Peter Hague

2 days ago | planetocracy.org | Peter Hague

Jared Isaacman’s nomination for NASA Administrator has be abruptly withdrawn by the Trump administration. This has been widely viewed as a very negative development - Isaacman was both well liked across the space community and incredibly well qualified. He would have been the first NASA Administrator to have prior experience running a different space program (his own private Polaris program).

3 days ago | quillette.com | Peter Hague

Starship recently conducted its ninth test flight. On the previous two test flights, the upper stage vehicle was destroyed during ascent, but this one fared better. However, the booster was destroyed during its landing burn while attempting a soft landing in the ocean, and the ship lost attitude control in space and was not able to complete its test objectives. There will be more test flights, and likely more failures before the rocket works well enough for use.

6 days ago | planetocracy.org | Peter Hague

Last week we saw the ninth test flight of Starship, and an update from Elon Musk on the SpaceX plan for colonising Mars. Neither part of the Flight 9 vehicle fully completed its flight, and thus were not able to collect all the data that was needed, but did demonstrate the second ascent of a previously flown Superheavy booster. A similar mission will have to be reflown in a few weeks, delaying fully orbital flights. This did not dampen the ambitions of the company regarding this program though.

2 weeks ago | planetocracy.org | Peter Hague

On Wednesday, during an press conference for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, in answer to a question from an AFP journalist, a spokeswoman made her government’s objection to the proposed “Golden Dome” ballistic missile defence system plain. Golden Dome is, based on statements from the White House, a space-based boost phase interception system.

3 weeks ago | planetocracy.org | Peter Hague

Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson is the book I’ve been hoping someone on the left would produce for a while now. I have noticed with frustration that left-wing movements across the western world have taken the production of goods and services for granted, believing their job is only to redistribute the bottomless spoils of a capitalist economy - often whilst unfairly criticising that economy.