Reactions I've seen in various Facebook groups have been generally positive. This fellow is passionate about space travel and has business experience. Chumminess with Musk is the #1 complaint, followed by lack of political experience. But NASA and SpaceX are deeply intertwined, like it or not, so maybe being a Muskman isn't all bad. I suspect that there might be more emphasis on manned spaceflight over robotic exploration.
Canceling the SLS rocket would require congressional approval, and the launch vehicle has the support of lawmakers in several key states, including Republicans in Alabama, where NASA placed the SLS program office. And NASA is currently stacking the second SLS rocket inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the Artemis II mission, which will carry four astronauts around the far side of the Moon on the first human voyage to deep space since 1972.
NASA has penciled in the first Moon landing for the Artemis III mission, which officially is slated for no earlier than 2026 but will likely be delayed to wait for the Starship lander and new commercial spacesuits to be ready.
For the Artemis II flight to happen in late 2025, or more likely in 2026, it will certainly need to use the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft. But there are other architectures that Isaacman and the Trump administration, which counts SpaceX chief Elon Musk as a key adviser, will be open to considering for later missions.
One low-hanging fruit for an early budget cut and change in approach might be the upgraded SLS Block 1B rocket, which NASA's inspector general estimates will cost $5.7 billion. This larger, more powerful SLS rocket is not required for the first Artemis lunar landing, or any Artemis lunar landing mission, for that matter. Another option might be to cancel the Gateway space station to be placed in lunar orbit.
Overall this seems to be a wise appointment, unlike nearly all of trump's cabinet. Nelson wasn't great and there's room for rethinking NASA's approach.
Reactions I've seen in various Facebook groups have been generally positive. This fellow is passionate about space travel and has business experience. Chumminess with Musk is the #1 complaint, followed by lack of political experience. But NASA and SpaceX are deeply intertwined, like it or not, so maybe being a Muskman isn't all bad. I suspect that there might be more emphasis on manned spaceflight over robotic exploration.
Canceling the SLS rocket would require congressional approval, and the launch vehicle has the support of lawmakers in several key states, including Republicans in Alabama, where NASA placed the SLS program office. And NASA is currently stacking the second SLS rocket inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the Artemis II mission, which will carry four astronauts around the far side of the Moon on the first human voyage to deep space since 1972.
NASA has penciled in the first Moon landing for the Artemis III mission, which officially is slated for no earlier than 2026 but will likely be delayed to wait for the Starship lander and new commercial spacesuits to be ready.
For the Artemis II flight to happen in late 2025, or more likely in 2026, it will certainly need to use the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft. But there are other architectures that Isaacman and the Trump administration, which counts SpaceX chief Elon Musk as a key adviser, will be open to considering for later missions.
One low-hanging fruit for an early budget cut and change in approach might be the upgraded SLS Block 1B rocket, which NASA's inspector general estimates will cost $5.7 billion. This larger, more powerful SLS rocket is not required for the first Artemis lunar landing, or any Artemis lunar landing mission, for that matter. Another option might be to cancel the Gateway space station to be placed in lunar orbit.
Overall this seems to be a wise appointment, unlike nearly all of trump's cabinet. Nelson wasn't great and there's room for rethinking NASA's approach.
My brother, who catalogs WAYYYY more technical information on the Apollo program than you'd ever care to read on his website, places a great deal of importance on the future of space exploration. He's been given behind the scenes tours of NASA and access to people and information there. His site was at one time (maybe still?) linked to by the Smithsonian for information on the Apollo Program, etc. Anyway.... I say all that to say this: Whatever you think of Musk, my brother is a massive proponent of Space X. It's where all the smartest and brightest rocket scientists, engineers, and creatives went, and they are very very good at what they do. He says he was rooting for Boeing to also have success, but what is left there is a bunch of old fashioned engineers that are stuck with old ideas and old processes and ways of doing things. That's why you continue to see them come in waaaaaay over budget and have so many failures.
It's 109 first team All-Americans.
It's a college football record 61 bowl appearances.
It's 34 bowl victories.
It's 24 Southeastern Conference Championships.
It's 15 National Championships.
At some places they play football. At Alabama we live it.
msduncan wrote: Fri Dec 06, 2024 1:46 am
My brother, who catalogs WAYYYY more technical information on the Apollo program than you'd ever care to read on his website...
Somewhat off topic, but whatever
Back in the late sixties when I was going to high school in Cocoa Beach, FL, I had a girlfriend who's dad was in middle management for North American Rockwell. And he had this neat news reference for Apollo which was just for executives and the media (or the press as they were called back then). And somehow I ended up with it. Very cool.
Years later I was working as an engineer on the Space Shuttle program and we were moving to new offices in the VAB. So I was scouting out the new office location and there was this large garbage bin and it was full of old Apollo era documentation. I rescued a few items from the bin, including two Saturn flight manuals. SA 506 was the Apollo 11 flight, SA 508 the Apollo 13 flight. Also very cool
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
I ended up with it. Very cool.
