Some years after the loss of Columbia in 2003, one of our interns focused on NASA's spaceflight supply chain. Naturally, if you're talking about a topic, he figured it would be a good idea to start with a definition of what he'd learned. "The NASA spaceflight supply chain is a bunch of groups and organizations," … Continue reading On the matter of NASA, supply chains, and time

“We have one data point. All we need is one more and we can draw a line.” This was one of our many meetings where we dwelled on lessons learned, the Space Shuttle, and what’s next in reusable launch. As far as jokes go, at least for number crunchers, this was a good one. Except … Continue reading Mind the gap

A curious thing happened along the way collecting data about rockets and spacecraft to see what patterns emerged over time. This week I published the mid-year “State of Play,” an assortment of graphs mainly, driven by the belief a picture does so much more to communicate than rows or columns or endless bullets on a … Continue reading The problems we want to have