Space Ping! If you want on or off this list please Freepmail me.

This is a mission statement on why I believe that we must have human space exploration in any way possible. Those of you that read Robert A. Heinlein will recognize the sentiment.

A response I wrote to a fellow believer in government funded space exploration:

I'm sorry they won't get it until China is standing on the Moon or on asteroids and launching well aimed rocks down on us and then their bleating will be heard, "Oh why, Ohh how did this happen, how is it now that the greatest nation on this Earth is now going to be destroyed in the next 15 min and the Government can't do anything about it."

If they think China isn't seeing space as the ultimate weapon’s platform and that any UN declaration is going to stop them they are so far gone there is no hope for them.

Our industry will not go there because there is no profit in it, yet, except for LEO. China on the other hand doesn’t need profit for it to make sense. China sees space as their ultimate defense plan, and we are just plain stupid if we don't see that. Nobody inspects China's rockets for weapons or asks them what their projects are for weapons platforms, why ask anyway, they'd just lie.

U.S. industry couldn't develop space based weapons on their own if they tried, some leftist freak would scream bloody murder, and again there is no profit in it.

If we cede the high ground to other nations then it's our own stupid fault when we are looking down the barrel of a gun. Imagine if Japan had developed the ICBM before us and what the world could have looked like.

For a more consistent Space Ping list see KevinDavis

Some of the Space Links that I use:

Spacedaily.com

Space.com

Spaceref.com

Spacetoday.net

The Space Review.com

Hobbyspace.com RLV News Reusable Launch Vehicle news.

Encyclopedia Astronautica This site has probably the most extensive information on anything Astronautica related and all those crazy acronyms explained.

If anyone is interested in the history and future of nuclear propulsion and a proposal for a Nuclear SSTO, an interesting site can be found here:

Nuclearspace.com

The Nuclear SSTO proposal:

Opening the Next Frontier

The Freeper discussion on the topic:

Nuclear Space Ship SSTO Proposal

For all those interested on why projects like X-33, Venturestar or any other SSTO (Single stage to Orbit) eventually fail in today's world without the use of Nuclear power from an engineering standpoint, I will direct you here:

The Cold Equations Of Spaceflight

The Freeper discusion on the topic:

The Cold Equations Of Spaceflight

For information on why air-breathing SSTO's suffer from their own probems go here: (Semi-) Technical Aspects of SSTO