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.