October 30, 2026

“DO YOU REALIZE THAT EVERY YOUNG PERSON IN THIS ROOM IS A TRAGEDY TO SOME FAMILY OR OTHER?”

(Classical reference in headline.)

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll

THE NEW SPACE RACE: SpaceX no longer needs NASA, and that’s a problem for America’s space agency.

The signs point to at least a partial breakup. Consider the following data points:

  • SpaceX has told NASA it will stop flying Crew Dragon, the space agency’s only reliable astronaut transportation to the International Space Station, by or before 2030. Shotwell said in September that NASA should rely instead on Boeing for astronaut transportation. “We’re just gonna let them have some business,” she said of Boeing. “They should fly their capsule. The government paid a lot of money for that.” As a result, NASA is investing more in Boeing.
  • Ars reported in October that SpaceX had stopped selling commercial launches on the Falcon 9 rocket for missions after the year 2028.
  • SpaceX may also still stop flying Falcon 9 for NASA missions. In late October, during a meeting of NASA’s Safety Advisory Panel, Kent Rominger said if the US Deorbit Vehicle (a modified Dragon spacecraft) launches to the International Space Station after 2030, “it may require” a rocket other than the Falcon 9.
  • Politico reported last week that SpaceX told the US Space Force it would not bid on three new launch contracts in the late 2020s that would have gone above and beyond its existing commitments to the US military.
  • SpaceX previously provided “Rough Order of Magnitude” estimates, or ROMs, for launch costs to US companies building small landers for NASA’s Moon Base as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. But according to three sources, SpaceX recently told these lunar companies they will not provide launch services.

    • To be clear, SpaceX is still fulfilling its existing contracts with NASA, the US Space Force, and other government entities. And it continues to do so at a lower cost and generally higher level of reliability than pretty much anyone else.

    But the company is no longer signing many large new contracts for spaceflight services, at least in the traditional launch and in-space flight domains.

    A longer article, but I found it well worth my time.

    Previously: How in the Actual Hell Can We Be Running Out of Space Rockets?

    Posted at 7:36 am by Stephen Green

    THE NEXT SPACE RACE:

    Posted at 7:20 am by Stephen Green

    CHOOSE WISELY ON TUESDAY:

    Posted at 7:14 am by Ed Driscoll

    COMMAND PROBLEMS:

    Posted at 7:00 am by Glenn Reynolds

    WHILE UNPACKING BOXES, I’VE BEEN LISTENING MY WAY THROUGH JIMMY AIKEN’S BACK LIST:  Who or what in bob’s name is Jimmy Aiken? you ask. Glad you did. He has a podcast. If you’re a Catholic or even vaguely interested in Catholicism, you might like his apologetics podcasts, as they’ve managed to teach me stuff I’d somehow never stumbled upon. But I really like Jimmy Aiken’s mysterious world which careens all over weirdness from aliens to strange events to near death experiences to…. well. All sorts of strange stuff.  So, just for the heck of it, here’s one of the episodes (and trust me, no, it’s not actually stupid):  Can Aura Cameras Photograph Your Soul? Science & Faith Investigate – Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World.

    Posted at 6:57 am by Sarah Hoyt

    IT’S NOT THE POINT OF THIS ARTICLE, BUT THE FIXATION ON SMALL CLASSES SIZES BOGGLES MY MIND:  NY Times Exposes Talarico’s Fake Story About Overcrowded Classrooms.

    The median class size in my high school was 35. And the range of places press ganged into “school rooms” ranged from a stable to an attic storage room to once, for a whole semester, the cafeteria. (It was parts of the school not being repaired in time.) This did not affect learning. Class size as determinant of learning is not well supported by research and seems to be one of those School of Education magic touchstones to excuse the fact that their graduates can neither think nor teach.

    As for the article, yeah. Talarico lied, even the NY Times noticed. Oops. Question, is the dingy lady publishing these things because they know Talarico is lost, or because they know he’ll win (enough fraud) anyway and are trying to preserve what they think remains of their reputation? I don’t know. Shake the magic eight ball and ask again.

    Posted at 3:00 am by Sarah Hoyt

    OH, HELL NO. I HEARD THIS ARGUMENT IN 2006: “It’s okay if the democrats cheated their way to a win, now, it just means they’ll lose 2008.” Yeah. How did that work? It just let them feather their cheating nest on and on.  NOT Really.

    Posted at 1:33 am by Sarah Hoyt

    THERE IS NO VIRTUE IN BEING “INDEPENDENT” IF YOU LET THE COMMIES WIN:  Stuck In The Middle With You.

    Keep this in mind:  Calif will process votes every day — separating the ballot from the envelope so that the vote is counted and no able to be segregated in the days or weeks ahead, The bigger problem is that Carter just told state and local official that their actions are not illegal. Even if he’s later determined to be wrong by a higher court, this creates an “estoppel” argument that could prevent any later prosecution of state or local officials — “Judge Carter told us it was ok.” I said this last week.

    Sweet dreams!

    Posted at 1:12 am by Sarah Hoyt

    October 29, 2026

    OUR SOURCE WAS THE NEW YORK TIMES.  In his 2003 book Arrogance: Rescuing America from the Media Elite, Bernard Goldberg wrote:

    So let’s get to the root cause of liberal media bias in America.

    You guessed it! The New York Times, a paper 99.5 percent of the American people do not read, yet which is still the most influential newspaper in America because the most influential people in America do in fact read it.

    So, yes, the New York Times does indeed occupy a unique place in American journalism. And it’s not just because its columns are syndicated to hundreds of local papers around the country. It’s mostly because it sets the agenda for so many other news outlets, especially the networks where most Americans get their world and national news. The fact is, the Big Three news networks wouldn’t know what to put on the air without it. As I’ve said in the past, if the New York Times went on strike tomorrow morning, they’d have to cancel the CBS, NBC, and ABC evening newscasts tomorrow night.

    Some exceptions apply, of course:

    More here: Bari Weiss faced ‘significant resistance’ from CBS News staffers about Alaska ballot scandal, insiders say.

    UPDATE:

    Posted at 11:55 pm by Ed Driscoll