because in reviewing all the information I can glean from many different sources, it appears both sides had good reasons to do it, as well as good reasons to not want it to happen at all. Let’s list those reasons.
» Read more

The explanation as to why Democrats today are fearless in proposing insane policies

How the change in Don Lemon in the past ten years reveals why Democrats are no longer afraid to propose insane policies
Don Lemon unwittingly reveals the Democrats’
assumed grip on power

A recent post at ZeroHedge made a big deal about how Don Lemon’s positions so drastically changed in less than a decade. As the article correctly noted, the positions Lemon took in 2013 would have had Don Lemon in 2023 label himself a white supremacist.

The video [from 2013] shows Lemon talking about what the black community should do to fix its problems, including stop littering, and encouraging kids to try harder in school. The host also extols the virtues of marriage, and warns about the problem of absent fathers, asserting “just because you can have a baby doesn’t mean you should.”

Lemon even tells young black men to stop using the N word and to pull up their pants and stop walking around with their asses hanging out looking like prison bitches.

If you dare say these things now you are called a racist and a white supremacist (no matter your skin color) exerting your white privilege. The Don Lemon of 2023 himself has done this exact thing.

What the article found most shocking however was the speed in which these things changed. As noted by this tweet:

It’s terrifying how fast society fell off the cliff

10 years ago Obama, Hillary, and Biden were defining marriage as “a man and a woman”

10 years ago Don Lemon was telling black people “pull your pants up”

10 years ago Dems only supported “safe, legal, and rare” abortions

Why? How did it become okay for Democrats and leftists to suddenly in less than a few years go from defending normal sex and marriage to supporting the genital mutilation of young children and to support cross-dressing men changing in women’s locker rooms? Why have inner city Democratic Party politicians gone from trying to arrest shoplifters in order to at least maintain a semblance of law to passing laws making illegal for any employees at a retail store from stopping shoplifting in any way, while simultaneously advocating “defunding the police” and routinely releasing murderers and criminals without charge?

How is any of this even possible in a democratic society? Shouldn’t Democrats be worried that their insane policies might be offending the vast majority of normal people who vote?

The answer lies in a false assumption most conservatives and ordinary people still have about our nation. » Read more

Pushback: Court victory for volleyball student and coach father who were blacklisted for disagreeing with queer agenda

Blake Allen, punished for being a normal high school girl
Blake Allen, punished for being a normal high school girl

Bring a gun to a knife fight: After an eighteen-month court battle, school officials in Vermont on June 1st conceded defeat, settling the lawsuit [pdf] with a high school student and her father who the school had suspended for having the nerve to write publicly about the school’s sexual policies that allowed boys to leer at girls in the girl’s dressing rooms.

The school district will pay the father and daughter $125,000 and the suspensions will be removed from their records, according to the White River Valley Herald.

The background, which I have reported on several times previously: In the fall of 2022 high school student Blake Allen was suspended by her Vermont high school for daring to write an op-ed criticizing its policy allowing a cross-dressing boy to change in the girl’s lockeroom. School officials also suspended her father, Travis Allen, from his job as the high school’s volleyball coach for the crime of stating these facts on social media.
» Read more

Russian communications satellite in trouble

A ten-year old Russian Ekspress geosynchronous communications satellite in early June developed problems that have forced engineers to shut down much of its capabilities.

The problem was similar to issues experienced in 2020 on a second similar Ekspress orbiting geosynchronous communications satellite, suggesting both satellites had the same design flaw.

For Russia the problem is made much more serious because its invasion of the Ukraine has made it impossible to replace this satellite.

The latest impact on Russian satellite communications capacity came at a time when the established production model for the Ekspress satellite family, relying on Western suppliers, had been disrupted by the Kremlin’s escalation of the war against Ukraine in 2022, likely resulting in severe delays if not a complete stop in the development of this type of spacecraft in Russia.

In other words, Russia has lost significant communications capacity, and does not have a way to replace that capacity because of the sanctions against it imposed because of its invasion. Once again, Putin’s idiotic war in the Ukraine has caused nothing but disaster for Russia.

