Guest: Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston. Topics: Current events in space policy, NASA, DOD, & U.S. economic issues impacting space. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. Welcome to our December 2012 Open Lines show. As Open Lines programs go, this was a fairly quiet program. I opened with a list of possible discussion topics and our first call dealt with one of the topics, the North Korean missile launch. Mike called in to update us on the latest with the launch and then he continued to give us updates during the program to the point of confirming orbital insertion for its satellite. He also reported a successful 3 stage rocket launch for the N. Koreans. We talked about the significance of the launch, how it surprised our intelligence services and more. We got an email from Darren in Canada telling us he liked the "passionate exchange between Zimmerman and me from the day before as that exchange was also one of the topics I suggested for discussion. After a short break, we took a call from John in Atlanta who picked up from the night before with our science fiction movie discussion. We talked more about Forbidden Planet and John referenced the original War of the Worlds movie. John also talked about the UFO subject in the context of our sci-fi movie discussion, then he referenced the op-ed by Dr. Zubrin about Mars Sample Return missions and why Dr. Zubrin was not supportive of the EML2 mission. From here, we went to the SLS subject and knowing John to be a strong supporter of the project, I asked him if he thought the project would be cancelled and when. John suggested it might be slowed down before it was cancelled outright. After another break, I mentioned the X-37B successful USAF launch and responded to two emails. One was about my Hotel Mars John Batchelor Show segments and the other asked me to explain how and why I connect the dots regarding our economic problems in the country to possible adverse impact on NASA and even in the private capital markets. This opened the door for me to do a mini rant/lecture on how I see economics and why I connect these dots. If you disagree, do post on the blog and share your information and perspective with us all. Disagreement is always wanted and respected on The Space Show. Next, Charles called in and talked about the doomed NASA Nanosat Challenge. He compared it to XPrize which he believes set the model and tone for such prizes. Charles next flung barbs at NASA, especially for the JWST, the ISS, & SLS. At one point, he said NASA was "like a beached whale!" Charles told us about Meetups in Las Vegas and on the national scene & he provided a brief update on the N-Prize contest. If you have comments/questions about this OL program, do post them on The Space Show blog. You can reach any of the callers through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com.