Space exploration and development – more than numbers
I have not written a blog in about six weeks, having chosen to dedicate my time to what has become an unexpectedly intensive writing project. Yes, a novel. And so much for optimistic schedules. I hope to complete this around the end of the year, or at least have a complete first draft. Of course, … Continue reading We’ll always have data
This is a story about technology, not as a matter itself, contained and explainable with a spreadsheet, but as an action inseparable from a reaction. And oh, that reaction. It’s ancient times, circa mid-1990s, when the internet is something speeding along at 28.8 kilobits per second, on a good day. The normal routine is to … Continue reading Technology, actions, reactions, and a way forward
A few weeks ago, the US Department of Defense canceled a project to upgrade the ground control systems for the Global Positioning System (GPS). Of course, this is not the first instance of a software project in the government (or the private sector) run amok, this time around having spent $6.7 billion, multiples of the … Continue reading The DOD, NASA, and an Upper Stage canceled – again
On Wednesday, April 1st, 2026, the NASA Space Launch System (SLS) finally launched the Orion spacecraft with a crew. As I write this, Orion is about to begin its lunar flyby. This, by the headlines, is a moment of celebration for NASA and the space community, even as the journey is not yet complete and … Continue reading Artemis II, and SLS/Orion. An exclamation mark on opportunities squandered.
Curious minds want to know. If we look at the time it takes SpaceX to reuse a first-stage/booster, the days between one launch and a relaunch, and the number of times that booster is reused, what do we see? Surely some SpaceX employee has looked at this, too. Though I’m reminded of a time decades … Continue reading SpaceX’s 1st stage/booster reuse, by the numbers (wonkish)
Imagine a world turned on a very peculiar lathe of heaven where risk cannot be measured. A sure-footed step and a dangerous ledge share the same outline. Robust designs look no different than those balanced on assumptions. A schedule measured in months is indistinguishable from one that could slip into years. Here, uncertainty flourishes. How … Continue reading Artemis II, a calculated risk, or something else entirely?
This should be the headline, one day soon, in a world where these decisions are primarily technical and think long term. At no extra cost, while we wait for lunar landers, Artemis II uncrewed and Artemis III as the first flight of SLS/Orion with crew, would close out all non-lander risk. Artemis IV, with the … Continue reading “Artemis II will launch without crew, and Artemis IV will be the crewed lunar landing”
This will sound suspiciously improbable, a story that changed hands too many times, becoming colorful Kennedy Space Center folklore. Unlikely, and untrue. Not so, as my story here today comes first-hand. I was there. Once, at Kennedy Space Center, I was fighting a raging fire. This was a real fire, a blazing two-story fire at … Continue reading Fighting fires, Orion, and what are they thinking?
If NASA were your bank account, investments, or 401K, after seeing the headlines, would you check your balance more often or less? Our very human “negativity bias” says we might check more often, an overreaction to possible danger. It’s what got us here. You and me. We are the children of creatures that spooked more … Continue reading Checking the balance in your NASA account
For anyone who has seen the Sci-Fi TV series “The Expanse,” it is tempting in these times to take a cue from Amos about “the churn.” If unfamiliar with the story, it’s the oft-used trope of (seemingly) ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events. Finding yourself acting “above your pay grade” is still a thing, … Continue reading NASA, beyond “the churn”
I published this piece over at LinkedIn as an "article". Re-posting here. “I canna’ change the laws of physics, Captain!” -Scotty, Chief Engineer in Star Trek You have all seen it, the news about NASA. The layoffs, the plans for budget cuts to science, technology and R&D, and to cancel the SLS and Orion projects … Continue reading Physics, budgets, and Scotty
“Next, seven skinny, bony cows came up out of the river. I have never seen such terrible looking cows anywhere in Egypt. The skinny cows ate the fat ones. But you couldn’t tell it, because these skinny cows were just as skinny as they were before. At once, I woke up.” –Genesis 41: 19-21 On … Continue reading Skinny cows and skinny budgets
Space technology and policy on the final frontier It was time. I have published my prior writing in a more unified format as a book – “An engineer’s journey in NASA: Space technology and policy on the final frontier.” It’s difficult to describe the process of looking back and making sense of my years of … Continue reading An engineer’s journey in NASA
"I think it’s fair to say that our review group drew the short straw, and I drew the shortest by having to actually do this presentation." Sally Ride, 2009 Dr. Sally Ride at the 2009 Review of Human Space Flight Plans Committee. It is August 2009, and Sally Ride is about to present charts about … Continue reading Drawing the short straw
On my shelves sits a childhood book “Planets and Spaceflight,” published in 1957 by General Mills. The front cover is “Planets,” and the rear is “Spaceflight,” full of vivid descriptions and beautiful artwork of the many places to go and how we will get there. The publisher is best known for Cheerios, so I’m sure … Continue reading What’s old is new again – more on refueling in space
Zapata Talks NASA 