Guest: Rick Boozer. Topics: We discussed Rick's book, "The Plundering of NASA: An Expose How Pork Barrel Politics Harm American Spaceflight Leadership," SLS, space policy & more. 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. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm. We welcomed Rick Boozer to the program to discuss his new book, "The Plundering of NASA: An Expose How Pork Barrel Politics Harm American Spaceflight Leadership." The paperback version of the book is only available through Lulu Press at this time but the Kindle ebook is available through Amazon. Remember, if you use the Amazon OGLF/Space Show instructions on our website & blog, Amazon will make a contribution to The Space Show. Also, we apologize for audio issues due to cell phone usage with our guest and callers. During the first segment of our 1 hour 49 minute program, Rick introduced us to his book and I asked him to tell us why he structured the book as an exploration of certain common myths about many aspects of space, our space policy, engineering, economics, and physics. Our guest suggested a lack of economic application and understanding among certain levels of those making policy and working with rocket and mission design and he referenced an Air Force-NASA study on launch costs plus other facts in support of his research & discussion points. His book is well documented so make sure you note his references, a few of which we talked about during our program. Rick was asked about suborbital space but as we heard, his focus was on orbital. He then mentioned SLS and various contracting options for commercial companies and NASA. We received several email questions, including one that addressed FOIA limitations regarding NASA, launch cost data, and more. The Ares rocket came up and Rick talked about going from Ares to SLS. In the second segment, Rick continued the SLS architecture history and discussion & as it turned out, SLS, Falcon Heavy, heavy lift, and depots turned out to constitute most of the discussion for the remainder of our program. Most of this discussion was not supportive of SLS for a variety of reasons. The discussion strongly supported the Falcon Heavy as being able to do any mission that might come up requiring heavy lift. SpaceX reusability and first stage hovering was discussed, but listeners and our guest definitely focused on SLS costs or the absence of real SLS cost information. John Strickland called in to provide his analysis of why SLS is flawed. Doug called to ask about Earth-Moon commercial systems and keeping space infrastructure, etc. as a reason for SLS. At my request, Rick clarified his position on these issues after Doug's call. Rick also cited the Kraft-Moser report on potential damage to space policy by SLS, plus we quickly went over other sections & topics in his book before the interview ended. Near the end, we talked about advanced SpaceX manufacturing and cost reduction techniques. As part of Rick's closing comments, we talked about his PhD work, Magellanic Clouds, and more. Please post comments/questions on The Space Show blog. Rick's website is http://astromaven.blogspot.com.