NOAA’s low hanging problem — Part 1

SpacePolicyonline.com and The Weather Channel both posted stories last week about the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) “urgent” need for a new weather satellite. You can read the stories from both sites here and here. According to their posts, there is a projected satellite and data gap for sun-synchronous low earth orbiting (go here […]

I don’t think Hell has frozen over (yet)

Under the exasperated sighs of “Riiiiight” and “Surrrre,” Boeing has proudly announced on November 8 a “partnership” (read “monopoly”) with the United States Air Force (USAF). This partnership is supposed to help everyone involved to reduce “supply chain costs.” As I’ve noted before, the government and military’s acquisitions systems are broken. This system affects the […]

Too much XS–in government space

Every now and then, an article, like this one posted in USA Today, shows up. The gist of the article is: the Pentagon is looking for a “cheap” way to get satellites into space. In this particular case they’re looking at a “space plane” called XS-1. We’ve heard this before, with pretty much the same […]

SpaceX Merlin Rocket Engine LiveScribe Love

I decided give you all a little hint about the next post I’m working on. This old LiveScribe, um, video(??) is narrated by Tom Mueller, SpaceX’s Vice President of Propulsion Development. What that position typically means is he’s in charge of a lot people who know how to build rocket engines and motors, how to […]

Amateur hour with Zulu time–Part 4

This post only means to show some of the “weirdness” some government agencies go through as they run their programs. It is not meant besmirch any reputation of any agency or person. Anyone who doesn’t take any of this with the grain of salt it deserves, maybe should think seriously about yoga. But just so you […]