Category Archives: NASA

Crew Safety Perspective

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Jonathan Goff

There’s been a lot of discussion over the past year or two on a few blogs (this one, Transterrestrial Musings, and also Wayne Hale’s blog, among several others) about the proper level of emphasis on crew safety for commercial crew … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Crew, Commercial Space, COTS, NASA, Space Policy, Space Safety, Space Transportation | 28 Comments

Random Thought: Is Commercial Crew Having to be “More Catholic Than the Pope”?

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Jonathan Goff

I realized I already made several of my points about the overemphasis of “safety” for NASA’s commercial crew program back in March, but I heard a recent line that helped me better understand what may be driving this. This probably … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Crew, Commercial Space, NASA, Space Policy, Space Safety | 6 Comments

Scooby-Doo Ending

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Jonathan Goff

I’ve noticed a meme over the past years that NASA would be able to accomplish more if it didn’t keep getting its direction changed every time a new President comes in, or every time there is a shakeup in Congress. … Continue reading →

Posted in NASA, Space Policy | 12 Comments

Random Thought: Should Safety be the Top Priority?

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Jonathan Goff

[Note: I just wanted to share a quick semi-baked opinion, and it was long enough that if I broke it up into a series of tweets, Ben Brockert and Will Pomerantz would probably remind me of this blog thing I … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Space, COTS, NASA, Space Policy | 10 Comments

Will the HLPT Reports Be Made Publicly Available?

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Jonathan Goff

Last year NASA put out a solicitation for companies to perform exploration architecture tradestudies incorporating Heavy Lift vehicles and potential advanced propulsion and in-space technologies. This was in support of NASA’s internal studies on the topic. I put a proposal … Continue reading →

Posted in ITAR, Lunar Exploration and Development, NASA, Space Transportation | 9 Comments

Thoughts on Jeff’s Talk Part 1: Subeconomic Resources

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Jonathan Goff

I finally got around to watching Jeff Greason’s ISDC talk last night (youtube link here), and it has got me thinking. In an effort to actually get some blog posts going again, I’m going to break this up into chunks … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Commercial Space, Lunar Commerce, Lunar Exploration and Development, NASA, NEOs, Space Development, Space Exploration, Space Law, Space Policy | 30 Comments

Anchor Tenancy

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Jonathan Goff

Keith Cowing posted an interesting notice over on SpaceRef today. Basically NASA is using authority in one bill to remove a restriction in their acquisition regulations on doing “anchor tenant” type contracts. Anchor tenancy agreements have been talked about in … Continue reading →

Posted in Commercial Space, NASA, Propellant Depots, Space Policy | 3 Comments

Another Fun Comment

Posted on February 22, 2011 by Jonathan Goff

Here’s another fun, somewhat provocative comment, made by a member of aRocket: All of this discussion assumes that space exploration is, of itself, a valuable goal.  As I see it, the only real deliverable of space exploration is that it … Continue reading →

Posted in NASA, Snark, Space Exploration | 44 Comments

Good Quote from Rep. Hall

Posted on February 18, 2011 by Jonathan Goff

From NASAWatch/Spaceref: “While it is true that prudent investments in science and technology will almost certainly yield future economic gains and will allow our knowledge economy to grow, it is also true that these gains can be thwarted by poor … Continue reading →

Posted in Launch Vehicles, NASA, Space Policy | 4 Comments

“Commercial” STS Modest Proposal

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Jonathan Goff

So, according to Rob Coppinger, USA has proposed to operate the Shuttle “commercially” as part of their CCDEV proposal. For a cool, $1.5B/yr over the next six years, they’ll provide two shuttle flights per year. Personally, I think this is … Continue reading →

Posted in Launch Vehicles, NASA, Space Development | 23 Comments