Space Forum / Space Policy / September 2005

Hey all,
Since I've decided to delurk for awhile, I was wondering if anyone
happened to know off-hand how much of the development for Atlas V and
Delta IV was paid for by the Air Force?  AIUI, Boeing and LM were both

A clear majority on sci.space.policy seem to thing NASA's constellation
architecture is seriously flawed. I certainly do.
But NASA must have had a team of 100s working on this. Some of these
people are probably smarter than I am. Most will know a lot more about

You've all heard about SSTO (Single Stage to Orbit). The idea being that
with exotic fuels or advanced engines, the very low payload fraction
resulting from having to use multiple stages could be avoided, reducing
the cost of going into space.

Did someone ask which US political party supported space more?  It's
pretty clearly not today's neocon Republicans:
"Lawmakers Prepare Plans to Finance Storm Relief
By CARL HULSE

It's not looting.
What they're doing in New Orleans is scavenging.
I don't care if it's stereos or jewelry, any unclaimed property
within the city limits of New Orleans is rightfully

How does the proposed heavy lifter compare with the Saturn V in performance
terms?
Was there any thought given to simply remaking the Saturn V with appropriate
upgrades in the areas where technology has moved on? After all the B-52

If any country is going to research and develop solar power satellites,
isn't China a likely candidate?  They are eager to demonstrate
technical leadership, hungry for energy sources, would prefer to be
independent of foreign resources, enjoy megaprojects, and seem to take

OK, in the spirit of the oh-so-successful "Who Will Win X-33"
contest...
Do you think that between 2018 and 2023 (allowing five years for
schedule slips) we will see an American walking on the moon as a part

I'm thinking about how SRB "Stick" compares to Saturn IB
at: "www.geocities.com/launchreport/weblog.html"
- Ed Kyle

Paul Dietz, John Ordover, Brenda Clough and other Exploration Deniers
claim that humanity has no urge to explore. However, they are insular
nobodies attempting to project their own inner death upon humankind.
Psychologists agree that the drive to explore is a quintessential human

Well. Not yet.
But it will happen if you  don't lift your voice now.
You might and might not like the moon-mars program.
But at the moment it is all we got.

NASA merits little enthusiasm these days from space junkies with their
history of cancelled programs and an apparent "can't do without tens of
billions of dollars" attitude along with what seems to be attempts to
de-rail private space ventures, yet I have to defend the latest

Tonight's (9/25/05) Delta II GPS launch will be
the first powered by a:
"Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RS-27A main engine"
"http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/delta/delta2/gps_iir-14/fact_sheet.htm"

In his book, "Exploring Space", Robert Zubrin noted that the space
shuttle took an 'upside-down' approach to reusability.
This is because extra weight in upper stages of a rocket, as results
from a design for reusability, is more costly than extra weight in lower

At the President's direction NASA has chosen to essentially repeat the
one-off stunt first done forty years ago in the Apollo program.  A far
better use of public money would be to build demonstration Solar power
stations in Earth orbit that use microwaves to send pollution free