Month: April 2019

Enlarge / NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine visits Kennedy Space Center in 2018. (credit: NASA)

Speaking in front of a high-fidelity model of the Apollo program's Lunar Module spacecraft, Vice President Mike Pence charged NASA with accelerating its Moon plans last week. Instead of 2028, Pence wanted boots on the ground four years earlier, before the end of 2024. This marked the rarest of all moments in spaceflight—a schedule moving left instead of to the right.

Understandably, the aerospace community greeted the announcement with a healthy dose of skepticism. Many rocket builders, spaceship designers, flight controllers, and space buffs have seen this movie before. Both in 1989 and 2004, Republican administrations have announced ambitious Moon-then-Mars deep space plans only to see them die for lack of funding and White House backing.

And yet, this new proposal holds some promise. Pence, as well as NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, have adopted a clear goal for the agency and promised enduring political support. Moreover, they have said the “end” matters more than the “means.” This suggests that whatever rockets and spacecraft NASA uses to reach the Moon, the plan should be based on the best-available, most cost-effective technology. In short, they want to foster a healthy, open competition in the US aerospace industry to help NASA and America reach its goals.

Enlarge / The mighty Delta IV Heavy rocket takes to the skies. (credit: Aurich Lawson/United Launch Alliance)

Welcome to Edition 1.43 of the Rocket Report! Lots of news this week, including new efforts in Japan and New Jersey, of all places, to develop spaceports. Also, NASA's plans to land humans on the Moon by the end of 2024 continues to reverberate through the heavy-launch industry.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

Small-launch reckoning looms. In an extended interview, Rocket Lab chief Peter Beck talks about what he's learned running through the gamut of starting a company, developing a rocket, and then moving from development into operations. "If I look back, getting to orbit was kind of hard, but actually once you get to orbit the work's not really done," he says. "Until you reach orbit, you're really only thinking about yourself. The whole world revolves around your test flight. But when you start flying customers, it's a whole different world."

Enlarge / How much fun is Shazam! at its best? This fun. (credit: Warner Bros.)

In order to have a reputation as a more fleshed-out film studio, DC Comics doesn't just need the likes of Wonder Woman. It also needs films like Shazam!—one-off morsels that are free from the weight of a connected universe, that can unabashedly walk the same ground as the best '80s kids-action films, that let us laugh with an infusion of Spielberg-ian heart.

Shazam! is in no position to "redeem" DC Comics' reputation in comparison to Marvel Studios' fare, and it succeeds the most by wearing that fact on its giddy-teen sleeve. Of course, Marvel comparisons are inevitable, so I'll start with one: the resulting film lands somewhere between the first and second Ant-Man films. It's fun. It's funny. It's fine. Shazam! can easily be criticized for issues and lapses, but its worst issues are nitpicks, not damning reasons to steer clear.

We have a Monster Squad apologist here

I was particularly charmed by the solid cast of kids and teens. If shameless mining of the '80s well that brought us Big, The Goonies, and E.T. brings us more talented young actors having fun and kicking butt with magical powers while learning valuable friendship lessons, then, sure. I for one don't really tire of that formula. (Gosh, I still like Monster Squad, which was already an unnecessary Goonies rip-off when it came out 30 years ago.)