Hi Joe2700 -

Given that the SR 71 has aerodynamic control surfaces, and nothing else, I don't know what I was thinking of...it's Bill Sweetman's beat... looks like those SR 71 pilots won't make it to ASE, like some of the X-15 guys did - oh well - someday... I think Crossfield has passed on, used to live out in Sliver Springs... that was an interview that I missed, along with Eisenhower's chief of staff, used to live in Arlington... a different life, and way different materials... funny how things go sometimes...

You know, I warn the some folks here at HZ that I don't mind blue skying and being stupid here at the (barely)Habitable Zone, and they just can't live with it...

Insanirty Defense? Yeah, that occured to me, but as Chico Marx put it "there is no Sanity Clause", particularly when it comes to hard cash. Funny thing, I've depended more on the business writers for the Washington Post than their space reporters for several years now. It's hard to say how much will come out in the trial, and where it'll head.... I take this latest as a PR attempt by Anderson to show that he's not a "flight risk", which is pretty funny, considering how much he screwed with the "flight" of the ISS...

I spent an evening once with the Space Frontier Foundation, fun folks and a good time... but I just couldn't "believe" any more... I did not appreciate Tumlinson and Anderson diverting some $60 million in launches and harware from ISS to MirCorp; the only thing that is interesting for me here is how long it took for it to catch up with them... and Tumlinson's constant attacks on the ISS, funded by Anderson's deep pockets, were no joy... he's an excellent propagandist, a real demagogue...

The next book after "Lost in Space" might be funny, but it's too damn serious... The "faithful" have real perceptual problems about anything that threatens their "fantasies" - I like that word, it has a real firm sense in Russian... Mishin and Feoktistov's notebooks are available now, but it'll be many years before I get to them, if ever...

alt-space? oh yeah, I remember back when the Chinese were trying to get hold of the latest Russian engine technology by putting a few peanuts into Kistler... the other part of alt space is the use of Israeli Jericho grains in "small commercial launchers", and no one, but no one, will handle that story with a ten foot pole... My guess is that Anderson and Tumlinson's insanity would have been recognized a long time ago, except for the Jericho grains...

Leave Gump and his team out of it... From what I know, he did not get any of Anderson's money, or if he did, it was not enough to matter. From my point of view, if Anderson had of put his money into a private Mars rover, with launch by improved Soyuz or decommissioned miilitary launcher, he would have made money, and he could have done it and still paid his taxes... I blame Tumlinson's influence...

oh, and by the way, there's the connection with Newt, and his attack on ISS, (September 26, 28?, 1998, San Francisco) and Anderson's money to Tumlinson, and Tumlinson's attack on ISS...
hard to say if any of that will come out in trial... or if any of the writers covering it will check Anderson's political contributions... Rohrabacher let Tumlinson testify before committee, but Rohrabacher is cleam, and deeply interested in space...

be sure to do a search on +Mazanek +CAPS - that is coming up soon...

once again, thanks for being civil...

ep

That book "Lost in Space"