Pushback: Christian adoption agency wins against NY’s attempt to force it to send kids to queer families

New Hope: willing to fight for its religious beliefs
New Hope: willing to fight for its
religious beliefs

Bring a gun to a knife fight: When two different New York state agencies threatened to investigate and penalize the Christian nonprofit New Hope Family Services because it refused to place orphans with queer couples, instead insisting that the children under its care be adopted only by a mother and father, New Hope sued — twice — and has now won two settlements that will allow it to continue to place children in the manner that matches its beliefs.

Faith-based adoption provider New Hope Family Services secured a second victory against New York state officials, after securing a favorable settlement and a payment of $250,000 for attorneys’ fees in a related lawsuit settled last month. In settlement of the second lawsuit—which challenged an attempt by a different New York state agency to punish New Hope for adhering to its religious convictions—New York officials agreed to pay an additional $25,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs, and broadly confirmed New Hope’s right to continue its critical work of placing infants in permanent homes without government harassment.

» Read more

Pushback: If the young are beginning to resist the leftist queer agenda, then there is real hope

A little child shall lead them, by James Johnson
“A little child shall lead them,” painting by James L. Johnson.

And a little child shall lead them: There appears to be increasing evidence that it isn’t just the parents that are becoming aware and opposed to the queer and Marxist agenda that the public schools and leftist governments have been force feeding down children’s throats for the past decade. It now appears the students themselves are beginning to rise up in rebellion.

This story from May 29, 2023 illustrates the point:
» Read more

North Korean rocket fails in attempt to put spy satellite into orbit

In North Korea’s first attempt today to place a spy satellite into orbit since 2016, the rocket failed shortly after launch, dropping into the ocean.

But the rocket lost thrust and plunged into the sea with its satellite payload, the official Korean Central News Agency reported. It added that authorities would investigate the “serious defects” revealed by the launch and conduct another test as soon as possible.

South Korea’s military said it had managed to locate and salvage a portion of the suspected debris. It released images showing a large barrel-like metal structure with thin pipes and wires at the bottom, which experts said might be a liquid fuel tank.

The U.S., Japan, and South Korea all condemned the launch as violating UN sanctions, as did the UN’s secretary-general.

The recovery by South Korea could yield a great deal of technical information about North Korea’s rocketry and missile program.

Spain becomes 25th nation to sign Artemis Accords

In a ceremony yesterday in Spain, that country became the 25th nation to sign the Artemis Accords, a bi-lateral agreement with the United States that was designed during the Trump administration to act as a work around to the limitations to private enterprise in space created by the Outer Space Treaty.

The full list of signatories so far: Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Czech Republic, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, the Ukraine, and the United States.

This alliance gives the United States a great deal of leverage in establishing legal policy, if it is used as originally intended. It however at present remains unclear if the Biden administration intends to do so, considering its general hostility to the private sector and freedom.

New data gives the same result as old data: Like the flu, COVID hurt NO ONE who was young and healthy

Lysenko with Stalin
Trofim Lysenko (on the left), the person now considered the ideal
scientific model by health officials, preaching to Stalin as he destroyed
Soviet plant research, persecuted anyone who disagreed with him,
and caused famines that killed millions.

New data from Israel has now confirmed what was obvious almost from the beginning, that COVID-19 was nothing more than a variation of the flu, a danger only to the elderly and the chronically sick.

According to newly revealed Israeli Ministry of Health data, during the entire epidemic there were zero deaths (that’s 0, nil, none, naught, zilch, null) from COVID to anyone under fifty who was of average and reasonable health.

Zero healthy individuals under the age of 50 have died of COVID-19 in Israel, according to newly released data. “Zero deceased of 18–49 years of age with no underlying morbidities,” the Israel Ministry of Health (MOH) said in response to a formal request from an attorney. Officials noted that the statement only applies to COVID-19 deaths where the MOH conducted an epidemiological investigation and had received information about the underlying diseases.

