Saturday, August 22, 2009

Divesting from Death

Not all space contractors are death contractors, but many NASA contractors are.

My focus when not working on deals and my book has been to create the blog at Divest from Death to promote Antiwar.com. The divestment project arose from a conversation with Angela Keaton that caused me to reconsider some of Rick Maybury's ideas from his newsletter (to which I used to subscribe). You can read more about it at the above captioned blog.

The basic idea is simple. Why invest in companies that do business with the government, especially the ones that do business with the military or the CIA? Why not invest in companies that don't do business with the government as contractors of any sort?

When I posted the idea on my Facebook profile as a note, Eric Pavao showed up with some comments. He has already implemented this policy for his own investments. And he listed some stocks that he has researched which don't do business with the government.

Can this work? I don't know. I do know that it can work for an individual investor, to make you feel better. If you are profiting from death, consider the mangled bodies of those killed in the current wars.

It might work. Divestment was proposed for companies that supported Jim Crow in the South back in the 1950s and 1960s. Eventually, we got rid of Jim Crow and segregated facilities in most companies in America.

Divestment also worked in the 1980s as a way of focusing opposition toward the apartheid policies of the government of South Africa. Again, it worked. It might not be the only thing that brought down apartheid, but it was one thing in the "arsenal" for liberty. (I am not saying that I like the socialist gov't of South Africa of today. But I like apartheid not at all.)

So, give it a look see. Feel free to comment on what is questionable. We just started this project in June, and the site a few days ago. It is the first WordPress site I've run, and I can only imagine how many things could be done better. Please feel free to make suggestions.

Thanks for all your work on freedom. The world is a better place because you work on freedom.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Quick update

Just a quick update. We found some funding for our documentary film project. Meg is on her way to Newspace 2009. She'll be doing interviews and other work for the project all weekend. Anyone who is going to be coming in from the SF airport and wants to share a ride should contact her. "Destination Resorts in Orbit" meets another milestone!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Charles Bolden appointed NASA admin

Though his confirmation by the Senate is yet to come, here are some thoughts on a NASA administered by Charles Bolden (and prospective deputy admin Lori Garver).

Shadowcabinet.us/?p=158

"Which policy path should we anticipate would be chosen by Bolden? I believe the clues to his preferences are found in his job history. He has not been involved in private commercial space companies. His military and astronaut careers argue for a government-oriented outlook. His post-NASA career as a lobbyist for rocket contractor Alliant Techsystems and his position on the board of directors of Constellation contractor (and conglomerate) GenCorp suggest he’ll prefer a government dominated space policy approach."

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

GPS System to Fail - find your own way

Well, it looks like it is back to maps for the lot of you.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,520636,00.html

Fox News reports that the government, which thwarted Gerard O'Neill's efforts to create a private positioning service using hardware launched (and in space in several instances) on geosynchronous satellites, is as incompetent as ever. This time they plan to let the installed base of GPS receivers become useless as they fail to replenish the failing Global Positioning System satellites. Jerks.

Meanwhile, Geostar was forced out of business over a decade ago, as I recall. Kinda sad.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Night is falling - light many candles

See my blog on Bostontea.us

"Alongside Night is a whole new day. The civilisation which reached its peak in 1969, which put men on the Moon and sent passengers faster than the speed of sound to their destinations, no longer does those things. It is falling into decay, it has become corrupt, and the miserable little men and women who seek only power for themselves have screwed things up, badly."

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

China hits Moon

On Sunday, China's first lunar probe struck the surface of the Moon according to a story in Space.com.

The spacecraft, Chang'e 1, was crashed into a southern region on the lunar surface. No word yet whether it intersects the USA territory claimed in the series of landings on the lunar surface in the 1960s and early 1970s. (See map for details.)

Follow-up missions are planned for 2011 and 2013.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

XCOR offers free flight to Tuskegee airman

According to Andy Pasztor of the Wall Street Journal the start-up space tourism and rocket industry company XCOR is offering a free rocketplane ride to Tuskegee airman Le Roy Gillead. The company announced the free flight recently as part of its bid to promote its private space tourism ventures. Early flights of the XCOR rocket plane Lynx are planned for 2012. The company is also looking to raise additional capital.

