The National Research Council recently released a study (April 2004) of the National Aerospace Initiative, a DDRE/NASA initiative to invest in hypersonics, space access, and space technology. A lot of this research is worthwhile, but a lot is also wasteful. The NRC study has some detailed budgetary information and a list of programs (hypersonic ABM …
Puzzling over a classified payload
by | 2004-05-04 | No Comments
Last October, Orbital Sciences Corporation announced that the U.S. Air Force ordered a Minotaur space launch vehicle to launch a classified payload in 2005. The Minotaur launch vehicle provides “low cost, reliable space launch capability in support of U.S. government small-satellite launch requirements” for programs such as the NFIRE and the XSS-11. I’ve got this …
Reporting on WMD
by | 2004-04-30 | No Comments
A colleague notes this paragraph in Susan Schmidt/’s review of The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife/’s CIA Identity by Joseph Wilson: On the heels of Wilson/’s public criticism that intelligence was exaggerated and his statement that his trip to Niger had turned up no uranium sales …
Near Field IR Experiment Will Hit to Kill
by | 2004-04-29 | No Comments
MDA now hopes the NFIRE KV will collide with its target during the “simulated” engagement with a ballistic missile. This would, as ABC News reported, be “the first real step” towards the “unprecedented weaponization of space.” The anonymous Pentagon official who told Jim Oberg that “the kill vehicle/’s fangs have been pulled: It lacks the …
