Defeating the Homers, Haters and Boomers

by Bob Werb August 23, 2010 Advocacy

A friend of ours in DC describes opposition to the proposed NASA budget as the “homers, haters and boomers.” The homers want as much federal spending as possible in their home state. The haters reflexively oppose anything from an Administration they despise. The boomers are nostalgic for the 60s.

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Is NASA’s Constellation Program “Too Big to Fail?”

by Space Frontier Foundation May 3, 2010 Featured

The Space Frontier Foundation today dared members of Congress to apply their own rhetoric about taxpayer bailouts of the financial industry to the failed multi-billion dollar Constellation rocket program in their home states.

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Obama Champions Private Enterprise in Space over Bipartisan Support for Socialist NASA Program

by Berin Szoka April 21, 2010 Cheap Access to Space

Last Thursday I shared my thoughts in two short (<5 min) RussiaToday interviews on on President Obama’s big speech about NASA and his long-overdue cancellation of NASA’s white elephant known as “Ares I” rocket. (See Jeff Foust’s analysis here and here.) I was sorry to see the Administration decide to preserve the Orion capsule as a lifeboat [...]

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Change is Coming to NASA Space Launch

by Rick Tumlinson March 19, 2010 Advocacy

Change is coming to the US space program. At last! Real, dramatic and tangible change in both its effect and the course it will create in this nation’s future in space. It is long past time for us to try something different, as what we have been doing in our human space program since Apollo has been a failure of epic proportions.

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The Battle for a New Space Age Begins

by Rick Tumlinson February 12, 2010 SpaceFront

Isn’t it ironic that the agency which is supposed to be challenging the edge is taking so much heat for trying something new? I find myself teetering between laughter,  slipping into a Lewis Black moment and fear that this tiny step towards a pro-frontier space policy will be slaughtered the same way so many good [...]

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They Are Not All Shills

by Bob Werb February 8, 2010 SpaceFront

Over the last week or so a number of people, including me, have pointed out that much of the dissembling about the proposed NASA budget is being done by people with a financial and/or political interest in maintaining the status quo.  It has been particularity disturbing how often those representing vested interests fail to disclose [...]

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Space Frontier Foundation Praises Death Sentence for Ares

by Space Frontier Foundation January 28, 2010 Advocacy

The Space Frontier Foundation today praised the White House’s decision to cancel NASA’s failed Ares rocket programs and instead invest in private enterprise systems “inspirational” and “a giant leap in the right direction.”

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Ten Reasons Why NASA Must Kill Ares I & Buy Commercial Rides to Space

by Rick Tumlinson January 26, 2010 Enablers

If we can nurture a robust private sector human spaceflight industry, NASA saves taxpayers money and can focus on exploring—not driving space “trucks.” This will open space to anyone who can pay, bring market forces to bear on launch costs and eventually we’ll all get to go.

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Ares I: A Pass-Fail Test for Barack Obama

by Space Frontier Foundation January 23, 2010 Advocacy

The case against Ares I is overwhelming. It is overpriced, unnecessary, competes directly with private spaceflight providers and will take so long to develop that it has already created a several years long “gap” in US crewed access to space. The commercial alternatives are based on well-tested, mature systems currently used to launch U.S. military, scientific, and commercial satellites. Adapting these rockets to carry people is cheaper, faster and better.

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The Kennedy Legacy in Space

by Bob Werb December 18, 2009 Featured

When President Kennedy declared in 1962 that “We choose to go to the moon in this decade,” he could not possibly have known that our desire to recapture the lost glories of the Apollo years would put us in a holding pattern, repeating the same mistakes over and over, like a broken record, well into the 21st century. His speech was followed by seven years of breakthroughs—and 40 years of decline.

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