Inside the space debate
Posted: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 6:35 PM by Alan Boyle
NASA |
NASA's Ares I-X rocket rises during October test.
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The countdown is ticking toward some multibillion-dollar decisions on America's future in space, as explained in my big-picture analysis today. When the space shuttle fleet is retired, will NASA stay the course with its Ares rocket development effort, or will it emphasize buying seats on other people's spaceships instead? It's a question that touches upon technical as well as political complexities.
Want to feel like an insider? Here are some Web sites that give you countdown status reports on the space debate:
- NASA Spaceflight: This is the ultimate site for gearheads, boasting an array of forums where folks who actually work for (or with) the space agency pass along engineering reports, internal status updates and other goodies. If there's any little hiccup with Ares or the shuttle program, NASA Spaceflight will be on it. Be prepared, however, to deal with references to the SSP, ISS, MEI, FRRs and other TLAs (three-letter acronyms) that are rife in NASAspeak.
- NASA Watch: For more than a decade, Keith Cowing's blog has kept an eye on the space agency's goings-on - occasionally much to the dismay of the agency itself. Cowing doesn't shy away from taking NASA to task for its sins of commission or omission. He's also one of the guys behind SpaceRef, OnOrbit and a whole constellation of space-themed portals.
- Spaceflight Now: This Web site keeps close track of a wide spectrum of space developments, and it ranks among the fastest and most authoritative sources for launch updates. Journalists Miles O'Brien, David Waters and Kate Tobin team up with former astronaut Leroy Chiao to do a postmortem on last week's Ares I-X launch.
- Hyperbola: Rob Coppinger's video-heavy blog at Flight Global serves up inside scoops on space developments. Because Coppinger is based in Britain, you'll find more of an international spin, lighter on NASA and heavier on, say, Virgin Galactic.
- Space Politics: Washington-based consultant Jeff Foust runs several blogs about the frontiers of spaceflight (plus one of the most active Twitter accounts in the space biz). Space Politics is the one that follows the back-and-forth debate over NASA's future most closely. Just today, for example, Foust is passing along WFTV's report that a White House decision on NASA's future could come sometime around Thanksgiving.
- RLV and Space Transport News: Clark Lindsey's blog covers the waterfront when it comes to space news - not only about NASA, but about other new and old players in the commercial space race. A companion blog, "Space for All," highlights developments that are less closely tied to space transportation. Taken together, Lindsey's Web site is a one-stop shopping center for the latest from (and about) the final frontier.
- Space.com: My colleague Tariq Malik reminds me that Space.com has oodles of coverage of NASA's rocket debate - primarily in its Spaceflight section. The Web operation, which is one of msnbc.com's longest-running content partners, is so mainstream that I probably take it more for granted than I should. Space.com also draws upon content from Space News, a weekly newspaper that's a must-read for those interested in the inner workings of the space industry.
Feel free to add your own recommendations for space policy status updates (such as Aviation Week, Transterrestrial Musings, Parabolic Arc and Ghost NASA, for example) as comments below.
More on the space debate:
This item was last updated at 3:20 p.m. ET Nov. 5.
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