“Zero is a very, very clear number, and cannot be subject to interpretation,” Yoav Yehezkelli, a specialist in internal medicine and medical management, and former lecturer in the Department of Emergency and Disaster Management at Tel Aviv University in Israel, told The Epoch Times.

“Why were all the extreme measures of school closures, vaccination of children, and lockdowns needed?” he added. [emphasis mine]

This data simply confirms what numerous health experts unwilling to play political games with the data have said from the beginning, that COVID was essentially similar to the flu, harmless to healthy people and only a risk to the elderly and those with serious chronic health issues. Just like the flu, if you are healthy you have no reason to fear it, and in fact, you should be unbothered about getting it as it will give you natural immunity, thus making the spread of the virus more difficult and reducing the risk to those whom the virus (and the flu) could kill.

Trump — along with a lot of other Washington officials — proved this point when they all got COVID in October 2020 and quickly recovered. As I wrote then:
» Read more

SpaceX confirms Starship prototype to fly on next Superheavy test flight

SpaceX has confirmed that it will use Starship prototype #25 to fly on top of Superheavy prototype #9 on the next orbital test flight.

Starship #25 does not include a lot of the upgrades that have been installed on later Starship prototypes, but by using it SpaceX tells us its focus on that next orbital test flight will be to test Superheavy. Using this less capable Starship gets it used and out of the way so that the kinks in Superheavy can more quickly be worked out.

It also means SpaceX’s prime focus on that second flight will not be reaching orbit, though the company will try nonetheless.

The article at the link also notes that this next orbital test cannot take place any sooner than August, based simply on engineering requirements.

Ship 25 is now at the launch site and awaiting a six-engine static fire test, with Elon Musk noting the pad modifications should be complete in a month, ahead of another month of testing before the next test flight.

This gives the FAA two full months to approve the launch license. I predict however that come August, that launch license will still not be approved, and we will still have no clear idea of when that approval will come. Nor should we be surprised if approval does not come before the end of this year.

Sinking the Bismarck

An evening pause: For Memorial Day, let’s have some history recounting one of the most important Atlantic naval battles of World War II, which took place 82 years ago this weekend. If the Bismarck had been successful in getting out into the Atlantic to attack convoys, Great Britain could very well have been starved into submission.

Hat tip Mike Nelson, who adds, “The ravages of WWII have faded from memory but we should never forget. Too many paid the price for the freedoms we so blithely take for granted.”

How real is the Texas legislature’s proposed ban on the racist “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” programs at colleges?

Failure Theater!

Failure theater? This week the Texas legislature passed a proposed ban on race-based “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) programs at its public colleges, requiring all such offices be closed within six months with the staff of such offices terminated.

The final legislation says universities cannot create diversity offices, hire employees to conduct DEI work, or require any DEI training as a condition for being hired by or admitted to the university. All hiring practices must be “color-blind and sex-neutral.” The bill would also prohibit universities from asking job candidates to provide written answers about how they consider diversity in their work or sharing how they would work with diverse populations, commonly known as diversity statements. Critics have equated diversity statements with ideological oaths, while supporters say they help ensure job candidates are prepared to support students from all backgrounds.

The legislation says university governing boards must adopt policies to discipline employees who violate these rules. Under the final version of the draft, university leaders cannot spend state money until they have declared to the state they are in line with the new law.

The bill still has to be signed by Texas’ Republican governor Greg Abbott, but that signature is expected.

Will this ban work? » Read more

North Korea notifies Japan of orbital rocket launch; Japan and South Korea protest

North Korea today sent a notification to Japan’s coast guard announcing a May 31st to June 1st launch window for an orbital rocket launch aimed at placing a military reconnaissance satellite into orbit.

Japan’s coast guard said North Korean waterway authorities revealed that the launch window was between May 31 and June 11 and that the launch may affect waters in the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and east of the Philippines’ Luzon Island.

