vxbush 8/29/2022 6:05:42 AM

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JCM 8/29/2022 7:03:59 AM

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I got up early to watch the Artemis I scrub!

vxbush 8/29/2022 8:21:43 AM

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In #2 JCM said: I got up early to watch the Artemis I scrub!

Heh. Was it everything you hoped it would be? 

Occasional Reader 8/29/2022 9:45:34 AM

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Another Biden foreign policy triumph is in the making.

https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2022/08/29/breaking-iraq-presidential-palace-stormed-us-embassy-helicopter-evacuation-n1624928

Occasional Reader 8/29/2022 10:08:34 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 1:

Thanks.  Yeah, you may be on to something there.

JCM 8/29/2022 10:23:28 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 3:

Thrilling!

Almost as good as watching paint dry, and grass grow!

Nothing at all!

I'm at the same time angry about Artemis, and impress by the machine.

NASA bungled our launch systems at the end of Apollo, it took too long to bring about the Shuttle, and when the shuttle was flying they weren't developing the next launch system. After the Shuttle was ended we started the Constellation program. That got cancelled. The politicians were pissed that so many jobs in so many states were lost. So they restarted Constellation as Artemis, with mandates for so many different jobs in so many different states. Artemis in essence wasn't a space program it was a political jobs program.

As a result it costs way too much for what it does. It still launch a small capsule, no improvement over Apollo.

The machine is impress, but it already a white elephant and obsolete.

Occasional Reader 8/29/2022 11:17:29 AM

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Kherson counter-offensive has finally begun(?):

https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=52418

vxbush 8/29/2022 11:34:42 AM

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In #6 JCM said: As a result it costs way too much for what it does. It still launch a small capsule, no improvement over Apollo. The machine is impress, but it already a white elephant and obsolete.

Yep. Can't have engineers in charge of a space program when there is political capital to spend, so we get Artemis. 

Occasional Reader 8/29/2022 1:37:55 PM

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Buzz: Be careful out there.

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/open-season-jews-new-york-city-hate-crimes

buzzsawmonkey 8/29/2022 1:46:47 PM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 9:

Saw that.  Actually, I know the author, slightly; he comes to my synagogue now and then.  Nice young fellow.

Kosh's Shadow 8/29/2022 3:52:10 PM

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In #2 JCM said: I got up early to watch the Artemis I scrub!

I made sure I got into work for it - even though checking the website make me think it would get scrubbed.

Kosh's Shadow 8/29/2022 4:06:02 PM

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Reply to JCM in 6:

The Shuttle was trying to do too much at once, as if in 1910 the Wright Brothers could only get money for their next airplane if it could fly 50 people cross country nonstop. 

What was needed was experimentation, and a lot of it. Instead, decisions that seemed right at the time got locked in and could not be changed because that would cause a major redesign.

Then the project funding was cut back; it originally was supposed to have a reusable first stage booster that would fly back, but that was expensive and replaced by solid boosters. We saw how that worked out.

SpaceX can afford to make mistakes and learn from them (with unmanned rockets). If one blows up, and no one is hurt, not so bad. If a NASA rocket blows up, even if no one is hurt, there are cries that it is a waste of taxpayer money, but the real waste is the lack of funding up front to get things right.

JCM 8/29/2022 4:32:53 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 12:

The original NASA plan, Stepping Stones, based on the X-planes, especially the X-15 and Dyna-Soar was that experimental route. Get to orbit, build a station, and launch missions from the station where they aren't constrained by the launch vehicle.

But politics mandated the MISS (Man In Space Soonest) which gave us Mercury, Gemini, Apollo to to beat the Russians to the moon.

Kosh's Shadow 8/29/2022 4:40:29 PM

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Reply to JCM in 13:

Exactly. And then, after we showed the Rooskies who had the biggest, er, rocket, the US needed some reason to continue in space, so sold the Shuttle as a way to bring down launch costs, and make military access to space easier. It failed in that.

NASA should stick to the NACA model - basic research and let private industry do the rest.

(NACA gave us improved airfoils; showed that pistion engines could have cowls for less drag and still get sufficient cooling; etc., but left it to private companies to design and build aircraft.)