NASA buys $480K house, 2 cars

According to a Fox news story NASA has bought a $480,000 house in Gainesville, Florida and some other stuff for two low level scammers. Here's the low down:


Fox News reporter Mike Levine writes, "Authorities say Sousan Anghaie persuaded NASA to award her company 'several fully funded contracts,' including nearly $600,000 to develop and study a uranium-related technology. But, according to an affidavit unsealed today in federal court, the couple allegedly used most of that money to buy personal luxuries — including their $480,000 home in Gainesville, a 2007 BMW and a 2005 Toyota Sienna sports van."


Hurray! NASA and the FBI are cracking down hard on these low level scum. No word yet on any investigation of the billions of dollars stolen by NASA and defense contractor companies.


Americans can rest easy knowing, as Levine concludes, "The affidavit said there is
probable cause' to believe that Sousan and Samim Anghaie stole federal funds, laundered money, and conspired to commit money laundering, all in violation of federal laws." No word on the many other failed NASA contracts to explore the universe, research new technologies, or build expensive boondoggles.


On the plus side, maybe NASA's entire budget could be used to buy houses and restart the housing bubble. Whee!


NASA delenda est.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

NASA drops satellite in ocean

Perhaps the difficulties maintaining the charade of global warming have finally gotten to them. Anyway, NASA dropped a satellite in the Antarctic Ocean today. Here's a link to Nationalist Geographic on the topic, but beware of popup windows and links to lies about globalist warming. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory is down, and unlikely to rise from the sea. Early indications are that the fairing covering the satellite failed to separate. NASA has had trouble in the past (e.g., Skylab launch) by failing to perform aerodynamic tests on fairings. Bit again, it seems.


NASA delenda est.

Monday, February 23, 2009

NASA Goddard Lies

Caught by Steve McIntyre and reported by Vin Suprynowicz in a recent editorial it appears that NASA Goddard has fudged its figures. It seems that they are determined to show global warming in spite of widespread evidence of global cooling. This time, the lying liars at NASA used September 2008 figures for every reporting station in Russia again in October 2008.


Mind you the lying liars at NASA have done this stuff before. McIntyre has also shown they added 0.15 degrees (Celsius scale) to every temperature reading in the USA from 2000 to at least 2007 for no reason at all. Subsequently, NASA Goddard pulled the data and blamed NOAA (the nationalist socialist oceanic and atmospheric administration) for the error. Then claimed an unusual hotspot in the Arctic, in spite of 30% heavier sea ice than last year.


Why lie? Because these scum get more money from government if you buy into their lies about global warming. NASA delenda est

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Top Story: Space Crash!

Flash News! Space crash! An Iridium satellite has collided in orbit with a Russian satellite. This appears to be the first such collision in Earth orbit. Both the Russian Cosmos 2251 satellite and the Iridium satellite were destroyed. Debris may slightly increase risk to the space station, though NASA spokes-creature Beth Dickey says the increased risk is within whatever NASA deems acceptable limits. Iridium Satellite LLC is a publicly traded stock company. This event seems unlikely to be good for earnings, though the company has a spare satellite on orbit which can be put in service within 30 days. (Earnings for Iridium have not been at all impressive.) NASA delenda est

More water ice on Mars

More evidence of water and ice on Mars makes Mars direct enthusiasts eager. Planetary Science Institute scientists studied Mars Odyssey, Viking Orbiter, Mars Global Surveyor, and Mars Orbiter images to find the ice and evidence of water in the Arabia Terra region in the northern hemisphere, and the Hellas Basin in the southern hemisphere. NASA delenda est

Washington Post critiques Mars Lab

JPL wants to send nearly a ton of rover to Mars. The nuclear powered Mars Science Laboratory would be huge compared to all other roving platforms to date sent to Mars. Plus, NASA is using a whole new landing technology, and generally not building on the Spirittype rover technology. Sad.


Washington Post staff writer Joel Achenbach describes the new landing sequence as a spacecraft dropped by parachute followed by: "At 65 feet above the surface -- the descent slowed almost to a hover by retrorockets -- the spacecraft will lower the rover from its belly using cables. When the rover touches down, explosive charges will cut the cables, and the spacecraft will fly off and crash about 200 meters away. And the rover will send a signal to Earth saying it has landed safely. If history repeats itself, the JPL engineers will have turned purple by that point. Adam Steltzner, one of the inventors of the sky crane system, remembers being unable to breathe during one of the earlier rover landings." NASA delenda est