A safety warning was issued by Japan’s coast guard for ships in the area on those dates due to the possible dangers of falling debris. The coast guard coordinates and distributes maritime safety information in East Asia, which is most likely why it received North Korea’s notice.

For North Korea to launch a satellite into space, it would need to use long-range missile technology banned by U.N. Security Council resolutions. The country’s previous launches of Earth observation satellites were viewed as missile tests in disguise.

Both Japan and South Korea have protested, saying this launch would violate UN sanctions, with one Japanese official claiming that country would shoot it down if it crossed over its territory.

It is unknown if Japan has the military capability to shoot down a rocket in flight. It has never tested such technology. North Korea meanwhile has done numerous suborbital missile tests in the last two years, and has three times in the past launched small satellites into orbit, the last time in 2016.

NASA inspector general finds more cost overruns in the agency’s SLS rocket program

Surprise! Surprise! A new NASA inspector general report [pdf] has found that the agency’s SLS rocket program is continuing to experience cost overruns and mismanagement that are “obscene”, as noted in this news report.

An independent report published Thursday contained troubling findings about the money spent by the agency on propulsion for the Space Launch System rocket. Moreover, the report by NASA Inspector General Paul Martin warns that if these costs are not controlled, it could jeopardize plans to return to the Moon.

Bluntly, Martin wrote that if the agency does not rein in spending, “NASA and its contracts will continue to exceed planned cost and schedule, resulting in a reduced availability of funds, delayed launches, and the erosion of the public’s trust in the agency’s ability to responsibly spend taxpayer money and meet mission goals and objectives—including returning humans safely to the Moon.”

Things are really much worse than this, mostly because it appears the Marshall Space Flight Center that runs the SLS program for NASA uses cost-plus contracts, which are essentially a blank check for contractors to run up costs endlessly, all of which the government must cover, and allows the process to go over-schedule against its own regulations. Furthermore, the cost overruns are for rockets and engines that are not newly developed, but in use for decades by Northrop Grumman and Aerojet Rocketdyne.

Note that this really isn’t news. Anyone with any intellectual honesty at all will know that every aspect of SLS and Orion is mismanaged and will go over budget and behind schedule endlessly. These problems are not a bug, however, but a feature of the system. The goals of SLS and Orion are not really to build a rocket to explore the solar system but to create an endless jobs program in congressional districts here on Earth. This misguided approach meanwhile robs America of a viable space effort because the money wasted could have actually been used to jumpstart a viable and competitive space-faring economy that actually achieves something.

NASA’s corrupt safety panel doubts Starliner is ready for its first manned flight in July

The head of NASA’s safety panel — which over the years has consistently missed the big safety issues while whining about things that did not matter — expressed strong doubts yesterday on whether Boeing’s Starliner manned capsule is ready for its first manned flight in July.

Speaking at a May 25 public meeting of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, Patricia Sanders, chair of the committee, expressed skepticism that NASA and Boeing will be able to close known issues with Starliner in time for a launch currently scheduled for as soon as July 21.

“There remains a long line of NASA processes still ahead to determine launch readiness” for the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission, the first crewed flight of the spacecraft with two NASA astronauts on board. “That should not be flown until safety risks can either be mitigated or accepted, eyes wide open, with an appropriately compelling technical rationale.”

This panel hasn’t the faintest idea what it is talking about, and should be ignored. It appears that NASA and Boeing are presently reviewing the capsule’s parachute system. Sanders however raised other issues which actually appear more designed to simply slow or even prevent the capsule’s launch.

The panel did the same thing during the development of SpaceX’s manned Dragon capsule, making irrelevant claims about paperwork and the safety of the company’s Falcon 9 fueling procedures that were ridiculous. Meanwhile, it has ignored much more fundamental numerous safety issues with NASA’s SLS rocket and Orion capsule, such as the agency’s plan to fly it manned using its capsule environmental system for the first time.

It is very possible that there remain serious safety issues with Starliner. I simply note that I would not rely on NASA’s safety panel to provide me an honest or educated appraisal of the situation.

