Category Archives: Government Spaceflight
NASA Authorization Act of 2010: Back to the Past
Senator Bill Nelson (D, Florida) introduced the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 to the Senate commerce committee last week, and it is slated for a committee vote and discussion on July 15th. If enacted, the bill would add one or more … Continue reading
NASA: The Moon Had At Least $88 Million Worth of Water Before We Vaporized It
Today NASA announced that the LCROSS mission found (and vaporized) around 100 kg of water near the south pole of the moon, worth around $88 million. NASA discovered this by impacting the Moon with two large objects: a Centaur rocket … Continue reading
Recommendations to the US Human Spaceflight Plans Committee (the Augustine Commission)
There are only two ways that NASA can achieve more lofty goals in space – spend more money, or reduce the cost. The Apollo program successfully used the former strategy, but in the process demonstrated the difficulty of sustaining an … Continue reading
"Final" Hubble Space Telescope Repair Mission and the Inevitable Death of Hubble
The inclusion of the new docking port on Hubble means that NASA will have more options when it comes time to service Hubble again or deorbit it, and it’s likely that a commercial option might be the cheapest and best. Continue reading
First Sample Return Mission From A Comet Performs Soft Landing at the Smithsonian
The first sample return mission from an object other than the Moon (I’m not counting solar wind), and the first space probe run by a friend of mine, principal investigator Dr. Don Brownlee, just performed a soft landing in the … Continue reading