Rand Simberg returned for this Friday morning Space Show program. We began our discussion looking at some of the political issues surrounding space, NASE, the VSE, and private space development. We talked about the new congress and space, NASA as a jobs program, difficulties with the VSE, rocketry, heavy lift, on orbit construction and lots more. We discussed returning to the moon, possibly going to an asteroid, NASA budget cuts and what they mean for the overall space program as well as for the COTS program and for Centennial Challenges. Several callers engaged Rand in philosophical conversations about why go to space and then about rockets, could we do it with existing rockets, man-rating the Atlas 5 and lots more. You will find Rand at his best and a most interesting conversation. Later in the program we discussed launch and flight costs and Rand took us through an analysis of average cost per flight to space and then the marginal cost of flight to space. He used the shuttle as an example and this was a continuation of a theme he recently discussed on his blog, Transterrestrial Musings (www.transterrestrial.com). Later in the show we talked about Space-X, the Lunar Lander Challenge contest, spaceports and his new space business consulting company, Wyoming Space Information Systems. You will certainly want to hear this show from the discussion of the NASA budget crunch to congress to technical and engineering issues regarding space access. You can contact Rand Simberg with your additional comments and questions by emailing him at simberg@transterrestrial.com.
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The Space Show