As parents and students continue to flee public education the consequences are both good and dire


“But Brawndo’s got what plants crave. It’s got electrolytes!”

Two recent stories have clearly illustrated that the abandonment of the public school system, from kindergarten to college, is continuing unabated. It appears that the Wuhan lockdowns and mask and jab mandates helped to open the eyes of many parents and students as to the ineffectual and often harmful teaching going on in these institutions.

We begin with the precipitous drop in children attending K through 12 public schools.

Public school enrollment declined by 1.4 million students between fall 2019 and fall 2020, dipping to 49.4 million, a loss of nearly 3 percent, and remains at the lowest point in more than a decade. The decline could be closer to 2 million, according to a survey by Education Next showing that traditional public school enrollment as a percentage of all school enrollment declined sharply between 2020 and 2022.

Enrollment in traditional public schools fell from 81 percent to 76.5 percent of total enrollment during that period, while enrollment in public charter schools, private schools, and homeschooling grew by a combined 4.5 percent.

Those numbers suggest that nearly 2 million students left traditional public schools for other educational options between 2020 and 2022. The findings are based on the May 2022 survey of a national representative panel of more than 3,600 American adults commissioned by Education Next.

The abandonment in the last three years by so many parents of the public school system can be attributed to three things. » Read more

Spaceport startup launches small amateur rockets from ship

A company dubbed The Spaceport Company on May 22, 2023 launched two small amateur rockets from a ship in the Gulf of Mexico in order to demonstrate the logistics of such launches in advance of developing a floating launchpad.

The Spaceport Company, based in northern Virginia, launched on Monday 4-inch and 6-inch diameter rockets from a vessel about 30 miles south of Gulfport, Miss. The one-year-old company wanted to demonstrate its operations and logistics, which included getting approval from federal regulators, before developing larger floating platforms that would send satellites into orbit.

These offshore launches, as small as they were, were the first such ocean launches in U.S. history.

It appears that the company wants to offer an alternative launch option that might avoid the problems created by regulators in the UK that destroyed Virgin Orbit.

Bankrupt Virgin Orbit is dead, its assets purchased by a variety of different companies

After failing to find a single buyer for the whole company, Virgin Orbit is now officially dead as a company, its assets broken up during bankruptcy proceedings and purchased by several different companies.

Rocket Lab paid $16.1 million for Virgin Orbit’s main manufacturing facility in California, which it intends to use for developing its larger Neutron rocket. Stratolaunch paid $17 million for the company’s 747 airplane and related equipment. Launcher, a former rocket startup that is now owned by the space station startup Vast, paid $2.7 for the company’s test site in Mojave, California, which it plans to use for static fire engine tests of a rocket engine it is developing for sale to others. A liquidation company purchased other assets, while the various LauncherOne rockets under construction remain unsold.

It is essential the reasons for this failure are made very clear. The destruction of this company occurred because regulators in the United Kingdom prevented it from launching from within the UK for almost half a year, during which it could not perform other launches elsewhere and therefore earn revenue. It then ran very low on cash, and when the UK launch failed in January, the company no longer had the resources to weather to time necessary to complete the investigation, fix the problem that caused the failure, and resume launches.

For other rocket startups, it is very important to consider this story before committing to launching in the UK. where you will face major bureaucratic obstacles from its government. Until there is evidence that something has changed, it might be better to consider other launch sites.

“The deaths that we saw, I’m afraid, were medical malpractice at best and murder at worst.”

The quote in my headline today comes not from some wild-eyed partisan quack who wears a tin-foiled hat and sees comspiraces behind every corner. Instead, it is the considered and educated conclusion of Mike Yeadon, former Pfizer chief scientific officer of allergy and respiratory. His comments sum up the entire Wuhan panic quite concisely, and provide an excellent foundation to today’s essay listing the recent research into that panic and the disaster it caused worldwide. As Yeadon added,

“They lied to us about absolutely everything,” he said. “They lied to us about the magnitude of the public health emergency which never existed. They lied to us about the necessity of having measures like lockdowns, mass testing, social distancing, masks and it goes on and on.”

