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One of the selling points of the Obama space policy is that it proposed to enable a commercial space transportation industry. No longer would NASA build expensive, in-house space ships like the shuttle or the proposed Orion/Ares 1. As it turns out, by "commercial" the Obama administration means something akin to how it has treated the automobile industry, banks, and other sectors of the economy. The government will not only be the principle investor, but it will also be, in the absence of commercial markets for space transportation, the sole customer. This is "commercial" only in the sense that the...

Recently NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver made a speech to the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics on what she termed "the next fifty years in space." The address was primarily a defense of the controversial Obama space policy. Beyond some of the soaring rhetoric and some good, but vague wordage about the roles of commercial space and NASA, one could not help but notice how tinny and small the Garver, which is to say the Obama, vision of the next fifty years in space really is.

One of the talking points coming out of the Obama administration is that the one thing wrong about the new space policy that cancelled the Constellation space exploration program was that it wasn't sold properly. Lori Garver, NASA's Deputy Administrator and one of the architects of the plan, expressed that sentiment at a recent meeting of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The following is part fiction written for the purpose of conveying ideas in the form of a dialogue, but I think encapsulates the problem with space policy and selling a government space program in our time.

Charles Rangel is not only known for his various ethics violations, but also for his desire to bring back the military draft. For that purpose, Rangel has introduced H.R. 5741, Universal National Service Act.

Return to the Moon, Lost and Redeemed? When will the next Moon Landing take place, and how will it be undertaken? Up until last February, the answer would have been sometime in 2019, and aboard space craft being developed by Project Constellation, started by President George W. Bush. But President Obama lobbed a hand grenade into Constellation, proposing its cancellation.

Proving that there is no folly fallacious enough that it can't be written down, both in a book and in an oped in the Washington Post, Stan Cox, an agricultural scientist, has proposed to ban or greatly restrict air conditioning.

Gaffes, Conflict of Interest Scandal, and Outrage Over Obamaspace Raise Concerns Will NASA administrator Charles Bolden be forced to step down in the near future? There is a growing sense of unease about the former astronaut and Marine General reflected in discontent over how the space agency has been run.

Richard L. Rubenstein is a distinguished theologian and professor. a Yale Fellow, a Harvard PHD, and a contributing editor to the New English Review. Rubenstein is therefore not exactly the personification of a conspiracy nut. It is therefore bone chilling to hear from his lips that President Barack Obama would very much like to see the destruction of the State of Israel and her people, so long as his hands have personally not shed the blood

Actor and film producer Kevin Costner has become an unlikely hero of the Gulf oil leak disaster. Costner has a company that produces machines that separate oil from water using a centrifuge system. BP has purchased 32 of the machines. Three of the machines are expected to be deployed and working this weekend, with the rest in operation within the next sixty days. The machines, built by Costner's company Ocean Therapy Inc, are designed to purify two hundred thousand gallons of water each day of operation. Costner spent seventeen years and twenty million dollars of his own money developing the...

he United States is attempting to deport the son of one of the founders of Hamas, the terrorist organization that now rules the Gaza Strip, Mosab Hassan Yousef, to the West Bank, even though he would surely be tortured to death should that happen. Mosab Hassan Yousef had applied for political asylum, which was denied in February, 2009, citing his activities in support of Hamas. The problem is that Yousef underwent a conversion from terrorism to opposition to terrorism and from Islam to Christianity. Mosab Hassan Yousef worked with Israeli Intelligence to thwart a number of terrorist attacks and is...

Who would have thought that as the 21st Century grinds on, that Saudi Arabia, the oil rich theocracy ruled over by petro billionaire playboys, would prove to be a better ally of Israel than the United States, at least in some respects? How else can one characterize a situation where, on the one hand Saudi Arabia is arranging for Israel to fly over its air space should it choose to smite the Iranians, and on the other hand, the United States is plotting with the UN to embarrass Israel over the Gaza Flotilla affair? (Both, by the way, are hotly...

With the triumph of the launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9, the cause of commercial space took a giant leap forward. Unfortunately the voyage to a commercial space future is approach dangerous, shoal ridden political waters.

The Obama administration may have found a back door way to kill the Constellation space exploration program, even while Congress is mulling over ways to continue it. The move to kill Constellation involves the 120-year-old Anti-Deficiency Act.

Sen. Russ Feingold is trying to sneak into legislation that would expand the definition of "children" under a program called CHAMPVA from people age 23 or below to age 26 and below a ban on spending money to return astronauts to the Moon. The text of the legislation can be found in S. 3356, which has been referred to the Committee on Veterans Affairs and has no cosponsors as of this moment:

The day after the hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee, Presidential Science Czar John Holdren was asked about going up against Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan. Holdren's response was breath taking in its mendacity.

Keith Yost, writing in the MIT Tech, has perhaps inadvertently revealed the real motivation behind the Obama space plan. Keith Yost likes the Obama new approach to space, but not for the reasons that most supporters articulate. Most supporters of Obamaspace maintain that the cancellation of the Constellation space exploration program will actually lead to more, better, and cheaper space exploration at some indeterminate time in the future. The idea is that the research and development program proposed under Obamaspace will lead to "game changing" technology that will open up new ways to explore space that some future President will...

The Obama space policy that would cancel the Constellation space exploration program and commercialize space flight has run into trouble in Congress and with the public. But now it looks like Obamaspace has a new threat to it. The threat may be President Barack Obama himself. There are at least two stories in the media that suggest that President Obama would be willing to trade away all or part of Obamaspace in return for votes on health care reform

When the Obama administration first announced that there would be a Space Summit in Florida, the purpose of which was to explain the new Obama space policy, it was met with some degree of skepticism and even cynicism.

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that President Barack Obama's next issues summit will be about his new space policy. It will take place on April 15th, likely at the Kennedy Space Center. Other details, such as invitees, are yet to be determined.

Recently President Obama canceled Project Constellation that would return Americans to the Moon by 2020. Some maintain that Constellation was over budget, behind schedule and needed cancellation. What if we had approached another project the same way? Amalgamated Press. January 26th, 1944. General George C. Marshall today announced that the planned invasion of Europe has been canceled. There have long been rumors of cost overruns and other problems plaguing the planned invasion, which was designated 'Operation Overlord', which General Marshall referred to in his announcement and subsequent press conference.