Magellan telescope project

Big telescope project with lots of internationalist socialist partners. The telescope, to be built in Chile, will be composed of seven large mirrors. Six of these will be positioned around the edges of a seventh mirror using technology developed at University of Arizona. The effective size of the structure would be 80 feet (25 meters) across. Arguably, from its site in Chile the new scope would provide images ten times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope does from orbit. Now that NASA has gotten some astronomical observing mileage out of the Keyhole spy satellite technology, some actual innovation might be needed for a future scope. Perhaps the same techniques developed for the Magellan scope (to be complete 2019) might be used on the far side of the Moon at some future date. Of course, that would require an economically sustainable (that is, profitable) lunar exploration and settlement activity. Clearly not something NASA is ever going to be competent to provide. NASA delenda est

Space station re-supply "Progress" of a sort

Russians re-supply the internationalist socialist space station. Meanwhile NASA has opted not to kill another batch of seven astronauts by delaying the launch of the space shuttle at least until 20 February, possibly as late as 22 February based on current info. Assuming they ever get it to fly all the way to orbit, NASA's next shuttle mission would "complete" the space station which Reagan announced in 1984 and asked for within a decade. Hmmm. So, a 2009 completion date minus a 1994 requested completion gives 15 years late. And as I recall the original $8 billion budget (in 1994 dollars) for a 12-crew station has become $150 billion plus (I really have to review the methodology, probably very low) in 2009 dollars for a six-person station. Whee! And NASA stands to eat $1.3 billion more from the "stimuli" package. NASA delenda est

Monday, February 9, 2009

NASA: To massacre or not to massacre?

The bums at NASA are trying to decide when to launch the shuttle, with or without massacring another batch of astronauts. According to Robert Block of the Orlando Sentinel, cited above, work on flow control valves may force a longer delay in the shuttle launch anticipated for later this month. Our view? Delay the flight, or cancel the shuttle program entirely. NASA delenda est.

Foust on Virgin Galactic

Jeff Foust of the Space Review says that Virgin Galactic has presented information on its strategic business plans. Feedback from customers paying up to $200K per flight indicated that a larger spaceship would be needed to meet market expectations of a fun suborbital space trip. As a result, Virgin Galactic is looking at the suborbital scientific market as well. They have also evaluated a booster which could deploy from the White Knight 2 and launch small satellites into orbit. Possible per satellite launch cost? $2 million. NASA delenda est.

NASA joins choir of global warming alarmists

NASA is planning to launch its Orbiting Carbon Observatory presumably to lie more about climate change than ever before. Contractor Orbital Sciences got the money to build the thing. Curiously, they also got the money to launch the thing, from Vandenburg AFB, so, presumably into a Sun-synchronous orbit. Assuming their solid-fuel Taurus rocket works, the satellite's single point of failure instrument is to measure global atmospheric carbon dioxide. We're reminded that it was NASA data which had a Y2K bug exaggerating global warming. (So 1934 was the warmest on record.) NASA delenda est.

Mars axial tilt changed

Scientists at the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona say that their studies of water on Mars indicate a higher axial tilt within the last few million years, possibly as much as 60 degrees from its current tilt. NASA delenda est.

JPL drives Mars lander Spirit 12 inches

Jet Propulsion Lab scientists got Mars rover Spirit rolling again last week. Science Daily reports, from a JPL press release, "Spirit drove about 1 foot Saturday, during the 1,806th Martian day, or sol, of what was originally planned as a 90-day mission." NASA delenda est.

NASA budgets return to Moon

Stewart Powell over at Chron.com says NASA has a budget of $17.3 billion per year, which reminds us to ask what do we get for our money? Also, NASA plans to continue wasting money on another "men to the Moon" project to pretend they can get there by 2020 until the new president offers further direction. NASA delenda est.

Alan Bean do the Moon for Mars

Alan Bean, one of the astronauts who had the privilege to visit the Moon about 40 years ago, says going back to the Moon should be about going on to Mars. Which does make one wonder, why not just go to Mars Direct? NASA delenda est.

Conceptual lunar lander

Meanwhile, NASA has issued a request for proposals for a conceptual lunar lander. Maybe it can fly to a conceptual Moon. NASA delenda est.

Russia's own space station

In a move sure to inspire myocardial infarction in Baker Institute jerk George Abbey, Russia has announced plans to build a separate orbital station for its future lunar and Mars exploration projects. NASA delenda est.

Friday, February 6, 2009

6 February 2009

Today is 6 February 2009


Several news sites have been brought to our attention, and in our continuing effort to offer the best space news blogging resources to our readers, we are linking to them here.