Nothing Yeadon says contradicts anything that any reasonable and cool-headed individual might have concluded, from day one of the panic. However, the advice of reasonable and cool-headed individuals was the last thing wanted from most governments and health officials worldwide. Nor was most of the general public interested either. Instead, fear ruled, and that fear was then used by a lot of corrupt power-hungry officials to garner more power for themselves, all to the detriment of everyone else.

Nor am I speaking out of turn. I have spent the last three years documenting the foolishness, the failure, and the downright ugliness of the COVID response. Today is simply another update covering the last two months. And sadly, the new data simply reinforces again and again what Yeadon says.
» Read more

SpaceX files to join FAA as defendant in lawsuit trying to shut down Boca Chica

SpaceX on May 19, 2023 submitted a motion to become a defendant in the lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and others that demands its Starship/Superheavy launchsite at Boca Chica be shut down.

“SpaceX’s Starship/Super Heavy launch program hinges on the FAA’s review and licensing decision challenged here. If the Court were to rule in Plaintiffs’ favor, the FAA’s decision could be set aside, and further licensing of the Starship/Super Heavy Program could be significantly delayed, causing severe injury to SpaceX’s business,” the company said in the motion, which was filed on May 19.

The full motion can be read here [pdf].

SpaceX’s motion notes that it has followed all government regulations in the decade since it established its Boca Chica launch site, and invested more than $3 billion in doing so. The motion points out that “the FAA does not adequately represent SpaceX’s interests” and that the company must participate because the lawsuit will have direct financial impact on its business.

In other words, the big guns are now being hauled out against this lawsuit, which on its face is somewhat weak. We shall see if it can withstand the much more aggressive fight that SpaceX is certain to put up.

Pushback: California loses big for trying to force churches to violate their religious beliefs

Mary Watanaba, head oppressor in California's health system
Mary Watanaba, head oppressor
in California’s health system

They’re coming for you next: After California health authorities in 2014 imposed a mandate requiring requiring churches to provide elective abortion coverage to its employees, four churches sued, and after a long court battle, have now won a $1.4 million settlement.

Alliance Defending Freedom [ADF] attorneys represent Skyline Wesleyan Church, located in the San Diego area, in one federal lawsuit, and Foothill Church in Glendora, Calvary Chapel Chino Hills in Chino, and The Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch in another. Both lawsuits challenged California’s abortion-coverage mandate. In both cases, the courts ruled that the U.S. Constitution protects the churches’ freedom to operate according to their religious beliefs, which include their belief in the sanctity of unborn lives.

The rulings in both lawsuits (here and here [pdfs]) not only release the churches from the illegal abortion mandate, they both require payments to ADF and the church’s local attorneys to pay all legal costs. Interesting, in both lawsuits Mary Watanabe, the director of the California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) was named, and in one case she was the only defendant. Unfortunately, she walks away unharmed, because DMHC will pay for everything, out of tax dollars.

What made the mandate especially egregious is that it was written in league with officials at Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, as shown by emails [pdf] between DMHC and those officials. » Read more

Three government agencies now investigating the safety of methane-fueled rockets

We’re here to help you! It appears that three different federal agencies have been tasked to investigate the safety of methane-fueled rockets, which SpaceX, Relativity, Blue Origin, and others are beginning to use for their rockets. It burns cleaner and with more power than kerosene and is easier to handle than hydrogen.

Yet, the federal government under Biden now seems worried a new innovation in rocketry is being developed. First, the FAA is studying the explosive potential of such rockets, according to Brian Rushforth, the manager of the innovation division.

The FAA has set up a test stand at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. A crane 43 meters tall will be used to drop stainless steel containers containing mixtures of LOX and methane. A series of tests is planned to start in June on three-week intervals to measure the explosive power of that propellant combination. A second phase, tentatively scheduled for next year, will conduct similar tests with varying velocities. He said the data from those tests will be shared with other government agencies, such as NASA and the U.S. Space Force, along with launch vehicle developers.

