As you may recall a little over a year ago, Boston University parted ways with its incoming new president, former NASA administrator Dan Goldin, at the last minute, paying Goldin $1.8 million to buy out his contract the day before he was scheduled to take office. Sunday's Boston Globe gets the inside scoop on the affair from John Silber, former BU president who was initially a Goldin supporter but later turned against him. A quote:

This man, we saw later on, was a control freak. But he didn't come across as a control freak… You had a highly mercurial character who, like many a successful person, has managed to hide his real intent until the last minute. And, fortunately, Mr. Goldin misplayed his hand. He started laying his cards down too soon. If he had waited another two or three weeks, he'd have had the job and then we'd have had a real disaster at the university.

Silber also described Goldin as "almost as paranoid as LBJ". How many NASA employees would agree with this assessment?

Posted: 8:51 AM ET (1351 GMT) — Permalink

In a San Francisco Chronicle article Monday about efforts to develop new "X Prizes" for alternative energy and other topics, former UN weapons inspector David Kay seemed unimpressed with suborbital space tourism: "I doubt that history will judge [SpaceShipOne] as anything more than amusement for the wealthy." Fortunately, amusement for the wealthy is not inherently immoral nor illegal, and can be a good way to make a buck or two.
Posted: 12:49 PM ET (1749 GMT) — Permalink

In a column in Tuesday's Centre Daily Times of State Collge, PA, a reader asks about a bright cloud seen in the skies of central Pennsylvania on the evening of August 31. The columnist, Joe Murgo, a local TV meteorologist, correctly notes that the cloud was caused by a fuel dump during an Atlas 2AS launch that evening. Murgo then adds, "You can thank NASA for the show." Actually, you can't. NASA wasn't responsible for the launch of a Lockheed Martin rocket carrying a classified military satellite. This helps show that even educated people equate space with NASA...
Posted: 9:13 AM ET (1313 GMT) — Permalink

When I read this commentary from the Cheboygan (Mich.) Daily Tribune, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. A tidbit:

If it takes that much power to raise a rocket, then according to Newton, the same amount of force is being exerted on the earth. Considering the earth's bulk, one lift-off may not have much effect, but think how many launches there are from Cape Kennedy every year and assume that each launch pushes the planet a few feet out of its normal orbit. In the course of a decade, that could amount to a major displacement, enough to have a major effect on the earth's climate.

I wondered if Mr. Callander might be a humorist, but after reading some of his other columns, I’m inclined to think not. Unfortunately.

Posted: 12:46 PM ET (1646 GMT) — Permalink

The Scripps-Howard News Service's "Washington" column, a random collection of tidbits that often have little to do with politics, has this groaner about SpaceShipOne:

The buzz over private space flight generated by the recent SpaceShipOne trip to 60-plus miles up is tempered as experts consider that the test ship was about 200 kilometers short of the altitude needed for sustained orbit around Earth. And it flew more than 20 miles off-course while returning to the ground.

Of course, this report ignores the fact that SpaceShipOne is designed to be a suborbital, not an orbital, spacecraft, and serve as the first of possibly several stepping stones towards a potential orbital RLV. And while SS1 did veer over 20 miles off-course during its flight, it's margin of error for such flight deviations is about twice that, and it glided to an otherwise uneventful landing. Of course, you can't squeeze that into the written equivalent of a soundbite...

Posted: 6:23 PM ET (2223 GMT) — Permalink

A very odd article from a newspaper in the Philippines: a 31-year-old Filipino-American woman, Irene Mora, is reportedly in training for a future spaceflight. The problem is that the article is rife with errors, including the claim that she would fly to the ISS this July, although no Soyuz mission is scheduled until October. (And that’s just the least of the errors.) Something might be up here, but again it might be a very garbled account of some more mundane training — or worse.
Posted: 12:14 PM ET (1614 GMT) — Permalink

Not planning to be one of the thousands — perhaps 30,000 or more — in Mojave for the flight of SpaceShipOne on Monday? You won't be left out of the fun. HobbySpace's RLV News has a list of links to webcasts of the flight, including free streaming video from MSNBC and audio webcasts. (Also check HobbySpace's SpaceShipOne updates page.) CNN also plans to broadcast the flight. SPACE.com has a viewer's guide to the flight, including links to webcasts and other viewing information. We will also have a list of links to news articles about the flight, although there may be some lag updating it since we'll be in Mojave too.
Posted: 2:20 PM ET (1820 GMT) — Permalink

Astronaut Michael Fincke got a special early Father's Day present on Friday: a baby girl. Tarali Paulina Fincke was born in Houston on Friday to Fincke's wife, Renita. It's the second child for the family, who has a two-year-old son, Chandra. Fincke got to listen to the birth via a radio link between the station and the hospital. Mother, daughter, and father are all doing well: "Mike today is the happiest man in the world," said crewmate Gennady Padalka. Actually, he's the happiest man off the world...
Posted: 2:11 PM ET (1811 GMT) — Permalink

It's still a week before SpaceShipOne attempts its historic suborbital spaceflight, but that planned flight is already making headlines. On Monday articles about SS1 appeared in the pages of newspapers like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Dallas Morning News, San Diego Union-Tribune, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the Long Beach (Calif.) Press-Telegram. Two days earlier, the planned flight made the front page of the Washington Post (albeit near the bottom of the page). Given all this media interest now, one wonders what sort of coverage the flight itself will get…
Posted: 12:36 PM ET (1636 GMT) — Permalink

From the "thinking ahead" department: the UK Press Association reports that NASA is working with a British farmer to develop a breed of strawberries suitable to grow on Mars. The "Marsberries" would be based on existing varieties of European strawberries that thrive in low light conditions. No word yet on how they plan to create cream on Mars.
Posted: 4:24 PM ET (2024 GMT) — Permalink