Space-travel.com purports to carry stories on exploration and tourism. Don't be surprised if there are plenty of NASA cheerleading articles.


Mars Daily has not quite a new article on Mars every day. Some nice coverage here.


Moon Daily as you might expect has a few articles on the Moon each week.


Yes, a MidAtlantic spaceport, formerly the Wallops Flight Facility of NASA. Used to launch the occasional Scout rocket for Ling Tempco Vought (LTV) Aerospace. Briefly the site of the hopes and dreams of Space Services Incorporated of America and its Conestoga launch vehicle with a reusable payload until October 1995 or so when it blew up about 46 seconds after liftoff. Now Orbital Sciences is planning to use the facility as one location for their cargo missions to the Internationalist Socialist Space Station under a huge contract for NASA.


Got 25 million frequent flyer miles? Maybe you should trade them in on a trip into space. Virgin Galactic is offering one of its trips, and Virgin Blue's Velocity frequent flyer program is even giving away 25 million points to a lucky flyer on one of its terrestrial aircraft. No Virgin Blue miles? (Do they show blue films in flight on this airline?) No problem. Simply pay the $200,000 ticket price. Giving away a trip into space isn't what it was like in 1990, I can tell you that.


Iran made headlines, but no worries with the launch of a 60 pound satellite using their Safir multi-stage rocket. Look for terror-scary politicians to use the occasion to push for nuclear first strikes on and invasion of Iran. Meanwhile, space enthusiasts everywhere welcome Iran to the growing list of space satellite launching nations. If India can put a man on the Moon by 2025, Iran can put an Iranian in orbit by 2020. And maybe take some honeymooners to a space hotel.


Yawn, another extra-solar planet has been found. This one is less than twice Earth's diameter, but about 11 times Earth's density. In this case the planet was detected as it transited its star, which it orbits very closely. Its distance to its primary is about one-sixtieth the distance of Earth to the Sun. So, yes it is likely a terrestrial class planet, akin to Mercury, although much closer and much denser. It is among the smallest planets found outside our Solar System, due to the limits of our abilities to detect either the gravitational influence on a star's path through the sky, or the light from a star, using technologies now available. What we do know for certain, though, is that a great many stars in the galaxy have planets. So far over 300 planets around other stars have been identified. There is reason to think that of the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy, most have planets. Perhaps 100 billion stars or more have planets, and if the average number of bodies (dwarf planets, planets, large moons) in a given star system is around 20, something like two trillion planets would exist.


If your interest, like mine, is in traveling to planets in the universe which we can make habitable, at least for tourist visits, then the odds of planets in other star systems being "Earth like" aren't especially relevant. Nevertheless, with two trillion to choose from, one would expect hundreds of thousands to millions of such planets are out there waiting to be found.


Ground controllers screw up software, space station shakes like earthquake-prone Los Angeles. The shaking came during a re-boost of the space station by Russian booster rockets. Another re-boost planned for this week was postponed while the software team scratches their collective backsides. Meanwhile, plans continue to put a "full crew" of six on the space station full time later this year. (Make it seven, the traditional number of astronauts to be massacred in a batch when NASA screws up? Nah.) Does anyone remember when Ronald Reagan announced the space station project in 1984?


He said, "Tonight, I am directing NASA to develop a permanently manned space station and to do it within a decade." And NASA's initial design called for a space station within 8 years that would host 12 astronauts. Guess what? They didn't make the schedule. It wasn't until 1998 that the space station up there now began to be ready for crews. Nor did they meet their initial estimate of $8 billion - not by a very, very wide margin. Yet, to make sure it got funded by taxpayers, George Abbey and other evil, sinful NASA people attacked and destroyed, among other projects, the External Tanks company and the Industrial Space Facility. Best estimates by non-NASA sources put the cost at around $150 billion over 30 years, not counting the billions wasted on many false starts.


NASA scum delay another shuttle launch.


Ars Technica scoffs but Singularity University is launching.


Google and NASA team up to waste slightly less taxpayer money than if NASA did the virtual tours of Mars itself. We can count on NASA to let Google get all the ad revenues, though, so that's nice. It always feels nice when taxpayer data collected at great cost in lives and treasure is turned over to some group of yo-yos with an insider deal.


An Ariane 5 rocket is scheduled to liftoff shortly before Valentine's Day.


