Topics we will cover....

You will see these and other areas opened for discussion as this blog unfurls:

Who am I? And why am I qualified to give an opinion?
Current Status of the Space Program
News and resources for public research
The ISS
NASA
• The RID System
• Fiefdoms
• The Crew Office
• Johnson and Marshall
ATK and the Solid Rocket Lobby
Constellation and Project Orion
Alternatives to Ares I / Ares V
The Commercial Space Sector
• There has always been commercial space
o Lockheed, North American, Boeing
• Yes, they worked with government customers - so will the Merchant 7
• They also ran businesses for profit
o If Merchant 7 can succeed, space will be revolutionized
President Obama’s Plan
Why we couldn’t continue previous path
Why the gap?
Soyuz: Its Merits and Pitfalls
The short memory of the American public
• We are here because of failures of the space shuttle
o Loss of Saturn series of boosters
o Shuttle performance not as advertised
o Challenger disaster
o Columbia disaster
o Vision for Space Exploration (2004)
The VSE and how it changed the shape of NASA
Outlook for the aerospace industry
• Industry not attractive for new hires
• Universities brightest are going to other industries
• Kids are distracted by non-Space attractions
• Technical know-how is depleting
o Retirements
o Layoffs
o Bad economy
o Attrition due to opportunities elsewhere
Exploitation of the engineer and the changing paradigms of Corporate America
• Employees not expected to stay with the same company long-term
• Programs increasingly being run more by financial and legal leadership as opposed to technical leadership
• Engineer not left to focus on the task at hand
Is funding the problem? Or is it what we do with those dollars?
2001: A Space Odyssey, revisited
Experience, Expertise and Exercise