September 10, 2017

NASA Nominee Jim Bridenstine Has Bold Vision for Space, Unclear Intentions for Science (Source: American Institute of Physics)
There is a good chance that Bridenstine’s confirmation hearing will address questions of space policy in some detail, as the congressman has been highly active in the area. However, one area where his intentions remain opaque is toward NASA’s almost $6 billion portfolio for scientific research. While Bridenstine has energetically supported improvements to the U.S.’s space-based infrastructure for weather research and forecasting, he has also introduced legislation that would remove scientific research as one of NASA’s primary objectives.

Bridenstine’s agenda centers around the development of a space-based “architecture” that prioritizes national security needs. His bill therefore attends closely to the development of capabilities for navigation, communications, reconnaissance, and weather forecasting, and it addresses the vulnerability of space-based assets to orbiting debris and attacks by foreign adversaries. Click here. (9/7)

Iran to Send Man into Space by Next 8 Years (Source: Iran Front Page)
Iran sent two monkeys into the space back in 2013. The first monkey (Aftab or Sun) was sent in January to an altitude of about 120km (75 miles) in a Pishgam rocket for a sub-orbital flight before returning intact to the Earth. The second monkey (Fargam or Auspicious) was sent in December as part of a program aimed for manned space flight.

Now, head of the Aviation Research Center at Iran’s Ministry of Science, Research and Technology says Iran’s space program is going on smoothly and efforts are underway to send a manned spaceship into space within the next eight years. He said the Center is now focused on its main goal to send man into space by the next eight years. “We have had serious negotiations with Russian space centers and they are expected to give us their final reply,” he said.

Iranian researchers are now trying to launch new multistage orbital rockets. “At present, 10 high-skilled Iranian pilots are taking special training courses. At the end of the day, we will pick up two of them for long-range flights into the space,” he said.

Iranian Space Monkeys Give Birth to Baby (Source: Iran Front Page)
Iran sent two monkeys into the space back in 2013. The first monkey (Aftab or Sun) was sent in January to an altitude of about 120km (75 miles) in a Pishgam rocket for a sub-orbital flight before returning intact to the Earth. The second monkey (Fargam or Auspicious) was sent in December as part of a program aimed for manned space flight.

The two monkeys which were separately sent into the space and returned in perfect health to Earth by Iranian spaceships have given birth to a baby monkey last week. In an address to a technology conference in northern Iran, Ami said ‘Aftab’ and ‘Fargam’ have given birth to a monkey baby. He added the monkey baby was born last week, adding the researchers are now studying the effects of space travel on the new-born baby. (9/10)

Is NASA a Science Agency or a Giant Subsidy for Aerospace Corporations? (Source: Salon)
Astronauts beware: President Trump picked Congressman James Bridenstine to lead NASA. The Oklahoma Republican with no background in the hard sciences seems an odd choice; his most relevant experience is as executive director of the Tulsa Air & Space Museum & Planetarium. Bridenstine’s politics are fairly in line with most Republicans’ nowadays — which is to say, he’s a far-right, pro-limited government, climate science skeptic.

Bridenstine is against gay marriage, against gun control, against regulating greenhouse gas emissions, in favor of repealing Obamacare, against a woman’s right to choose, and against any kind of tax increases even on the wealthy. In short, he’s against anything that might stop the ceaseless redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich, or anything that might question free-market fundamentalism.

His short political career demonstrates a total lack of ability to form any independent opinion not preordained by the conservative billionaire-funded think-tanks that promote the decrepit political ideology to which he adheres. Hence, like most fundamentalists, he is the antithesis of a scientist. (9/10)