Judging only by their graphics this "space hotel" company may be some sort of scam. If they really have $3 billion of invested capital, they didn't spend any of it developing their logo, which looks like a child got loose with a blue crayon. They appear to be planning a whole new launch system, a training facility on a Caribbean island to be named, and a huge orbital facility built of various modules. While conceivably feasible within the price tag, it is interesting to wonder if construction on the space station modules actually began in October 2008 as scheduled. Their web site, meanwhile has bloated flash and dismal sound. The four-year time horizon seems aggressive, and we are not the only ones to suppose it might be a hoax.


Our old friend Jim Muncy is the subject of this Facebook group, aimed at getting him to open an account. Log into your FB page to see the lame "closed" group description.




Monday, February 2, 2009

3 February 2009

Today is 3 February 2009

Times of India reports on plans to place an Indian from the subcontinent on the surface of the Moon by 2025. Yes, India with its own inimitable brand of socialism has its own space program. We can only pray they sell it off to the private sector before it grows.



SpaceX has recently released a video showing their cartoon concept of their Dragon spaceship being launched by one of their rockets. Presumably one that isn't sabotaged by other defense contractor companies on Kwaj. The cartoon shows the payload being snagged by a robotic arm (presumably Canadian in origin) on the Internationalist Socialist Space Station and brought up close for docking. Then the thing re-enters with parachute recovery. The conceptual similarity to a Soyuz or Progress capsule flight is presumably deliberate. As you probably know from their press release the socialists at NASA awarded a $1.6 billion contract to SpaceX for cargo re-supply of the space station. Follow-on flights might screw the taxpayer out of up to $3.1 billion. A similar contract was awarded to Orbital Sciences. Stimulate that.




Arch fiend and worthless space socialist George Abbey among others at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University have written a stupid report on what President Obama should do to further screw up the space program. The ever witty Mark Carreau of the Houston Chronicle blogs about their blather. Among other things that seem recklessly idiotic about their proposals, the Baker Institute collective would extend shuttle flights to 2015, giving NASA five more years to massacre batches of astronauts seven at a time.



Tariq Malik of Space.com reports on the launch of the Russian Koronas-Foton spacecraft by one of their Tsyklon launchers. The spacecraft studies solar weather.



A comprehensive report on upcoming space launches is available at Space.com.


2 February 2009

Today is 2 February 2009



A look at the night sky can do wonders for your sense of perspective. Here's a report on what you might see on a clear evening or morning.



The war on drugs is a despicable war on individual liberty. The people involved should be ashamed of themselves. Each police officer, politician, and bureau-rat involved in prosecuting non-violent mala prohibitum drug-related "crimes" (which don't harm people or property, so they aren't properly crimes at all) should crawl over broken glass to the home of each person whose life they willingly destroyed. Here's how some pot growers got caught in Switzerland: Google Earth satellite and aerial surveillance is nearly everywhere - except classified government sites.




Space station astronaut clowns waste taxpayer money, film whenever they bother to broadcast.



Two of the most despicable socialist scum, Gene Roddenberry and wife, are to be kicked off the planet. Or some of their ashes will be sent into space, anyway. Too little, too late if you ask me.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Today is 1 February 2009


Virgin Galactic, the frontrunner in the new suborbital space tourism industry, says everything's fine with WhiteKnightTwo. They use WhiteKnightTwo as an airborne platform for launching their suborbital SpaceshipTwo.



Meanwhile, New Mexico has obtained some permits to build a passenger space "port" for Virgin Galactic, among others, to use.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Today is 31 January 2009.



Florida investigates possible impropriety in sweetheart deal and nest feathering scandal involving space tourism training facility. We are reminded to keep government far from private sector space projects.



Russia terminates space tourism flights. The claim is that the Internationalist Socialist Space Station must have a full flight crew of six astronauts, so no tourists can be accommodated. What do you want to bet that NASA put the death to Russian space tourism with some vexatious and egregious "ruling"? NASA has hated space tourism from the start, and is run by evil men and women who hate freedom. Look what they did to MirCorp? Look what they had the IRS do to Walt Anderson? Jerks.


Mind you, this should increase interest in private space hotels, such as Bigelow's project.


The scum at Rotary couldn't help fawning over out-going NASA Administrator Michael Griffin. Look at this pretty trophy they gave him, for doing not very much to open the space frontier to human settlement. Arguably, he didn't do much to dramatically hold back human settlement, either. We'll have to judge his merits a little later when more of the facts are in place.