SLS–Play Out the Line? Or Cut Bait?

I happened upon this editorial today: NASA’s New Rocket Is Huge but so Is Its Budget It’s an article from “The National Interest,” so approach it with a little skepticism. As with these kinds of writing, there’s some truth and some spin. Relative to nearly everything else government, NASA’s budget is not that big at […]

May 25, 2018: Weekly Spatial Resolutions

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has invited Australia’s new space agency to help it reach the moon Since Blue Origin is used to testing rockets in godforsaken places, the Australian Outback is probably a logical place for the company’s considerations in plans to launch rockets. I don’t know if Australians should be excited, because “space tourism” […]

“Minky”-shines In the French Space Sector

Ariane chief seems frustrated with SpaceX for driving down launch costs Whoo-boy! An American summary of an English translation of a German interview of a French space launch manufacturing director. This seems like some comedy from the 1960’s, and only Clouseau is missing. I had to make sure this Ars Technica story was on the […]

May 18, 2018: Weekly Spatial Resolutions

The Mystery of the ‘SpaceBees’ Just Got Even Weirder We’ve talked about the SpaceBees issue a few times on our podcast, “The Mission Readiness Review.” In case you don’t know, Swarm Technologies, a Silicon Valley startup, launched some very small satellites for a few federal agencies on an Indian rocket early this year. But […]

Fast Food, USAF, Teams, and Motivation, Part 3

How does an organization’s leaders lose the trust, confidence, and demotivate motivated individuals in one fell swoop? Normally, that sort of thing would take time and a series of circumstances, but for me, one big, rotten deal happened to a friend of mine–in the name of the “morale and well-being of the crew force.” On […]