VSE

Guest: Open Lines. Topics: North Korea, Iran & SCUD Missiles, private space contractors, Flagships, return to the Moon, Kool Aid. Tonight was an Open Lines discussion covering several topics with listeners both through email and phone calls. I outlined some topics for possible discussion including what constitutes Kool Aid in the space world (based on an experience I had via email with a friend earlier in the day), the Augustine Panel presentations coming up, Direct 3.0, a possible new focus for NASA which included developing low cost space access for civil use, and more.

Guest: Dr. Henry Hertzfeld. Topics: economics for the nation, NASA, and space, investment, launch rates, government spending for space and R&D. Dr. Henry Hertzfeld returned to The Space Show to discuss the current state of our national and global economy and its probable impact on space development and programs. We examined the economic impact on companies that need to raise money, those which do not have clearly defined markets, and on those companies that are self-funded.

Guest: Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Topics: Pluto, planets, Disney, Kuiper belt, terrestrial planets, gas giants, NASA, human spaceflight, geopolitical drivers. Dr. Tyson returned to The Space Show to discuss his new book, "The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet," which details the reclassification of Pluto from a planet to a dwarf planet. Dr. Tyson explains why this change was made and what the IAU action really means. You may be surprised to learn the decision is not binding! In the discussion, Dr.

Guest: Dr. Jeff Bell. Topics: Apollo 8, Soviet L1 Zond, Obama space policy, SSP, Ares 1 & V, economics, Martian methane, NASA science missions, human spaceflight. Dr. Jeff Bell began the discussion today by referring back to an end of the year Space Show program which addressed Apollo 8 and a recent article written by Miles O'Brien on the same subject which ignored the rush for Apollo 8 because the Soviets were planning their own lunar flyby mission with the L1 which was more commonly referred to as the Zond spacecraft. You will want to hear what Dr.

Guest: Taylor Dinerman. Topics: New NASA Administrator, DOD space policy, space weaponization, ITAR, Space Pearl Harbor, Obama space policy challenges, COTS, RLV. Taylor Dinerman returned to The Space Show to discuss DOD/Military space policy for 2009 and beyond. However, we started off by announcing the Obama choice for NASA Administrator, Retired AF Major General Scott Gration. Taylor spent most of the first segment discussing General Gration and what this might mean for NASA and various NASA programs including COTS.

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.

Guest: Thalia "ad.astra" Kohls was our guest for this show to discuss alt.space and NewSpace from an outsider's perspective. Thalia shared with us her views and experiences in communicating with NewSpace participants on blogs and in other venues and you will hear why she is critical of this community. I too have shared many of her experiences and commented on them during the show. We also spoke about engineering, science, and inspiring space projects like humans to Mars. Thalia expressed the view that she was not very optimistic about seeing a return to the Moon in her lifetime.

Guest: Jerry Carr was the guest for this Space Show program. The basis for our discussion was his biography published by Apogee, "Around The World in 84 Days: The Authorized Biography of Skylab Astronaut Jerry Carr." The author for this authorized biography was David Shayler. Naturally, much of our discussion focused on Skylab and his mission, Skylab 4. One of the early discussion topics was the Skylab 4 workload strike which has become notorious. Jerry explained it in detail and how it got blown out of proportion by a journalist. You will definitely want to hear this discussion.

Guests: Leonard David was the guest for three segments of our program, followed by Barbara David joining us for the last segment. We did much forward-looking during this show given the changes taking place in government, the economy, and the space community. We talked about the incoming administration and what it might mean for space, the Space Coast of Florida, and its commitment to human space flight, the economy, viewing the Space Shuttle, and much more. Leonard reported on the recent Lunar Lander Challenge and Armadillo Aerospace at the X-Prize in Las Cruces, NM.

Guest: Ross Tierney was the guest for this in-person taped interview conducted here in Cocoa Beach on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008. This was a very hard-hitting interview with Ross about Direct 2, its technology, its likelihood of being adopted by NASA as an alternative to Ares 1, and more. I asked Ross why we should have confidence in Direct 2 when it was basically a PowerPoint presentation given that it has not yet undergone any metal bending, any development or testing. I asked why there would not be design problems with it as there are with Ares and the NASA selected hardware.