Tag: nasa

I’d put this NASA TRAPPIST-1e poster up on my wall…

…except that I’m running out of walls:

You may get another version of this here.  Also: NASA gives this stuff out freely – as it should, of course – so if you just wait a bit somebody will be selling prints of this pretty shortly. And usually pretty reasonably, because of all the other people selling prints of this.

NASA announces spiders. From Mars.

I simply can’t imagine why they’d come up with that particular name.

No, wait, I can: Continue reading NASA announces spiders. From Mars.

So… we’re abandoning the International Space Station?

Looks like that might happen.  Only ‘temporarily,’ of course.

Astronauts may need to temporarily withdraw from the International Space Station before the end of this year if Russia is unable to resume manned flights of its Soyuz rocket after a failed cargo launch last week, according to the NASA official in charge of the outpost.

Mind you, ‘temporarily’ in bureaucrat-speak means ‘a unit of time ranging from the sound of the beep [beep!] to five minutes before the end of time…’

Via Glenn Reynolds.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Hey, do you know what 787 billion dollars could have bought us in 2009?  A functional manned space program!  Then we and the ISS wouldn’t be dependent on the Russians’ ability to launch rockets that don’t blow up!  No, wait, forgot: Texas, Alabama, and Florida won’t be voting Democratic in the next Presidential election.  Never mind…

This isn’t heartwarming.

Much as I hate to disagree with Ace, it is heartbreaking.

Thirty years ago, the first space shuttle launched into the stratosphere. Chris Bray and his father Kenneth watched — and took a picture. Then last Friday, the shuttle Atlantis took its final trip. Again, the Bray men were there. And again, the two snapped a photo to capture the moment.

Mostly because it reminds me of a rather galling line often attributed to Jerry Pournelle: “I always knew I’d live to see the first man walk on the Moon. I never dreamed I’d see the last.” Not quite the same lyrics, but damned if the tune isn’t the same.

But, hey: the Russians can still give us rides to orbit, right?

Moe Lane

PS: Those Democratic party SOBs in Washington won’t trust us to pick out our own light bulbs: what makes you think that they’ll let us have our own private manned space program?  The only real question is which government agency they’ll use to stamp it out: Labor’s the obvious choice, but don’t forget either the EPA or BATFE, now that it’s got ‘Explosives’ attached at the end.  Bureaucrats love turf expansion, don’t you know.

The newest Mars… anomaly… pic.

Coming soon to a government conspiracy thread near you:

It’s supposedly on Mars… well, I think that it’s just pixel noise in Google Earth: Mars, or whatever the technical term is. I just use the Magic Thinky Box; I don’t pretend to be a toolmaker.  On the other hand, Google Earth looks interesting, so there’s that.  Anyway, I figure that it’s not real, and that NASA can either release high-resolution photos of the area that won’t show it (thus proving that there’s a cover-up going on), or not have any high-resolution photos of the area (thus proving that there’s a cover-up going on).   Note that there’s no actual way for NASA to prove that there’s not a cover-up going on; there never is.

Moe Lane

PS: If it was real NASA would have broadcast this to every corner of the world, coupled with an unsubtle request for some money, please*.  Because we didn’t put it there – people are aware that getting payloads to orbit is not exactly a subtle exercise at our current level of technology, yes? – and even a government bureaucracy can recognize a hand-wrapped PR gift from God when it sees one.
*’Some’ being defined as ‘quite a lot of money, really.’

CPAC 2010: Rep Rob Bishop (R, UT-01).

This CPAC interview with Rep. Rob Bishop (R, UT-01) seemed relevant, given the post that I did earlier on the White House gutting 23K space-reliant jobs in a politically-unreliable Democrat’s Congressional District:

Rep. Bishop is active in space issues, and in fact went into greater detail recently about why said gutting is ill-advised. The op-ed is well worth reading, if probably not making an argument that’s unfamiliar to my likely readers…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Obama administration kills 23K space-related jobs in Florida.

So they can spend that money right here on Earth:

Revised projections now show that about 23,000 workers at and around Kennedy Space Center will lose their jobs because of the shuttles’ retirement and the new proposal to cancel the development of new rockets and spacecraft.

That sum includes 9,000 “direct” space jobs and — conservatively speaking — 14,000 “indirect” jobs at hotels, restaurants, retail stores and others that depend on activity at the space center, said Lisa Rice, Brevard Workforce president.

…(via Geraghty) more accurately, so that they can spend that money right here on Earth, and in districts that aren’t R+4 and that aren’t represented by a Democrat who voted against health care rationing.  I mean, seriously: they would have eventually killed the space program anyway.  But being able to do it in a way that would get maximum revenge against an apostate?  That’s just gravy.

Moe Lane

PS: You know, if we absolutely had to elect a Democrat President, it’s a darn shame that we didn’t at least elect the one who said (bolding mine):

“We cannot cede our leadership in space. That’s why I will help close the gap and ensure that our space program doesn’t suffer when the Shuttle goes out of service by working with Senator Bill Nelson to add at least one additional Space Shuttle flight beyond 2010; by supporting continued funding for NASA; by speeding the development of the Shuttle’s successor; and by making sure that all those who work in the space industry in Florida do not lose their jobs when the Shuttle is retired – because we cannot afford to lose their expertise.”

Oh, wait. We did.

PPS: I had a nice chat with Republican FL-24 candidate Tom Garcia at CPAC, including some discussion of space issues.  Just saying.

Crossposted to RedState.