Space Forum / Space Policy / December 2004

Spaceflightnow is reporting that the inaugural
Delta IV Heavy vehicle underperformed so much, probably
during the boost phase, that the upper stage probably isn't
going to have enough propellant to be able to achieve the

The BBC is reporting that after the 2006 contract completion, the
Russian space agency will only fly US astronauts on a commercial basis.
They didn't say whether it is RKS, Energia or other institute saying
no, I'm assuming RKS or whatever their called now.

I recieved Starchaser's new supports magazine yesterday, and it
contained a very whinny response to Burt winning the X-prize is.
Basically they moan that Scaled had full funding, and that I've they
had been supported by Paul Allen they could havce won the prize last

The new Delta IV-H and (possible) Delta V-H ELV's still fall far short of
the performance of the Saturn V moon rocket. At the moment they have about a
quarter of the latter's  performance. I'm beginning to  wonder if it's even
feasible (both technically and economically) to even ...

Nate Douglas
Editor, RVR (http://home.mn.rr.com/rvr/)
Dec. 10, 2004
FOX News- whether they are "fair and balanced," the Fox News Team is

According to nasawatch.com, the names still in play are "Steidle and
Walker, and to a lesser extent, Kadish and Worden (despite Brownback's
endorsement)."
A little information on each:

Time now for the year in space awards. I've been struggling with some
of these categories so, in the spirit of wussing out, I have decided to
divide them into public and private space. It is, in any case,
appropriate for the new age we find ourselves in.

It is likely that, with efficient compression, alien radio data will be
indistiguishable from white noise.  So, even if we can pick up the
radio communications, it is not likely that our current pattern-finding
algorithms will find much of a pattern at all.  It will just look like

I am unable to get the actual updated orbital elements
right now (hmm... overloaded webservers...) but the JPL
NEO webpage now is indicating that today's latest updates
put the risk of 2004 MN4 hitting earth way way down.

This booster is beginning to look really impressive to me -- the recent
launch holds don't bother me at all.
In its current and EXPANDABLE forms, is this the kind of rocket
that can take people beyond LEO, or assemble the vehicle to do so,

Enjoy:
H.R. 5382, "The Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act", was passed by
the Senate this evening by unanimous consent.

As of midday 12/22/04, many of the better news outlets
have figured out that the inaugural Delta IV Heavy mission
failed, but others haven't.  For some reason, the Australian
press is more accurate than the US media on this so far.

Ariane-5 launched from Kourou
Paris LCI Television in French 1630 GMT 18 Dec 04
from report by French La Chaine Info TV on 18 December
   An Ariane-5 space rocket has just taken off from Kourou [French Guiana], carrying on board seven satellites, which will make it easier to ...

But, thanks to astronautix.com, I was able to find it out. (I was
worried it might even be classified, although for various reasons, that
was unlikely.)
I heard that a big rocket was being launched, but I didn't know *how*