All posts by date

  1. April 6, 2021 – Technology stagnation and NASA – problem and opportunity
  2. NASA’s (really) declining budget
  3. Sustainability and Space Exploration
  4. Reusability, priceless.
  5. NASA’s human spaceflight strategy, sustainability and growth
  6. Commercial space and six questions for a good story – Pt. 1 of 3 (wonkish)
  7. Commercial space and six questions for a good story – Pt. 2 of 3 (wonkish)
  8. The flow managers glossary
  9. Commercial space and six questions for a good story – Pt. 3 of 3 (wonkish)
  10. The case of the $5,000 socket
  11. Reusability – legs and fins or wings and things?
  12. X-33 – the middle path?
  13. I’m with the AI, and I’m here to help
  14. You can’t always get what you want, but…
  15. It’s not what it looks like – the cost of ISS per year
  16. Of external tanks and Starships
  17. The rise, fall and rise again of refueling – in space
  18. What’s old is new again – more on refueling in space
  19. Drawing the short straw
  20. The best laid schemes of NASA
  21. Revisiting commercial space and NASA
  22. A picture worth a thousand words
  23. New space, a Rorschach test
  24. Here there be dragons
  25. Please phrase your answer in the form of a question
  26. Parallels
  27. Not in our stars
  28. Contrasts
  29. The call, spacesuits, and everything else
  30. It’s a system
  31. The valley of death
  32. NASA – TNG
  33. The unreliable narrator
  34. When less is more
  35. Natural and Artificial Flavors Added
  36. Planning, for space exploration, development, and commerce
  37. Commercial space stations and NASA savings – would you like to do the math?
  38. Commercial space stations begin shifting the conversation to “why space”?
  39. The scale of NASA, the global space economy, and commercial space to come
  40. Space Councils, events, technology, and NASA are all evolving – but towards what?
  41. A little Space memorabilia – “The next giant leap”
  42. “In the end…”
  43. 2022 – How space policy can successfully meet up with space projects
  44. Unburying the lede
  45. A review of the ASAP review of NASA
  46. Breaking the speed of analogies
  47. Are you happy, on average?
  48. A book review – “XX” by Rian Hughes
  49. It ain’t over till it’s over
  50. Two reports, two NASAs?
  51. NASA – join the club?
  52. Life finds a way
  53. Make good choices!
  54. Inflation, NASA’s budget, and ambition
  55. Useful answers – the cost of NASA spacecraft
  56. A book review – “The Dawn of Everything” by David Graeber and David Wengrow
  57. Monty Hall, goats, the odds, and new rockets
  58. One word: Propellant
  59. Financial risk, spaceflight, and the questions we ask
  60. Of Starships and spaceplanes, and roads less traveled
  61. About Starships, and the (not what you think) reusability we need
  62. NASA, aerospace, and optimism – in search of the right setting
  63. Rocketry – is it more like baking, or cooking?
  64. NASA commercial space, the 16%
  65. The problems we want to have
  66. Mind the gap
  67. On the matter of NASA, supply chains, and time
  68. A book review – “Escaping Gravity” by Lori Garver
  69. Is this now?
  70. Commercial launch trends – what do you see?
  71. Flashback Friday – when once NASA reused a spaceship
  72. Space based solar power and not losing sight of the plot
  73. Flashback Friday – “Living and Working in Space,” 1983 NASA pamphlet
  74. Space benefits, stem cells, and why we’re just getting started
  75. Flashback Friday – “Space Benefits – today and tomorrow,” 1971 NASA pamphlet
  76. SUSIE, space launch, and the many journeys to full reuse
  77. Flashback Friday – Apollo 10 The Lunar Module in Lunar Orbit,” 1969 NASA pamphlet
  78. The nuts and bolts vs. NASA budgets. When criticism of a trend is not criticism of a project.
  79. Flashback Friday – “Skylab,” 1971 Martin Marietta fold-out poster “infographic”
  80. Starships mean gas stations in space, and so much more
  81. Flashback Friday – “Apollo 17” NASA pamphlet, 1972
  82. Technology, transforming the space sector, and us
  83. A checklist for commercial space and NASA
  84. NASA: making markets, not rockets?
  85. Launch costs – are we there yet?
  86. 2023 – Space technology, meet 2023
  87. Flashback Friday-Inside a Space Shuttle Mobile Launcher Platform during launch
  88. AI, art, writing, oh – and spaceplanes
  89. Reusing, refueling, partnering – and going nuclear
  90. Rising wages, meet technology adoption
  91. Revisiting the near future of human spaceflight
  92. “I didn’t understand a word you said.”
  93. It’s getting awful crowded out there
  94. About Starships and life cycles, but more too
  95. Writing, NASA, the space sector, and a two-year milestone
  96. A review: “NASA’s Moon to Mars Strategy and Objectives Development”
  97. The NASA budget – running in place or getting ahead?
  98. Space, playing the long game
  99. NASA, Moon to Mars, and the predictably likely and unlikely
  100. A NASA IG report, a story, and a question from the audience
  101. A review of “There is No Antimemetics Division”
  102. Trust the director
  103. Canceled X-planes, context, and NASA
  104. “Rescue Party,” a short story about NASA and SpaceX – written in 1946
  105. Voyager – Earth’s blog, a playlist, and an invitation
  106. Three graphs and a truck
  107. Flashback Friday – Dreams of a Space Shuttle 1977
  108. Flashback Friday – KSC Map 1992
  109. Europe, ESA, the EU, and the space sector – where to next?
  110. NASA, space projects, and context – a missing link
  111. The ISS: For every beginning there is an end, or not?
  112. 2023 end-of-year post
  113. 2024 – Sustainability and NASA’s human spaceflight program: We need to talk.
  114. SLS and Orion costs – the third rail of cost estimating
  115. R&D investment and “how” – the final frontier
  116. The NASA cis-lunar universe: LEO to Mars+
  117. Independent Reviews, being helpful, and what matters – in the end
  118. Technology stagnation, NASA, numbers, and vibes
  119. Space technology, what lies beneath
  120. Rants and reports and what they found…
  121. Space solar power, the trolley problem, and space technology
  122. Transitions, NASA, and next steps
  123. Transitions (Part II), Grand Central, and the Kennedy Space Center VAB
  124. My Book: An engineer’s journey in NASA – Space technology and policy on the final frontier
  125. 2025 – Though much is taken, much abides (Transitions Part III)
  126. Canceled
  127. My morning reads
  128. A book review – “When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-term Capital Management”
  129. Skinny cows and skinny budgets
  130. Physics, budgets, and Scotty
  131. NASA, beyond “the churn”
  132. “Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion…”
  133. “Checking the balance in your NASA account”
  134. “Mission Out of Control,” by Astronaut Dr. Charles J. Camarda
  135. Fighting fires, Orion, and what are they thinking?
  136. On soon-to-be Administrator Isaacman, R&D, and choices
  137. December 8, 2025 – “Artemis II will launch without crew, and Artemis IV will be the crewed lunar landing”