Guest: Rand Simberg was the guest for today's Space Show program. Our discussion started by mentioning that Richardson had withdrawn his name from consideration for Secretary of Commerce in the Obama administration. We talked about this for a few minutes as there were some possible space ramifications to his appointment and now with his withdrawal. We then moved on to the issue of comparing COTS and Shuttle as was done on the RocketsandSuch blog and copied over to the Space Cynics site per our discussion last week. Rand took us through the analysis of the COTS award and shuttle to tell us why RocketsandSuch was incorrect in his analysis. This is a discussion you will not want to miss. In addition, Rand makes an important distinction between price and cost, so don't miss it. Other topics included women astronauts with young children, the Marine Corp vehicle SUSTAIN and point to point suborbital transportation, killer aps for the human spaceflight program, and human rating an Atlas V or the Delta IV heavy. You will want to hear what Rand says about making one of these rockets safe for human spaceflight. A listener asked about the Hubble Space Telescope upcoming repair mission and the value of a shuttle flight either for the Hubble mission or any shuttle mission. There was also much talk about looking ahead for space milestones in 2009, noting that 2008 was a good year for space, and what the Obama space transition team might or might not do, and what policies might evolve for 2009 and beyond. Other topics were discussed, so this is a must listen to Space Show program. Check out Rand's blog at http://www.transterrestrial.com . If you have a comment or question for Rand Simberg, please send it to him at simberg@transterrestrial.com .
Guest
The Space Show