Meanwhile, NASA and the Space Force are jointly doing a separate study on how methane-fueled rockets threaten the launch range and other nearby launchpads.

In all three cases it can be argued that these studies make sense. It also can be argued that the Biden administration is putting pressure on these agencies to find ways to squelch this new technology, especially because it is central to the development of SpaceX’s Superheavy/Starship rocket, and there is real hostility in Democrat/leftist circles to Elon Musk. This latter argument is further strengthened when you consider the explosive possibilities of hydrogen fuel, used by the space shuttle for decades as well as NASA’s SLS rocket. I can’t imagine its danger is less than methane. If hydrogen has been determined to be okay why should methane now be considered a threat?

Either way, we can be sure of one thing: These studies will slow down development by SpaceX and others of these new methane-fueled rockets. They will also provide ammunition for outside environmental groups who want to file further lawsuits against these companies to stop their rockets from launching.

Pushback: Arizona drops trespassing charges against student for handing out the Constitution at Arizona State U

Tizon's evil table at ASU
Tim Tizon (r) discussing free speech with another student on
March 3, 2022 at that banned YAL table on the ASU campus.

They’re coming for you next: Today’s story is a followup of a February blacklist story. Tim Tizon, a Arizona State University (ASU) student at the time of the incident in March 2022, had been charged with trespass by the university when he set up a Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) table on campus to hand out free copies of the U.S. Constitution.

The location was a designated space for free speech and had not been reserved by anyone. His table was not blocking anything, as numerous witness testified. Yet, school officials showed up and demanded he leave, moving his table to a remote part of the campus where no one would see it. Apparently, Arizona State University officials were uncomfortable with the ideals of freedom and law as stated by Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Tizon however refused to move, and was charged with trespass, convicted, and sentenced to a fine $300 plus fifteen hours of community service.
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The old blacklisting against Jews has now been enthusiastically renewed on American campuses

The goal of college diversity programs for Jews
The goal of college diversity programs for Jews

They’re coming for you next: Rather than write a column today (I feel very burnt out by all that I read), I would instead like to point my readers to this detailed overview of the return of wide-spread and pervasive anti-Semitism at American universities, all under the guise of the “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) mantra, which in itself is merely a restatement of “critical race theory,” which is also merely a rewording of basic Marxist racism.

This quote sums the article up:

[T]he DEI regime is key to understanding the climate on college campuses for Jewish students. Our desire to quantify everything has led the network of Jewish advocacy groups in the United States to measure anti-Semitism by “incidents.” That is certainly part of it—but only part. It is unnerving to see a swastika or “from the river to the sea” scrawled in chalk on the sidewalk outside a campus Hillel. But what those incident reports don’t show are actions and thought leadership sometimes orders of magnitude more sinister.

In an atmosphere where DEI has great sway, merely to denounce anti-Semitic violence is to risk one’s job, reputation, career, livelihood. And to express one’s Judaism openly on college campuses in that atmosphere requires a dose of courage no one should be required to show just to live a day-to-day life. In 2021, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law surveyed “openly Jewish” college students and found that nearly 70 percent “personally experienced or were familiar with an anti-Semitic attack in the past 120 days.” In addition, more than 65 percent “have felt unsafe on campus due to physical or verbal attacks, with one in 10 reporting they have feared they themselves would be physically attacked.” And, the Brandeis Center continues, roughly 50 percent “have felt the need to hide their Jewish identity.”

Of those who hid their identity on campus, 30 percent did so because they were worried about how their professors would treat them. And why wouldn’t they worry? George Washington University sided with the professor who harassed Jewish students and retaliated when they objected—all in the name of “diversity.”

The story recounts many examples of this kind of bigotry, all endorsed and even instigated by the diversity officers at the colleges, with many of those stories already specifically described by me in past blacklist columns. What makes this article useful is how it takes a wider view to clearly illustrate how the administrative culture of academia is now hand-in-glove with anti-Semitism, and is working hard to encourage it at all levels.

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