In comments on this post, Chuck Divine has a review of last night's space policy debate in DC.

Muncy was superb. His top ten myths of the Bush space plan were excellent. Myth #1? The plan is about NASA. No, it's not. The plan is about us (humans). Muncy eloquently put forward the observation that space was about all kinds of human endeavors.

Former astronaut Searfoss was the big surprise. He was critical of NASA, supportive of private space endeavors. He observed he lost six friends when Columbia burned up. I was very favorably impressed.

Hudgins and Park were very predictable. To be honest, I could have done a better job at presenting cases for their positions (even though I have some disagreements with both) than they did. Debate training from high school and college (at least what I got decades ago) does give me a bit of an advantage, though.

Rick Searfoss wouldn't have been a surprise to me. He's a 'stro who gets it, and is on XCOR's board of directors.

Thanks, Rand.

I'm doing a longer report (several pages of notes) as time and health allows. Health? Yes. For those of you who know me that might sound surprising. But -- three weeks ago I slipped on the ice. Banged up my elbow. The elbow got badly infected. Two weeks ago I was in the hospital for three days. The infection's gone and I'm recovering, but I still tire easily.

It scares me to think what kind of condition I'd be in without modern antibiotics. Very, very ill at the minimum.

I agree with you about Searfoss -- just didn't know about XCOR or his views before I heard him talk.